Morphogenesis I: The Organism and the Collective: 2 From Aggregation to Organisation

The journey from single cells to multicellular organisms is often narrated as an evolutionary milestone, a linear story of increasing complexity. From the perspective of relational ontology, however, this transition is not a historical event but an ontological shift in the structure of individuation. It is a shift from aggregation — loose collections of cells — to organisation — coordinated collectives in which the potentials of individual cells are aligned and differentiated relative to the collective.

Aggregates: Possibility without Alignment

Cellular aggregates represent the first step in collective life. Here, the collective potential exists, but it is largely undifferentiated: cells interact, compete, and coexist, yet the system lacks coherent functional patterns. Each cell’s potential is minimally constrained by its neighbours, producing emergent behaviours that are probabilistic rather than directed.

In relational terms, an aggregate is a field of potentialities in which individuation is nascent. Cells are instances of the collective, but the cut between individual potential and collective potential is shallow; identity is weakly differentiated, and function remains largely contingent.

Organisation: Coordination as Relational Cut

Organisation emerges when interactions among cells begin to constrain and structure collective potential. The relational cut between collective and individual potential becomes sharper: cells are no longer mere participants in a general field of possibilities but individuated actors whose capacities are realised in coordination with others.

This process is perspectival. Cells align their functional potential not because of an external blueprint or teleological imperative, but because the relational constraints of the collective afford certain patterns of actualisation. Differentiation emerges as the system construes which cellular potentials must be instantiated to maintain cohesion, optimise resource use, or respond to environmental cues.

Differentiation without Determinism

Crucially, differentiation is not a mechanical assignment of roles. It is a form of construal — a perspectival alignment in which cells realise potentials relative to the collective grammar. Specialisation arises from relational context: a cell’s identity is constituted by the functions it adopts in interaction with others, and these functions are continually adjusted as the collective potential evolves.

In this sense, multicellularity is fundamentally relational. The organism is not simply the sum of its cells; it is a structured network of potentials, a grammar of possible arrangements actualised in particular configurations. Identity, function, and individuation are inseparable from the relational field.

Reflexive Scaling

From aggregation to organisation, we can observe reflexive scaling: the collective potential becomes increasingly structured, producing feedback loops in which individual and collective potentials mutually adjust. As organisation stabilises, new modes of coordination emerge, setting the stage for higher-order structures, such as tissues and organs, where individuation and instantiation operate at nested levels of potential.

Conclusion

The transition from aggregation to organisation exemplifies the core relational logic of life: individuation arises from the differentiation of collective potential, and actualisation is perspectival, contingent, and reflexive. Multicellularity is thus not an evolutionary endpoint but a continuous process of alignment between collective and individual potentials.

In the next post, The Cut of Coordination, we will explore how this alignment is formally realised, analysing the relational boundary between collective potential and individual cellular potential, and how this cut structures both identity and function.