Fault-Lines of the Old Paradigms — Series Summary

For centuries, philosophy has sought foundations in privileged “things”: substances, minds, matter, flows, representations. Each “ism” promised stability, clarity, and mastery. Relational ontology exposes a common truth: they all fail—not because they are old, but because they deny the primacy of relation.

The core insight:

• There are no stand-alone things, only relational potentials.

• Actuality is always a perspectival cut through structured possibility.

• Meaning is constituted through construal, not inherited from a pre-construed world.

Why each paradigm falters under relational pressure:

1. Substance ontology: Independent entities depend on the relations they deny.

2. Idealism: Collapses into regress or covert dualism.

3. Materialism: “Matter” cannot be defined without relational context.

4. Dualism: Always smuggles a third ontological category.

5. Linguistic idealism: Language presupposes meaning actualised through relationality.

6. Constructivism: The constructor itself is unexplained.

7. Reductionism: Breaking the world into parts erases the whole.

8. Holism: Unity without differentiation produces mystical fog.

9. Realism: Representation cannot bridge to an independent world without interaction.

10. Anti-realism: Without actuality, nothing can be related.

11. Monism: Flattened ontology eliminates differentiation and meaning.

12. Pluralism: Multiple worlds without relational grounding collapse into noise.

13. Emergentism: Higher levels are perspective shifts, not metaphysical events.

14. Process philosophy: Flow requires structure; without it, everything blurs.

15. Systems theory: Relations cannot be treated as a placeholder; they must be primary.

Takeaway:

All phenomena, systems, and knowledge emerge through relational organisation, not representation, substance, or hierarchy. Multiplicity, coherence, and meaning are co-constitutive; unity, structure, and levels are intelligible only in relation.

Old paradigms crumble under relational pressure. The relational imperative is the only ontological foundation capable of sustaining reality, knowledge, and discourse.