The previous posts have dismantled several assumptions: that individuals emerge through intrinsic processes, that objects exist as metaphysical primitives, that persistence implies identity, and that asking “What is it?” yields essence. In this final post, we synthesise these insights and reframe objects entirely as trajectories: sequences of relational patterns actualised over time.
Trajectories, Not Things
Objects are not static, bounded entities. They are dynamic trajectories: evolving constellations of relations that maintain coherence under certain perspectives. Stability is a pattern, not a property; boundaries are actualised cuts, not inherent separations.
Consider a tree. It persists across seasons, grows, sheds leaves, and exchanges matter with its environment. Its “objecthood” is maintained by relational patterns—ecological interactions, genetic continuity, and human perception—not by intrinsic, immutable substance. The tree is a trajectory in relation space.
Physics, Biology, and Social Systems
Quantum physics: Particles are individuated only within measurement contexts; their trajectories are actualised relationally, and apparent stability is conditional.
Biology: Organisms and cells persist through relational patterns, from gene regulation to ecological networks. Development and differentiation are trajectories, not emergence of preformed entities.
Social systems: Roles, institutions, and identities unfold as trajectories of interaction, norms, and recognition. Stability and persistence arise from repeated relational actualisation, not metaphysical essence.
Across domains, what appears to be a “thing” is better understood as a path of relational consistency actualised over time.
The Conceptual Shift
Thinking in terms of trajectories accomplishes several things:
It dissolves object-centrism: objects are not ontological primitives, but relational stabilisations.
It integrates persistence and change: entities can transform radically without violating continuity.
It resolves metaphysical puzzles: there is no need for hidden essence or intrinsic identity.
It respects perspectival actualisation: what counts as an object depends on relational cuts and context.
Implications for Understanding Reality
The trajectory perspective unites insights from physics, biology, and social theory. It situates individuation, persistence, and objecthood within relational ecology, highlighting the conditionality and perspectival nature of apparent stability. It also clarifies why formal systems and classifications succeed locally: they stabilise trajectories under chosen constraints but do not uncover metaphysical primitives.
Objects are patterns in motion; stability is relational, not inherent.
Conclusion
From thing to trajectory, we see a world not of bounded substances, but of dynamic relational fields. Identity, individuation, and persistence are products of coordinated relational patterns, actualised through perspective and interaction.
No object is ever fully independent, yet nothing is less real for that. The world is intelligible because trajectories are stabilised, patterned, and recognisable, not because there exist immutable things beneath them.
By embracing trajectories, we close the series on a note that is both rigorous and generative: the metaphysics of objects dissolves, leaving an ecology of relations, patterns, and possibility.
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