Series context: In the first post, we introduced the lantern-on-the-ocean metaphor to show how meaning creates its own shadow, and how non-meaning is structured potential. Here, we extend that metaphor to explore phenomena themselves—what we see, hear, and sense—and how they emerge relationally.
The Traditional Assumption: Phenomena as Separate
Many classical views treat phenomena—objects, colours, shapes, sounds—as pre-existing and independent of meaning. The visual field is imagined as a neutral stage; perception is thought to passively “register” what is already there. In this view, meaning is overlaid on a pre-given world.
But relational ontology challenges this assumption. Phenomena do not exist independently of the patterns of meaning that bring them into focus. They are emergent stabilisations, temporary islands of intelligibility in the ocean of potential.
Lanterns and the Phasing of Phenomena
Returning to our ocean metaphor:
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Each lantern you lower into the water represents a local act of meaning actualisation.
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The light reveals shapes—rocks, ripples, shadows—but these shapes do not pre-exist the light.
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Move the lantern, and the patterns shift, merge, or vanish. Phenomena appear, disappear, and reconfigure dynamically.
Perception is thus an active, participatory process: you do not merely see the world; you phase it into existence. Phenomena are co-constituted by attention, prior knowledge, and the relational field of meaning and non-meaning.
Multi-Scale Patterns
Phenomena stabilise at multiple scales:
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Local scale: Immediate perception—details of a leaf, the curve of a face, a fleeting shadow.
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Global scale: Patterns emerge across the visual or social field—landscapes, group formations, symbolic constellations.
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Temporal scale: Past actualisations (memory) and expectations act as “pre-lit lanterns,” influencing which phenomena stabilise next.
At each scale, phenomena are relational patterns: they exist because of contrast with non-meaning, the structuring of prior lanterns, and the interaction of multiple points of illumination.
Implications for Understanding Experience
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Perception is active, not passive: Seeing, hearing, and sensing are acts of phasing meaning across potential.
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The world is relational, not given: Phenomena do not pre-exist our construal; they are continually actualised.
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Non-meaning is generative: Dark patches are not voids—they are fertile potential for future phenomena.
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Collective experience emerges from shared phasing: Groups stabilise similar constellations of phenomena, creating socially aligned perceptions.
Looking Ahead
Next, we will explore how temporality shapes perception: how memory, expectation, and prior meaning act as pre-lit lanterns, guiding the phasing of phenomena across time. We will see that experience is a dynamic interplay of past, present, and potential future, a dance of lanterns and shadows across the ocean of non-meaning.
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