The Becoming of Human Possibility: A Life-Scale Perspective — 3 The Lived Cosmos

A human life unfolds within a web of relational fields: social, cultural, environmental, and symbolic. These fields constitute the lived cosmos of possibility — the horizon against which potential actualises. No individual exists in isolation; each life is embedded in networks of influence, expectation, and meaning that shape which potentials can emerge and which remain dormant.

The lived cosmos is perspectival. What counts as possible, meaningful, or real is always mediated through the individual’s engagement with surrounding relations. Symbols, narratives, institutions, and technologies form scaffolds that orient action, constrain choice, and enable innovation. Even in apparent freedom, human possibility is co-structured by these relational frames, which both open and limit the paths of becoming.

By attending to the lived cosmos, we recognise that individuals are both products and agents within their relational environments. Possibility is neither purely internal nor wholly external: it is the emergent effect of the interplay between the person and the worlds they inhabit. Understanding this co-individuated dynamic is essential for mapping the becoming of human possibility across a lifetime.