Hall, J. (2026, 21 October). “Participatory Universalism.” Deepcode. https://deepcode.substack.com/p/participatory-universalism
Jordan Hall contrasts two accounts of the universal. Formal universalism abstracts a form from many cases and returns it as a criterion, so justice consists in applying the form impartially; its institutions run on rules, rights, procedures and specifications. Participatory universalism treats the universal as a real source that particulars manifest in their own ways, so its institutions run on covenants, practices, vocations and discernment, and its rights tend to become responsibilities. He applies the contrast to free speech and free markets, granting that formal rights guard against arbitrary power and arguing that they cannot judge whether formally free activity sustains a good common life. The wiki takes from the essay a vocabulary for the relation between a network-wide standard and particular BioRegions, and an account of commitments as the participatory form of economic obligation. The essay is theological in its grounding; the wiki uses its structure with a living-systems universal. The author has not been invited to respond to that reading.