Having examined structured possibility, actualisation, stability, interaction, and limits, we now consider the role of observation and perspective in understanding what a system allows. Actualisation is always perspectival, and admissibility is perceived and enacted through vantage points within or relative to the system.
Perspective and Actualisation
A cut that is actualised is always perceived from a particular perspective. This perspective determines which admissible cuts are visible, accessible, or interpretable. Different observers or participants may perceive different selections as actualised, even within the same system.
Perspectival actualisation ensures that the system’s structure is not exhausted in any single viewpoint. The relational organisation of admissible cuts supports multiple coexisting enactments.
Description as Relational
Describing a system requires attention to perspective. No description can capture all admissible cuts simultaneously. Observers inevitably highlight particular sequences, boundaries, and interactions.
Description is therefore relational: it depends on the vantage of the observer and the relational paths through which cuts are enacted. Descriptions reveal aspects of admissibility without imposing external normativity or teleology.
Examples
Combinatorial Systems: An observer may only interact with a subset of switch configurations, perceiving them as actualised while remaining unaware of other admissible combinations.
Conceptual Networks: Different scholars may enact different interpretations of a system of distinctions, each actualising coherent cuts relative to their perspective.
Ecological Systems: Species interactions are observed differently by ecologists, each focusing on particular subsets of admissible interactions while other potential interactions remain unnoticed.
Implications for Analysis
Observation and description are themselves interactions with the possibility space. They do not exhaust admissibility or determine actualisation; they mediate our understanding of what the system allows. Perspective shapes what is salient, interpretable, and actionable without altering the system’s structure.
Recognising perspectival constraints allows us to analyse systems without collapsing them into a single objective or normative account. Actualisation and perception are entwined, yet distinct: the system defines admissibility, while vantage defines what is visible and interpretable.
Preparing for Action
Understanding perspective is crucial before acting within a system. Decisions, interventions, or designs must consider which cuts are perceived, which are accessible, and how relational positions affect actualisation.
In the final post, Implications for Action and Design, we will explore how understanding admissibility, perspective, and structural possibility informs practice, intervention, and orientation without invoking causation or teleology.
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