Indeterminate Multiplicity and the Multiplicity of Indeterminacies: Social Ontology at the Intersection of (Post) Structuralist Intuitions

Abstract

The article positions the concept of uncertainty as a central element of social ontology. By drawing on the resources of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s discourse theory, the author argues for the fundamental impossibility of meanings fixation and the resulting radical contingency of the social. To address the limitations of discourse theory in analyzing structural crises, the author turns to Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of crisis, which highlights the role of uncertainty in processes of social transformation—both at the level of social fields and in the trajectories of individual agents. Additionally, the article incorporates Gisèle Sapiro’s concept of axiological operators, which underscores the role of discursive elements in Bourdieu’s theory of crises. The author proposes a three-level model of uncertainty, with each level representing distinct abstract dimensions of thinking about the social: 1) The level of individual agents’ perceptions, characterized by uncertainty about the future arising from the mismatch between subjective expectations and objective social positions; 2) The uncertainty of social space as a whole during crises, understood as “open time”; 3) The level of radical contingency, which positions uncertainty as the core of imagining the social as such. The article contends that social inventions act as localized mechanisms for stabilizing meaning and bridging these distinct levels of uncertainty, particularly through the redefinition of axiological operators. The paper seeks to demonstrate that understanding the interplay of these levels of uncertainty—grounded in discourse theory, Bourdieu’s crisis theory, and the concept of axiological operators — is key to developing a more comprehensive social ontology.