Elevating Functional Discovery into Normative Commitment: A Rigid Designation Model for Message-Constituted Systems

Abstract

This paper develops a formal account of normativity in Message-Constituted Normative Systems (MCNS)—by shifting the focus from emergence to the rigidification of normative roles. It models the transition from descriptive Functional Discovery (FD) under teleonomic emergence conditions (Cset) in the Realm of Causes to Normative Designation (ND) in the Space of Reasons, where causal roles become loci of commitment and accountability. It argues that no direct inference from "what works" to "what ought" is licensed: ©FD®†is raised to ©ND®†only through a structural–argumentative filter that renders a role (φ) operationally executable within ⟨R,G⟩ and articulable in a Message Complex, RC(φ)=⟨φ,A,K,Md,R,G⟩, under identity constraints (H1–H3). ©H3®†is specified as functional rigidity: the identity-preserving fixation of constitutive roles as Rigid Normative Designations (NDR). The current designation (NDnow) is treated as the outcome of a genealogical path (P) originating in the founding segment (ND₀/ND₁), so legitimacy is assessed not by mere contemporary uptake but by the recoverability of operational execution as a guard of ©C*®†without shifting ©H3®. This framework distinguishes legitimate rigidity from designation fetishism, offers diagnostics for misalignment and normative collapse, and supplies operational criteria for adjudicating competing designations without invoking metaphysical teleology or universal moralism.