Readiness and the Shape of Relation: 1 Relational Ontology as Generative Lens

Seeing phenomena as structured relational potential

The Generative Move

Relational ontology asks us to start not with substances, objects, or pre-given entities, but with relation itself. Every phenomenon — physical, social, symbolic, cognitive — can be understood as a structured field of potential: a horizon of possibilities awaiting actualisation.

The power of this move is simple: rather than assuming “things” exist independently and then interact, we recognise that the patterns we observe emerge through the very act of construal.

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Cuts and Actualisation

Central to this view is the cut. A cut is not a discovery of an underlying reality; it is a selective act that stabilises some potentialities while leaving others latent.

• Each cut actualises a portion of relational potential.

• Cuts are perspectival: they depend on the construal that performs them.

• Cuts do not exhaust potential, but they shape which possibilities remain open for further engagement.

In short: actualisation is always a constrained manifestation of what could have been.

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Construals Across Horizons

Cuts are always embedded in horizons — structured landscapes of relational possibility. A construal navigates this horizon, moving through relational space and selectively stabilising meaning, structure, or pattern.

• Inclination encodes tendencies: how potential is predisposed to actualise.

• Ability expresses capacity: whether potential can meaningfully manifest.

• Readiness combines the two: the horizon-sensitive potential that remains available for actualisation.

Constraining cuts traverse horizons with these three properties in play. They make some distinctions real while keeping others latent, generating phenomena without assuming pre-given essences.

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Implications of the Generative Lens

1. Phenomena are event-like, not thing-like
   What appears as a stable object or system is the recurring actualisation of relational potential through repeated construals.

2. No “unconstrued reality” is required
   There is no metaphysical core hiding behind appearances; relation itself is sufficient to explain emergence, change, and coherence.

3. Potential is structured, not vague
   Horizons are patterned fields. Possibilities are not infinite and unformed; they carry relational constraints, tendencies, and compatibilities.

4. Observation is participation
   Every act of construal is simultaneously a cut in the horizon and a contribution to subsequent relational capacity.

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The Payoff

By treating relation as ontologically primary, we gain a generative lens that unifies phenomena previously treated as fundamentally different: matter and mind, dynamics and structure, meaning and value.

• Physics, mathematics, and complex systems are seen as domains of actualisation, not repositories of absolute entities.

• Semiotics and cognition are patterns of construal traversing relational horizons, not epiphenomena of independent minds.

• Problems like singularities, over-closure, brittleness, and collapse are reframed as horizon exhaustion or mismanaged readiness, not ontological catastrophes.

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Forward Gesture

Subsequent posts will formalise how cuts and construals work in practice, explore the dynamics of relational horizons, and show how relational ontology provides actionable guidance for modelling, science, and semiotic practice.

The series begins here: by recognising that every phenomenon is born of relation, and that understanding arises not from breaking the world into pieces, but from tracing the structure and movement of potential itself.