Theory of Constructed Rationality

The insight that what counts as "rational" behavior is defined by cultural and historical context. Maximizing personal profit is "rational" in neoliberal economics. Sacrificing oneself for one's community is "rational" in a honor-based society. Rationality is not a universal calculator in the brain; it's a set of culturally constructed goals and acceptable means that we learn and perform.

Example: "My boss said turning down a promotion to care for my dad was 'irrational.' My family said it was the only honorable choice. The Theory of Constructed Rationality explains the clash: we were using different construction manuals. His manual defined rationality as individual career maximization. Mine defined it as fulfilling familial duty. Neither is 'natural'; both are learned scripts for sensible action."

by Abzu Land January 31, 2026

Theory of Constructed Fallacies

The meta-view that our catalog of "logical fallacies" is itself a constructed system for policing thought within a specific rhetorical tradition (Western academic debate). What one culture condemns as an "appeal to emotion" might be another's preferred method of moral persuasion. The rulebook for "valid argument" is a constructed social agreement, not a holy text of pure reason.

Example: "In the courtroom, a lawyer's emotional story about a victim is powerful persuasion. In a formal debate, it's dismissed as an 'appeal to pity' fallacy. The Theory of Constructed Fallacies shows that the error isn't in the emotion, but in breaking the constructed rules of the specific reasoning game we're playing. The fallacy is a foul in one sport that's the main move in another."

by Abzu Land January 31, 2026

Theory of Constructed Politics

The perspective that the entire arena of politics—left vs. right, the issues that matter, the very idea of what government should do—is not a reflection of natural human divisions, but a constructed battlefield. Ideologies, parties, and political identities are built over time through media, education, and leaders to organize conflict, allocate resources, and give meaning to social life.

Example: "The 'culture war' issue of the 1850s was slavery. Today it's gender identity. The Theory of Constructed Politics says the fundamental conflict isn't natural; the battleground is constructed. Political elites and media build salience around certain issues to mobilize groups, constructing 'us vs. them' around whatever symbols and fears will hold a coalition together at the time."

by Abzu Land January 31, 2026

Theory of Constructed Economics

The argument that "the economy" is not a natural force like weather, but a human-constructed game with invented rules, players (households, firms), and scores (GDP, money). Concepts like "inflation," "unemployment," and "the market" are models we built; they then take on a life of their own and shape our behavior, but they began as ideas, not laws of physics.

*Example: "A 'recession' is two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. GDP itself is a constructed metric invented in the 1930s. The Theory of Constructed Economics shows that the terrifying, objective-sounding force that 'causes' layoffs is actually a story we tell ourselves using numbers we invented. We built the game, forgot we built it, and now tremble at its rules."*

by Abzu Land January 31, 2026

Theory of Constructed Systems

The umbrella concept that all large-scale human organizations—legal, economic, political, religious—are interlocking sets of constructed rules, roles, and concepts. These systems feel external and coercive ("the system is rigged"), but they are made and maintained by human action and belief. They are the architecture of our shared reality.

Example: "Getting a mortgage involved the constructed system of property law, the constructed system of banking, and the constructed system of credit scores. The Theory of Constructed Systems reveals that my 'dream home' was delivered through a labyrinth of human-made fictions, each depending on the other. The 'real' world is just the most stable and widely agreed-upon layer of construction."

by Abzu Land January 31, 2026

Theory of Constructed Everything

The radical endpoint of social constructionism: the argument that all of human reality—not just social facts like money, but our experience of time, space, the self, and even seemingly brute physical facts—is mediated through and shaped by the conceptual and linguistic systems we collectively build. It's the realization that we are born into a world that is already thickly pre-constructed, and we spend our lives navigating, reinforcing, and sometimes remaking those constructions.

Example: "Looking at a sunset, I see 'beauty' and 'the end of the day'—both constructed concepts. A physicist sees 'Rayleigh scattering' and 'planetary rotation'—other constructed concepts from a different framework. The Theory of Constructed Everything suggests there is no access to the sunset-in-itself; we only ever experience it through the various reality-tunnels our cultures and sciences have built for us. We live in a house of ideas, and mistake it for the sky."

by Abzu Land January 31, 2026

Theory of Constructed Languages

The observation that all human languages are, by definition, constructed social agreements, but this theory specifically highlights deliberately invented languages like Esperanto, Klingon, or programming code. These are not organic evolutions but are built from scratch to fulfill a purpose—whether fostering global peace, enriching a fictional world, or giving unambiguous instructions to a machine. They prove that the core function of language (creating shared meaning) can be engineered, and their success or failure depends entirely on whether a community agrees to use and build upon the construction.

Example: "Esperanto was built on the Theory of Constructed Languages: one guy mashed up Romantic and Germanic roots to create a 'neutral' tongue to unite humanity. It failed to replace natural languages because not enough people bought into the construction. Meanwhile, the constructed language of Python succeeded wildly because the community of programmers agreed to use it, showing that a language's power comes from shared belief in its utility, not its innate logic."

by Abzu Land January 31, 2026