Morphogenesis I: The Organism and the Collective: 5 Morphogenesis without Mechanism

Traditional explanations of multicellularity often invoke mechanistic or teleological narratives: genes dictate cell fate, signalling pathways enforce order, and evolution “selects” the fittest configurations. From a relational ontology perspective, these accounts miss the ontological shift at the heart of multicellularity. Patterned organisation emerges not from pre-set instructions or goals, but from the perspectival actualisation of potentials within a relational field.

Relational Actualisation as the Basis of Morphogenesis

Morphogenesis, in this view, is the process by which collective potential is actualised through differentiated individuals. Cells do not follow a blueprint; they respond to constraints and affordances imposed by the collective field. Each actualisation is contingent and perspectival, arising from the interplay between individual potential and the structure of the collective.

The emergent patterns — tissues, organs, body plans — are thus relational products. They are not “encoded” in advance, nor are they the inevitable result of mechanistic laws. Instead, they reflect the grammar of potential actualised through interaction, alignment, and differentiation.

Rejecting Teleology

By focusing on relational potential, we dissolve the need for teleology. Cells are not “aiming” to become part of an organism, nor is the organism striving toward a preordained form. Function and structure arise because certain alignments of potential are mutually compatible, while others are not. Teleology is replaced by perspectival necessity: coherence within the relational field dictates which potentials are realised and which remain latent.

Self-Structuring Systems

Multicellular systems are self-structuring. Reflexive alignment ensures that local interactions among cells produce globally coherent patterns. For example, during early embryonic development, gradients of signalling molecules and local cell–cell interactions guide differentiation without a central controller. The organism “emerges” as a structured pattern of individuated potentials, continuously adjusted through feedback and mutual constraint.

Morphogenesis as Continuous Negotiation

Importantly, morphogenesis is not a single event but a continuous negotiation between collective and individual potentials. Cells continually adjust to local and global contexts, actualising potentials in ways that maintain coherence, enable adaptation, and sustain individuation. The organism is an ongoing relational project — a grammar in which each instance of function and differentiation both expresses and reshapes collective potential.

Conclusion

Morphogenesis without mechanism reframes multicellularity as a perspectival, relational phenomenon. Patterned organisation emerges from the interplay of potentials rather than from instructions or design. Actualisation is contingent, differentiation is perspectival, and the organism is the continuously negotiated grammar of life.

In the next post, Living Systems as Reflexive Alignment, we will explore how multicellular collectives construe themselves, demonstrating reflexive feedback between individual and collective potentials and how life becomes self-aware in its own relational structure.