1. From embryos to cosmos
We have traced morphogenesis from Sheldrake’s intuition to a relational reframing:
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Fields → structured potential
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Morphic resonance → reflexive alignment
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Memory → persistence of relational topology
Now we ask: if embryos, species, and symbolic systems operate by actualising potential through reflexive alignment, might the cosmos itself be morphogenetic in the same sense?
Relational ontology allows us to see the universe as a hierarchy of nested potentialities, each actualising itself through local and global alignment. The same principles that govern limb formation govern galaxy formation, ecological patterns, and the persistence of symbolic systems.
2. Reflexive alignment at scale
Just as cells align within tissues, and tissues within organs, systems align across scales:
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Planetary systems stabilise through gravitational and orbital relational constraints.
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Ecosystems emerge from nested interactions among species, constrained by shared potential spaces.
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Human cultures and technologies align their symbolic patterns through collective construals.
The principle is the same: coherence arises because potential aligns with itself, not because an external force imposes it. The recurrence of patterns — whether in biology, ecology, or culture — is a reflection of topological persistence across scales.
3. Form and meaning as cosmological phenomena
Morphogenesis is semiotic at all scales:
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Form is always an actualisation of potential.
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Habit and recurrence are reflexive, not transmitted.
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Meaning is embedded in the alignment of relational topologies, whether cellular, social, or cosmic.
In this sense, the universe itself is semiotic: every stable pattern is a phase of construal, a visible trace of relational alignment manifesting as form.
4. Rethinking causation
In a morphogenetic cosmology:
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Causation is relational, not linear.
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Influence is internal coherence, not transmission of force or information.
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Continuity and recurrence are properties of potential, not of external memory.
The cosmos does not “remember” in a Sheldrakean sense; it actualises its own structured potential repeatedly, producing the phenomena we perceive as stability, law, and habit.
5. A relational reading of Sheldrake completed
By this stage, the repairs to Sheldrake’s theory are complete:
| Sheldrake | Relational Reframe |
|---|---|
| Morphogenetic field | Structured potential: a system-theory of possible instances |
| Morphic resonance | Reflexive alignment across actualisations |
| Memory of nature | Persistence of relational topology |
| Recurrence of form | Re-actualisation of coherent potential |
| Field causation | Coherence of construal, not external force |
What remains is the intuition: life, form, and meaning are coherent, patterned, and repeatable — but no longer mysterious, causal, or dependent on nonlocal transmission. The universe construes itself at every scale.
6. Closing thought
Sheldrake glimpsed the truth: the world is patterned, alive, and responsive. Relational ontology completes the vision: the world is self-construing, self-aligning, and reflexively actualising its own potential. From embryo to cosmos, from habit to form, from cells to symbols, the principle is the same.
A morphogenetic field is the structured potential through which reality construes itself.
The universe is not a machine, nor a memory bank, nor a messenger of past forms. It is a morphogenetic system: a living topology of possibility, reflexively aligning to manifest coherence, recurrence, and meaning at every scale.
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