The Universal Complementarity of Construal: 6 Implications for Science, Semiotics, and Ontology

The series thus far has shown that:

• The midpoint on the cline revealed reversibility, but this is true of all points.

• Complementarity is intrinsic to construal.

• The metalevel is directional, not ontological.

• Hierarchy is a persistent illusion.

• Theory is an act of positioning, not a domain above data.

The final question emerges: what does this mean beyond theory itself? What are the consequences for the domains where knowledge, meaning, and reality are actively construed?

---

1. Science: From Foundations to Directional Leverage

In traditional science:

• Observation is taken as “ground truth.”

• Laws explain events.

• Theories sit atop.

Within the universal complementarity framework:

• Observation is always theory-laden. Its status as “data” is relative to a directional construal.

• Laws are sedimented actualisations; their explanatory force depends on relational positioning, not ontological elevation.

• Theories are directional stances: their rigor lies in clarity of positioning, not in reaching a metaphysical apex.

Even the most “fundamental” physical law is reversible: under a broader construal, it functions as instance, subject to reinterpretation or generalisation.

Science is no longer a pyramid. It is a cline along which structured potential is continuously actualised and re-construed.

---

2. Semiotics: The Mirror of Complementarity

Language and meaning exemplify these principles vividly:

• Patterns in lexicogrammar are both actualised texts and subpotentials of language.

• Registers are subpotentials of language realised from context, yet each instance of register can itself be read as constraining potential for future text types.

• Phenomena and metaphenomena are reversible: a pattern can be read as realised experience or as theory of experience.

This is not metaphor. Semiotic systems operate along the cline itself: meaning is both actualisation and potential, simultaneously.

Complementarity explains why semiotic analysis often appears paradoxical: every phenomenon is already theory from another perspective, and every pattern is simultaneously an instance of a broader system.

---

3. Ontology: Reality as Structured Gradient

The implications for ontology are profound:

• Reality is neither purely potential nor purely actual.

• Any stabilised pattern is simultaneously instance and system.

• Hierarchies of being are directional illusions; there is no “most real” level.

• Complementarity is the structural condition of all phenomena: every entity, event, or pattern is perspectivally bifurcated.

In short, the cline of instantiation is not a descriptive convenience. It is ontological grammar: the way reality construes itself when potential becomes actual.

---

4. The Universal Lesson

Across domains:

• Science: laws and data are mutually reversible; theory is a stance, not an apex.

• Semiotics: meaning is both instance and subpotential; texts are simultaneously phenomena and metaphenomena.

• Ontology: structured potential and actualisation are dual aspects; there is no privileged stratum, only directional constraint.

Complementarity is not a quirk. It is the universal condition of construal.

---

5. The New Approach to Knowledge

From this perspective, the project of understanding reality shifts:

1. Focus on relational positioning — the direction of construal matters more than presumed elevation.

2. Respect reversibility — any theory, law, or pattern may itself be treated as instance relative to a broader potential.

3. Embrace structural complementarity — the apparent opposition of data and theory, phenomenon and metaphenomenon, system and instance, is always perspectival.

4. Preserve rigor without hierarchy — clarity, consistency, and relational coherence are the criteria of robust construal.

Knowledge is no longer a climb to a metaphysical apex. It is navigation along structured potential.

---

6. Closing the Series

The cline of instantiation, universal complementarity, and directional theory together form a framework that:

• Reconstrues the metalevel.

• Dissolves hierarchy.

• Reframes data and theory as perspectival duals.

• Demonstrates that structured potential and actualisation are inseparable.

In this view, the universe — linguistic, scientific, or ontological — is a continuously unfolding relational field. Every act of construal is both an act of participation and a statement of direction. Every stabilisation is both instance and system.

This is the grammar of reality itself.