“Truth is not found; it is enacted within relation.”
Everyday realism treats truth as correspondence. Statements succeed or fail by matching objects and facts that exist independently. Truth is static, evaluable against a world that is itself evaluable.
Relational ontology changes this landscape entirely. If relation is fundamental, truth cannot be correspondence to independent things. It is a measure of adequacy within structured relational fields.
1. Truth as Adequacy Within Construal
A proposition is true not because it mirrors an autonomous reality, but because it coheres with relationally structured potential.
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A scientific law is true within the network of assumptions, interactions, and constraints that render it predictive and reliable.
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A metaphor is true to experience not because it “represents” independently, but because it stabilises a pattern of perception and meaning.
Truth is relational. Its conditions of adequacy emerge from the context of structured potential and interaction, not from a detached reality.
2. Contextual Coherence
Truth requires relational anchoring:
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It depends on perspective: who articulates, who interprets.
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It depends on field: what constraints, materials, and patterns are operative.
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It depends on tenor: the functional role of the statement in shaping action and interpretation.
Far from arbitrary, relational truth is robust within its context, yet flexible across contexts. Adequacy is local, not universal — and that local adequacy is what sustains recognition and action.
3. Emergence of Knowledge
If truth is relationally enacted, knowledge too is emergent:
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Knowledge is not a static inventory of facts.
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It is patterned reliability within relational networks.
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Learning is the process of detecting, stabilising, and extending relational coherence.
Novelty enters naturally: new articulations extend relational patterns into previously unactualised regions. Knowledge grows, not by uncovering objects in isolation, but by mapping relational possibilities.
4. Implications for Philosophy and Science
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Philosophy: Truth is not a mirror of a world-in-itself; it is coherence across relational dimensions.
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Science: Laws and models are tools for navigating structured possibility, not windows onto independent reality.
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Everyday realism: Assumes truth as correspondence; relational ontology reveals it as adequacy and enactment.
The shift is subtle in appearance, radical in consequence. Once relation is primary, the very notion of objective truth is reframed: it is no longer static or detached, but emergent, contingent, and patterned.
Aphorism:“Truth is not a verdict handed down; it is the echo of relational coherence.”
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