Adjacent layer: What Is an Event?.
This document fixes a process as a sequence of connected events, without substituting a single transition for the process.
1) Basic Premise
A process is not a single event, but an unfolding of changes over time.
If an event is fixed as a minimal transition:
was -> became different
then a process is held as a chain of transitions:
S0 -> S1 -> S2 -> ... -> Sn
In brief:
event = transition
process = sequence of transitions
2) Minimal Internal Structure of a Process
At the working level, a process contains four necessary layers.
2.1 Sequence of Events
A process is impossible without multiple events connected in order:
– there is an initial configuration;
– there are intermediate transitions;
– there is a current or final configuration.
Without a sequence, only a single event remains.
2.2 Duration
A process always extends over time:
– it has a beginning;
– it has a course;
– it may have a conclusion or remain unfinished.
This fundamentally distinguishes a process from an event understood as a momentary transition.
2.3 Connectedness of Transitions
Events within a process do not merely stand next to one another; they form a connection:
– along a causal line;
– along a functional line;
– along an organizational line (rules, roles, obligations).
If there is no connection, this is a collection of unrelated episodes, not a process.
2.4 Direction / Vector
A process is held as change with a direction:
– toward a goal;
– toward disintegration;
– toward stabilization;
– toward uncertainty.
A vector is not an evaluation, but it determines the form of the process’s movement.
3) Skeleton of a Process
PROCESS =
[SEQUENCE OF EVENTS]
+ [DURATION]
+ [CONNECTEDNESS OF TRANSITIONS]
+ [DIRECTION]
This is not a moral interpretation but a minimal structural framework.
4) Event and Process: A Strict Distinction
EVENT = minimal transition of state
PROCESS = sequence of transitions
Examples:
– “the door closed” is an event;
– “the door is closing” is a process.
- “the war began” is an event;
-
“the war is underway” is a process.
-
“the car started moving” is an event;
- “the car is moving” is a process.
5) Why Processes Are Often Confused with Events
Language often compresses something extended over time into one name:
– “repair”;
– “journey”;
– “negotiations”;
– “trial.”
Formally these are processes, but in speech they can be presented as “one event.”
Such compression is useful for communication but diminishes ontological precision.
6) Levels of Fixation
It is useful to distinguish three consecutive layers:
change -> event -> process
where:
– change is the fact that states differ;
– event is the moment of fixing a change;
– process is a sequence of connected events.
7) Fixation for the Model
- A process always lasts over time.
- A process does not replace an event, but includes events as its elements.
- Conflating process and event leads to loss of analytical precision.
- Holding the process structure reduces the risk of formulaic collapse.
- For causally valid processing, one must distinguish change, event, and process.
