What Understanding Is Once Totality Is Gone: 5 Interpersonal and Intersubjective Understanding

So far, we have seen that explanation is not inventory, not total, constraint-sensitive, and relationally oriented. We now ask: how does explanation function across multiple observers? How does understanding emerge intersubjectively without invoking totality or reducing to psychology?

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1. Explanation Is Not Mere Coordination

A common assumption is that interpersonal understanding is simply alignment or coordination — if two agents agree, understanding has been achieved. Post-totality ontology rejects this:

• Agreement does not guarantee comprehension.

• Coordination is pragmatic, whereas understanding is ontological and relational.

• Explanations are meaningful only insofar as they highlight constraints and distinctions intelligible across perspectives.

Key insight: Intersubjective understanding is not “everyone sees the same world” — it is the stabilisation of distinctions and relational patterns across agents.

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2. Shared Cuts, Not Shared Totality

Explanation relies on shared cuts rather than shared totality:

• A cut defines which phenomena are salient, how they are distinguished, and what relational patterns are highlighted.

• Multiple agents can navigate the same space of phenomena even if no single agent holds total knowledge.

• Intersubjective understanding emerges from the intersection of perspectives, not from a god’s-eye view.

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3. Symbolic Systems as Relational Glue

Symbolic and semantic systems allow explanations to propagate between agents:

• Language stabilises distinctions and patterns.

• Diagrams, models, and symbolic representations allow phenomena to be communicated without claiming totality.

• Understanding becomes second-order: agents grasp not only the phenomena but the relations among phenomena as structured by symbolic systems.

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4. Meaning Without Totality

This approach preserves meaning while respecting post-totality constraints:

• Explanations do not claim exhaustive coverage.

• Intersubjective understanding relies on relative salience and relational coherence.

• Symbolic mediation ensures that the interpretive space remains navigable, even as no single perspective captures all possibilities.

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5. Practical Implications

By attending to interpersonal and intersubjective dynamics:

• Explanations guide action and reasoning across multiple agents.

• Meaning and understanding propagate without collapsing into psychological reductionism.

• The space of possibility remains open — understanding is shared, not total.

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Conclusion:

In post-totality ontology, explanation is a socially extended, constraint-sensitive practice. Understanding emerges from shared navigation of phenomena, not from shared omniscience. Symbolic systems stabilise meaning, cuts generate salience, and relational coherence allows knowledge to circulate without claiming completion.

Next, in Post 6 — Explanation as Second-Order Meaning, we will situate explanation within symbolic and semiotic systems fully, connecting post-totality understanding to meaning, instantiation, and relational structure.