Structured potentials form the network of what could be, but actualisation is what makes them intelligible. In relational ontology, actualisation is not a temporal process, nor is it an event that “happens” independently. It is a perspectival shift: a cut through relational potentials that distinguishes one instance from another.
Instances as Perspectival Cuts
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Each instance is an actualisation of a subset of potentials, made coherent under specific constraints.
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The same network of potentials can yield different instances under different cuts, illustrating the multiplicity inherent in relational systems.
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Actualisation is therefore contextual, relational, and perspectival, not chronological.
Implications Across Domains
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Cosmology: A “galaxy” is intelligible only as an actualised pattern of relational potentials.
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Biology: An organism emerges as a pattern of potentials realised under constraints, not as matter in motion alone.
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Semiotics: Meaning arises when relational potentials differentiate under interpretive cuts.
Constraints Shape Actualisation
Actualisation is always mediated by constraints:
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Constraints determine which potentials can be realised together.
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They generate stable patterns and intelligible regularities.
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Repeated actualisations under the same constraints produce persistence, structure, and law-like behaviour.
From Potential to Instance
Understanding actualisation as a perspectival shift prepares the ground for formalisation. In the next post, we will introduce category theory as a way to model relational potentials, their shifts, and the patterns of actualisation, providing a rigorous framework for the evolution of possibility.
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