The Physics of Meaning: The Law of Moral Proportion

The First Law of Transformation Science

Foundational Document of Moral Physics

Authors: Jordan Vallejo and the Transformation Management Institute™ Research Group

Status: Foundational Statement No. 001 | October 2025

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Abstract

This Foundational Statement establishes the First Law of Transformation Science: the Law of Moral Proportion, which explains how meaning holds or collapses under pressure. Meaning arises through five sciences, semantics, semeiology, structural semeiology and systems theory, thermodynamics, and affective semeiology, which together describe how truth is represented, how signals behave, how coherence is structured, how drift accumulates, and how affect regulates meaning through time.

Legitimacy is defined here as the equilibrium state where truth (T), power (P), and coherence (C) remain in proportion relative to drift (D).
This equilibrium can be measured, predicted, and engineered.

From this law follow the operational instruments of Transformation Science: the Legitimacy Equation, the Legitimacy Diagnostic Protocol (LDP-1.0), and the 3E Standard™, each translating proportion into empirical method.

When truth governs power through coherence, meaning endures.
When they separate, drift begins.

I. The Law of Moral Proportion

Axiom

Only systems that remain coherent under pressure can endure.
Civilization survives only when power remains answerable to truth.

Law

Legitimacy (L) is the stability of meaning under pressure.
It is maximized when truth (T), power (P), and coherence (C) operate in sustained proportion,
and minimized by drift (D), the thermodynamic entropy of meaning.

L=T×P×CDL = \frac{T \times P \times C}{D}L=DT×P×C​

Legitimacy is not a moral declaration. It is a proportional state, a measure of how well a system stays aligned with reality while it acts.

Scope

The Law of Moral Proportion governs individuals, teams, institutions, and civilizations.
It binds every meaning system to a single condition:

A system’s capacity to act must remain proportionate to its capacity to understand.

Before proportion can be measured, meaning must exist as a structured relation of:

• Semantics – how truth refers

• Semeiology – how signals behave

• Structural Semeiology / Systems Theory – how coherence is built

• Affective Semeiology – how emotional signals regulate drift

• Thermodynamics – how entropy accumulates over time

Legitimacy measures not meaning itself, but the stability of meaning once acted upon.

Interpretation

When power outruns truth → hubris.
When truth outruns power → paralysis.
When structure cannot conduct either → fragmentation.

Only proportion sustains endurance.

In thermodynamic terms:

• hubris overheats the system

• paralysis freezes the system

• humility and courage restore proportion

• drift expresses the cost of imbalance

These are not metaphors.
They are affective-structural forces that behave predictably in human systems.

Corollary (Procedural Form)

1. Feasibility before Authority.

2. Authority before Legitimacy.

3. Legitimacy before Expansion.

When systems invert this sequence, drift accelerates and collapse begins as misalignment, not malice.

II. The Physical Quantities of Moral Physics

Meaning becomes measurable when its foundational quantities are treated as scientific constructs:

Truth (T)

Semantic fidelity; the informational accuracy with which reality is encoded and verified.

Truth is measured through:

• Accuracy

• Auditability

• Fidelity of transmission

Truth is the source signal of meaning.
Without semantic fidelity, nothing else can stabilize.

Power (P)

Semiological alignment; how proportionally authority responds to verified truth through signals and norms.

Power is measured through:

• Alignment between claims and action

• Responsiveness to correction

• Proportionality of decisions to evidence

Power acts as meaning’s behavioral force.
When it drifts from truth, meaning fractures.

Coherence (C)

Structural semeiology; the architecture that conducts meaning across roles, processes, and time.

Coherence is measured through:

• Transparency

• Accountability

• Trust Conductivity

• Memory Continuity

• Purpose Orientation

Coherence includes meaning topology:
the pattern of flow, bottlenecks, density, and dissipation within the structure itself.

Coherence is meaning’s infrastructure.

Drift (D)

Thermodynamic entropy of meaning; the rate at which truth, signals, and structure decouple under pressure.

Drift rises through six catalysts:

1. Hubris

2. Paralysis

3. Ego

4. Politics

5. Cynicism

6. Apathy

Drift is regulated through:

1. Humility

2. Courage

3. Feedback Quality

4. Safety for Dissent

5. Repair Cadence

6. Participation Renewal

These are affective semeiological forces—they operate through emotional signals but are measured through behavior and structure.

Drift is meaning’s entropy rate.

Legitimacy (L)

The equilibrium state achieved when truth, power, and coherence remain proportionate relative to drift.

Legitimacy is not moral praise.
It is the structural capacity to stay real under pressure.

III. The Human Regulators: Humility and Courage

The equation defines the law; humans determine whether the law is obeyed.

Humility

The cooling regulator of meaning.
It permits reality to revise belief, status, and interpretation.
It restores permeability and slows drift.

Courage

The ignition regulator of meaning.
It converts comprehension into proportionate action.
It prevents paralysis.

Together, they control the affective thermodynamics of a system—how heat (pressure, risk, exposure) is absorbed or dissipated.

When humility and courage circulate, legitimacy renews.
When they fail, drift compounds.

IV. Empirical and Predictive Implications

Because legitimacy behaves lawfully, it can be measured, tracked, and predicted.

High-legitimacy systems demonstrate:

• accurate perception of reality

• proportionate action

• coherent structure

• stable drift

• sustained trust

Low-legitimacy systems demonstrate:

• symbolic overreach

• misaligned authority

• structural fragmentation

• rising drift velocity

• cynicism and collapse

Predictive statements of the law:

1. Increased feedback and permeability reduce drift.

2. When authority accelerates faster than comprehension, legitimacy decays exponentially.

3. When humility and courage are institutionalized, systems self-correct after shock.

4. Meaning collapses when semantic, semiological, or structural layers degrade faster than power can adjust.

These are empirically testable through LDP-1.0.

V. Architectural Implications for Governance

The Law of Moral Proportion carries constitutional force.

To remain legitimate, any system, organizational, political, or scientific, must ensure:

1. Truth can correct power.

This requires transparency, auditability, and semantic fidelity.

2. Structure can conduct truth.

This requires coherent architecture, clear roles, trusted pathways, and preserved memory.

3. Drift can be regulated.

This requires affective governance: humility, courage, and real protection for dissent.

These imperatives form the basis of the 3E Standard™, which operationalizes the law:

• Engage — truth in motion

• Execute — power in proportion

• Elevate — coherence sustained through continuity

Transformation Management is the applied engineering of meaning stability.

VI. Declaration of Continuity

The Physics of Meaning unites conscience with structure.

It shows that endurance is not an accident of culture or leadership.
It is the result of proportion, the alignment of truth, action, structure, and correction.

When truth governs power through coherent architecture, drift slows and continuity becomes possible.
When power escapes truth, drift accelerates, and survival becomes performance without understanding.

Legitimacy converts expansion into continuity.
Through humility and courage, the affective regulators of proportion, transformation becomes sustainable rather than destructive.

Afterword: The Lineage of Meaning Physics

• Peirce gave meaning its structural architecture.

• Frege gave meaning its semantic clarity.

• Austin showed that language acts.

• Systems theorists mapped coherence and feedback.

• Thermodynamics revealed entropy and decay.

• Affective science exposed the emotional regulators of drift.

Across history:

• the Pythagoreans called it harmony

• Aristotle called it virtue

• Kant called it law

• Kegan mapped its developmental emergence

• Drucker built it into management

Transformation Science inherits this lineage and unifies it into a measurable physics of meaning.

Through the Law of Moral Proportion, meaning becomes:

• structured

• measurable

• predictable

• governable

• and conserved through time

The foundational insight remains:

Only proportion can keep a system whole while it changes.

Citation

Transformation Management Institute™ (2025). The Physics of Meaning: The Law of Moral Proportion (Canonical Edition). TMI Research Library, Foundational Statement No. 001.