Introduction to Relational Science I
“The universe is not a collection of things, but a communion of subjects.”— Thomas Berry
Science has long been cast in the role of describing a world “out there”—a cosmos presumed to exist independently of the knower, awaiting discovery through careful observation and objective method. But what if this framing conceals as much as it reveals? What if science, rather than simply revealing the world, is one of the ways the world comes into being?
This is the premise of the relational turn.
Science as Relational Actualisation
In the ontology we’ve been developing, reality does not pre-exist its actualisation. What we call the “world” is not a finished structure waiting to be perceived; it is a potential meaning-field that becomes actual through relation.
Science, then, is not a practice of passive description but of participatory construal—a way of bringing forth instances from potential. Every experiment, every model, every measurement is not the neutral registration of what is “there,” but an act of meaning-making. The scientist is not outside the system but always already within it, shaping what becomes actual by how they engage with potential.
In this view, measurement is not observation; it is participation.
Potential and Instance: A Recap
Our relational ontology is grounded in the idea that potential is not empty possibility, but structured meaning potential. And what we call an “instance”—a specific object, event, or measurement—is not a pre-existing entity discovered in isolation. It is actualised potential: something brought into being through interaction, relation, and construal.
This isn’t to say that reality is purely subjective or arbitrary. On the contrary, it is systematically structured—but that structure is not fixed, nor is it independent of the processes that unfold within it. The unfolding is not into a container called space-time; it is space and time as unfolding.
Science, in this context, is the activity by which structured potentials are recursively brought into symbolic, material, and conceptual form.
From Objectivity to Participation
The traditional view of science as a search for objective, observer-independent truths begins to fracture under this model. The so-called “objective” stance is simply one style of symbolic distancing—an epistemological move, not an ontological one.
This doesn’t invalidate science; it grounds it more deeply. What it reveals is that scientific knowledge is not a mirror of the real, but a system of relational construals that allow particular patterns to be actualised and explored.
The scientist is no longer a detached observer, but a relational meaner—someone whose interaction with potential instantiates a world.
Science as a System of Symbolic Participation
Seen this way, science becomes one of the symbolic systems through which the cosmos explores itself. Its language—whether mathematical, experimental, or theoretical—is not a transparent medium, but a symbolic technology for bringing forth new actualities from the field of what could be.
Science is not less meaningful than myth, but meaningful in a different register. Both are recursive systems of meaning-making. Both are modes of relational participation in the becoming of the real.
The Relational Turn in Science
Across many fields, this shift is already underway:
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In quantum physics, the observer collapses the wavefunction—not by "looking" but by relating.
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In ecology, systems are no longer isolated but interdependent, forming dynamic relational webs.
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In neuroscience, consciousness is not localised but emerges from relational activity.
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In the philosophy of science, thinkers like Whitehead, Barad, and Indigenous scholars have all questioned the myth of objectivity.
What unites these moves is the growing recognition that to know the world is to co-create it.
Where We're Headed
This post opens a new spiral of exploration: one where science is not separate from meaning, but a primary domain in which meaning is made. In the posts to come, we’ll explore how this reframing transforms our understanding of:
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Space and time as relational actualities
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The quantum field as a symbolic potential
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Consciousness as a recursive construal
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The symbolic nature of scientific language
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And the cosmos itself as a process of becoming through relation
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