1 Reality as Relationally Cut
In classical physics, entities were assumed to exist independently, with properties intrinsic and absolute. Early quantum mechanics, however, forced a radical shift: reality could no longer be taken as a collection of isolated substances.
Erwin Schrödinger observed that “subatomic particles have no meaning as isolated entities, but can only be understood as interconnections between the preparation of an experiment and the subsequent measurement.” Niels Bohr’s principle of complementarity reinforced this: a quantum system does not possess definite properties in isolation; its properties are defined only in relation to the experimental context. Werner Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle made this relationality explicit: position and momentum cannot simultaneously be pinned down, not because of observational weakness, but because relational constraints fundamentally shape what can be known.
From a relational ontology perspective, these insights are striking anticipations. Quantum phenomena are not pre-existing “things-in-themselves”; they are cuts in potentiality, actualised through interaction, measurement, and context. Each experiment instantiates a horizon of possible outcomes; the “particle” emerges as a relational node within that horizon.
This echoes the moves we traced in myth and philosophy. Just as heroic cycles or philosophical frameworks instantiate relational cuts, quantum experiments show that reality itself — at its most fundamental level — is structured through relations, not substances. No unconstrued phenomenon exists; entities appear only in perspectival alignment with other entities, observers, and the horizon of possibility.
Quantum mechanics, therefore, is not just a scientific theory. It is a formal, empirical echo of relational ontology: a recognition that being is not a collection of pre-existing things but a pattern of relations actualised through interaction. Reality is cut, aligned, and staged — a relational cosmos in miniature, revealed through experiment.
2 Observer, System, and Reflexivity
Quantum mechanics not only disrupts the notion of isolated entities; it also challenges the strict separation between observer and observed. The very act of measurement entwines them, producing outcomes that exist only in the relational interplay.
John Archibald Wheeler captured this with his notion of the “participatory universe”: observation is not a passive reflection but a co-constitutive act. Reality is not fully determined prior to observation; it is shaped, in part, by the relational engagement of the observer, the system, and the experimental context.
This reflexivity mirrors patterns we have already seen in myth and philosophy. Just as heroic acts stage individuation against the collective horizon, or philosophical arguments instantiate relational distinctions, quantum experiments stage reality itself through relational alignment. The observer is not external; they are a node in the web of potentiality, participating in the very cut that makes phenomena manifest.
From a relational ontology perspective, the lesson is clear: entities and events are not given; they are actualised through interaction, alignment, and reflexive participation. Measurement is a symbolic act in the scientific register — a way the relational cosmos makes itself intelligible.
Science, like myth and philosophy, anticipates the relational principle: reality is constituted through relations, and the boundaries between perceiver and perceived, part and whole, are perspectival, not absolute. The universe, in this view, is a participatory field of being, continually aligned through reflexive cuts.
3 Contingency and Probabilistic Horizons
Quantum mechanics reveals that reality is not strictly deterministic. Instead, it unfolds across probabilistic horizons, where potential outcomes are actualised only through relational interaction. Schrödinger’s and Heisenberg’s insights show that the future is open, constrained by relational configurations rather than absolute laws.
This contingency parallels what we observed in myth and philosophy. Just as myths stage provisional symbolic orders — where tricksters, cycles, and heroes unfold unpredictably — quantum events remain contingent until the relational cut of measurement occurs. The universe, at its core, is not a collection of predetermined absolutes, but a field of potentiality, awaiting actualisation through context, interaction, and alignment.
Relational ontology reads this as a profound anticipation: every cut, every instantiation, is provisional. Outcomes are perspectival, emerging only relative to the relational configuration of systems, observers, and experimental contexts. Reality is not fixed; it is continually re-phased and re-aligned, echoing the same openness that myth and philosophy explored symbolically and conceptually.
In this light, quantum mechanics is more than a formal theory. It is a demonstration of relational principles in the physical world: contingency, relational alignment, and perspectival instantiation are not metaphors, but ontological facts. The universe, like the symbolic and conceptual realms, is constituted through relational processes, dynamically structured yet open-ended.
4 Non-substantiality and Entanglement
Quantum mechanics forces us to reconsider the very notion of what exists. Particles are not self-contained, independently substantial entities. Instead, they are nodes in relational webs, defined by interactions, correlations, and entanglements. Schrödinger’s thought experiments and Bell’s theorem highlight that the properties of one particle are inseparable from the states of others, even across vast distances.
This anticipates the insight we encountered in myth’s Net of Indra: each phenomenon reflects and is reflected by all others, forming an infinite web of interdependent relations. In relational terms, nothing exists in isolation; every entity is co-constituted through interaction, alignment, and relational phasing.
The classical idea of substance is abandoned. Identity is not intrinsic; it is relational and contingent. Entanglement shows that reality is fundamentally a network of correlations, where being itself is distributed, perspectival, and co-constituted.
From the relational ontology perspective, quantum mechanics echoes the moves already present in myth and philosophy: the world is not a static assemblage of independent things but a dynamic web of relations, where every cut, every measurement, every event participates in shaping the field of potential. Being is relational, and meaning emerges from these patterns of co-constitution.
5 Reflexive Cosmos: Cycles and Constraints
Quantum mechanics, and the broader sciences it inspired, show that reality is not only relational but also reflexive and patterned. Decoherence, feedback loops, and emergent phenomena demonstrate that relational interactions generate higher-order structures: patterns that persist, evolve, and influence subsequent interactions.
These processes echo what we have seen in myth and philosophy. Just as myths organise cycles of symbolic phasing, and philosophical thought traces reflexive alignment within collective horizons, science reveals that the cosmos enacts its own self-organising relationality. Patterns emerge, but only through contingent, recursive processes; nothing is fixed in isolation.
The universe is a web of co-constituted relations, continually aligning, adjusting, and actualising potential. Feedback loops ensure that local interactions influence the global field, just as global constraints shape local phenomena. This reflexivity, operative at multiple scales, anticipates the relational insight that reality is both dynamic and structured, open-ended yet patterned.
In short, science, like myth and philosophy, enacts an experimental construal of reality: a staged, contingent, and relational cosmos. It anticipates relational ontology in formal, empirical terms, showing that the laws, entities, and phenomena we study are not pre-given absolutes but emergent expressions of relational processes.
Coda: Science as Relational Experiment
Taken together, the insights of quantum mechanics and systems science reveal a striking pattern: reality is relationally cut, reflexive, contingent, and co-constituted. Entities and events do not exist independently; they emerge only through interaction, alignment, and relational structuring.
Just as myths stage symbolic experiments in collective possibility, and philosophy stages conceptual experiments in relational construal, science stages empirical experiments in relational being. Schrödinger, Bohr, Heisenberg, Wheeler, and modern systems thinkers show that what we call “particles,” “laws,” or “emergent phenomena” are not pre-existing absolutes. They are effects of relational alignment, actualised through interaction and contextual configuration.
Science, in this view, is a structured exploration of relational potential. Measurement, modelling, and observation are not passive reflections; they are participatory acts, enacting, probing, and realigning relational cuts in reality. Contingency, reflexivity, and interdependence are not limitations but ontological facts, fundamental to the way the universe manifests.
Reading science relationally uncovers an echo across domains: myth, philosophy, and physics all gesture toward the same ontological insight. Reality is not a collection of isolated substances or pre-given truths; it is a web of interconnections, a field of potential actualised through interaction, perspective, and alignment.
Science, like story and thought, thus becomes a practice of relational attunement: an ongoing experiment in the continual making, staging, and understanding of worlds.
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