Aristotle reframes relationality through a systematic ontology of substances, categories, and teleology. While Platonic Forms abstractly structure possibility, Aristotle situates potential within concrete entities, each defined by its nature, function, and place in a hierarchical order. Relations are intrinsic to the realisation of potential: substances actualise capacities according to their formal, material, efficient, and final causes.
Teleology is central. Possibility is not undirected but oriented toward ends defined by relational roles within a broader network of beings. Natural hierarchies organise potentialities: plants, animals, and humans actualise distinct modes of existence, yet each is intelligible only in the context of the whole. In this sense, relationality structures both ontological and epistemological horizons: understanding a thing requires apprehending its interconnections, functions, and purposes.
Aristotle’s framework preserves Heraclitean dynamism and Platonic structure while grounding them in actualised processes. Potentiality is relationally situated, actualisation emerges through participation in structured hierarchies, and the conditions of possibility are intelligible through the systemic interplay of causes and roles.
This relational hierarchy establishes a lineage for subsequent philosophical developments. By integrating substance, function, and relational embedding, Aristotle articulates a model of possibility as both constrained and enabled by networks of interdependent beings—a move that will resonate through later metaphysical systems seeking to understand being as fundamentally relational and processual.
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