1 Construal and the Dance of Perspective
The Dialogic Real: Perspectives in Motion
What is reality, when no single perspective can claim authority?
What is meaning, when no construal can be final?
In this new arc, we explore not simply how meaning arises, but how it moves — how the world we inhabit is continually shaped and reshaped through shifting alignments of perspective, agency, and constraint. We begin with a simple but profound claim:
To mean is to construe. To construe is to cut a path through potential.
Meaning in Motion
In relational ontology, there is no “view from nowhere.”
Every act of meaning-making is a perspective —
a situated differentiation within a system of possibilities.
But perspectives are not static.
They interact, overlap, contradict, and evolve.
And in their motion, a world takes shape.
We call this motion dialogic:
The unfolding of reality through the interplay of construals.
To say that the universe is relational is not to say it is uniform.
It is to say that what exists emerges in difference —
not difference from substance, but difference from within potential.
Construal as Event
Every instance is a construal —
not merely a snapshot, but a cut that enacts a distinction.
This is not interpretation added to reality.
This is reality, under a particular construal.
A photon “measured” is not a particle discovered —
it is a potential enacted under constraint.
A word spoken is not a container of thought —
it is a path through the system of meaning,
selected and enacted within a flow of semiosis.
A person understood is not a fixed identity —
but a dynamic configuration of history, values, and relations
as construed from a particular standpoint.
Every construal is an act of world-making.And every world is the tensioned result of multiple construals in motion.
Systems in Motion
Systems — whether linguistic, cultural, physical, or cognitive —
are not fixed hierarchies but fields of potential.
They do not contain meaning.
They offer possible paths for its emergence.
But these paths are not taken blindly.
Every construal selects, and in doing so, reshapes the field.
This is the feedback loop of instantiation:
To construe is to enact a meaning.To enact a meaning is to alter the system of possibilities.
A poem changes what poems can be.
A protest reshapes what dissent can mean.
A scientific discovery reorganises the field of intelligibility.
Systems move because construals perturb them.
And construals shift because systems evolve.
This mutual movement is what we mean by meaning in motion.
The Question Ahead
If reality is construed, and construals are in motion,
then how do we theorise the dynamics of perspective?
How do we account for:
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the shaping power of agency,
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the weight of structure,
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the ripple of an instance across the field?
And how do we remain grounded —
not lost in relativism, nor captured by absolutism —
but alive to the layered dance of unfolding meaning?
This is the journey ahead.
2 Agency in Motion: How Constraints Shape Possibility
If meaning is the construal of potential,
then agency is the power to cut —
to orient, to select, to enact a path.
But this is not the heroic agency of the isolated will.
It is not freedom from constraint.
It is freedom within constraint —
the dance of situated potential, oriented and actualised.
In this post, we explore how agency arises not as force,
but as motion within structure —
as the ability to reshape possibility from within relation.
Agency Is Relational
To act is not to impose oneself upon the world.
It is to move through a field of affordances,
where every possibility is already patterned by prior constraint.
Agency is not outside the system.It is the motion of the system, seen from within.
This is why a fish has agency in water,
a musician in music,
a child in play.
Each acts from within a system of patterned relation —
and in doing so, shifts the pattern.
Constraint Is Enabling
In the relational model, constraint is not the enemy of agency.
It is its ground.
A guitar string vibrates because it is held taut.
A dancer’s freedom emerges from the rhythm and space they move within.
A speaker’s utterance makes sense only by drawing on shared systems of meaning.
Constraint is not the limit of action.It is what makes action intelligible.
We do not act despite the system.
We act through it —
and in acting, we change it.
Dynamic Systems, Reflexive Agents
Because systems are not fixed,
agency is not a one-time act but a dynamic participation.
We are shaped by the systems we inhabit —
but we also reshape them.
This is most visible in reflexive systems:
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A language changes as speakers innovate.
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A social norm shifts as people contest and reorient it.
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A scientific theory evolves as evidence accrues and meanings shift.
Agency is not opposed to structure.It is structure in motion.
The Cut as Act
To construe is to cut.
To cut is to differentiate.
To differentiate is to act within a field of patterned possibility.
In quantum physics, a cut enacts a configuration of meaning.
In language, a cut selects a path through systemic potential.
In politics, a cut foregrounds one set of values over another.
Every act is a construal.And every construal reshapes the space of possible acts.
This is why agency is not merely reactive.
It is generative.
Participation as Praxis
In this view, to participate is not to submit to the given.
It is to join the ongoing shaping of the real.
Participation is not a passive stance.
It is praxis:
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oriented,
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situated,
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consequential.
It is how we dwell in unfolding systems:
not as users of fixed tools,
but as co-creators of meaning.
Looking Ahead
If agency is not the triumph of the individual over constraint,
but the resonance of perspective within relation,
then the next question is this:
How do agents align?How do meanings move not just individually, but together?
In the next post, we turn to the dynamics of alignment —
the collective choreography of meaning in motion.
3 The Choreography of Alignment: How Meaning Moves Together
If agency is how we cut through potential,
alignment is how our cuts begin to resonate.
When meaning moves, it rarely moves alone.
It moves through shared fields of possibility —
through systems in which agents co-orient, co-construe, co-create.
This is not consensus.
It is choreography: a dynamic synchrony of difference.
Alignment is the dance of meaning in motion —
where shared direction emerges from patterned participation.
Alignment Is Not Agreement
Alignment is often mistaken for agreement.
But it is more fundamental than that.
It is not about believing the same thing,
but about entering the same field of construal.
To align is to attune:
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to orient from a shared perspective,
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to participate in a common grammar,
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to differ within relation.
Alignment makes interaction possible,not identical.
How Systems Align
Systems align when their potentials interlock.
This happens across many scales:
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A language community aligns through grammatical potential.
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A scientific field aligns through disciplinary models and methods.
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A society aligns through histories, institutions, and patterns of participation.
Alignment is always partial, always provisional —
but it is enough to sustain coherence.
Without alignment, there is no shared meaning.Without difference, there is no new meaning.
The Role of Constraint
Constraint enables alignment by structuring choice.
Just as a musical scale guides melodic movement,
so systems of meaning guide relational construal.
To align is to act within a shared structure —
to navigate difference in a way that is mutually intelligible.
This is why systemic constraint is not uniformity.
It is a patterned openness — a shared space for diverse motion.
Alignment and Feedback
In dynamic systems, alignment is not imposed from above.
It is emergent from below.
Every construal affects the system —
and that effect shapes future construals.
This recursive loop is what allows alignment to evolve:
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A phrase becomes a meme.
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A protest becomes a movement.
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A theory becomes a paradigm.
Meaning is not fixed by consensus.It is stabilised through feedback.
Misalignment and Meaning-Making
Misalignment is not failure.
It is a moment of potential.
Every clash of perspective reveals a tension in the system —
a point where meanings diverge, and new paths may open.
Conflict, irony, ambiguity — these are not disruptions of meaning.
They are its conditions of renewal.
Alignment is always negotiated.And every negotiation is an act of world-building.
Looking Ahead
If alignment is the dynamic choreography of agents within systems,
then we are ready to ask:
What makes this movement meaningful?How does a system know what it is doing?
In the next post, we explore how systems reflect, adapt, and sustain themselves through feedback —
and how meaning becomes reflexive.
4 Feedback and Self-Patterning: How Systems Sense and Sustain Themselves
When meaning moves, it leaves a trace.
When the system senses that trace, it begins to self-pattern.
Feedback is how systems become aware of their own unfolding —
how they stabilise some meanings, revise others, and open new paths.
It is not a loop of correction.
It is a rhythm of resonance:
an ongoing dance between construal and constraint.
Feedback Is Not Error Correction
In engineering, feedback often means self-correction —
a system adjusting to maintain equilibrium.
But in meaning-making systems, feedback is more generative than corrective.
It is how systems feel their way forward,
sensing difference, testing coherence, refining alignment.
Feedback is not a thermostat.It is a reflex. A pulse. A construal of unfolding.
The System Senses Itself
A relational system does not look at itself from the outside.
It senses itself from within.
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A cell regulates through chemical feedback.
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A speaker adjusts mid-sentence in response to a listener’s gaze.
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A culture re-narrates its history in the face of new events.
These are not outside observers.
They are agents within systems
modulating their own participation.
The system is the field.The feedback is the fold.
Feedback Creates Stability and Change
Feedback doesn't only preserve coherence.
It can also drive transformation.
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In speech, a hesitation can signal recalibration.
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In science, a failed prediction can reorient theory.
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In politics, dissent can redraw the map of meaning.
Feedback loops do not just stabilise patterns.
They modulate constraints —
tuning the system to new tensions, new potentials, new alignments.
Self-Patterning: The Emergence of Identity
When feedback accumulates across time,
a system begins to form a sense of self.
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A speaker develops a voice.
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A tradition develops a canon.
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A community develops norms of recognition.
This is not identity as fixed content.
It is identity as pattern-in-motion —
a memory of differentiation,
a style of navigating unfolding.
To become is to trace your own feedback.
The Ethics of Feedback
Because feedback loops modulate what is possible,
they carry ethical weight.
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What meanings are reinforced?
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Which differences are amplified or suppressed?
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Who is included in the sensing of the system?
A system that cannot hear its own tensions
is a system that loses its openness.
Reflexivity is not just technical.It is ethical — the condition of learning.
Looking Ahead
We’ve seen how systems sense their own motion
through feedback and reflexive patterning.
But can this be theorised?
Can a system not only sense itself, but understand its own grammar?
In our final post, we explore the possibility of self-theorising systems —
and what it means to live in a reflexive universe.
5 Theorising Motion: Living in a Reflexive Universe
We have followed the movement of meaning:
how systems differentiate, align, and pattern themselves in motion.
But now we ask:
Can a system not only participate in its unfolding —
but theorise it?
Can it construe its own motion
as meaning?
Theory as Reflexive Construal
To theorise is not to stand apart from the world.
It is to orient within it —
to construe patterns in motion,
and stabilise them as system.
This means theory is itself a meaning-making act.
It is not a representation of the real,
but a reflexive construal of unfolding constraints.
A theory is not a map.It is a movement of alignment.
The System as Its Own Theorist
When a system begins to pattern its own patterns —
when it construes its own processes of meaning-making —
it becomes reflexive.
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A child learning language construes the system they are already using.
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A culture codifying norms is theorising its own unfolding.
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A scientist formulating principles is modelling the patterns of experience.
In each case, the system becomes both subject and object:
the one who construes, and what is construed.
This is not a paradox.
It is reflexivity:
the condition of meaning in motion.
Theorising Is Always Situated
No system theorises from nowhere.
Every construal arises from a particular perspective —
a position within unfolding patterns.
So the question is never:
Is this theory true?
But:
What does this theory stabilise?
What does it make possible?
What does it exclude?
This is why reflexive systems must hold space for multiplicity —
for alternative construals, contesting alignments, and open potential.
A theory that cannot revise itselfis no longer a theory. It is a dogma.
Living Reflexively
In a reflexive universe,
we are not just knowers.
We are agents of construal.
Our identities, our histories, our categories of understanding —
these are not fixed foundations,
but unfolding alignments
that we participate in shaping.
To live reflexively is not to doubt everything,
but to remain open to the movement of meaning —
to feel the shifts in constraint,
and respond with oriented imagination.
The Universe as Meaning in Motion
We began with the motion of systems.
We end with the system of motion.
The universe is not made of objects.
It is made of orientations.
Each instance is a cut in the field of potential.
Each act of construal reshapes the space of possibility.
We do not simply live in a universe.
We theorise it —
and in doing so, we participate in its becoming.
Coda: Meaning, Motion, and the Practice of Attention
In the end, theory is a practice of attention.
To attend to motion is to notice unfolding constraints.
To theorise motion is to align with them meaningfully.
This is the gift of reflexivity:
Not certainty, but attunement.
Not control, but participation.
Not knowledge as possession,
but knowing as becoming.
The more deeply we participate,
the more possible the world becomes.
Reflective Coda: Living Systems, Moving Meanings
Across this series, we have traced how meaning moves:
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how potential becomes patterned,
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how constraints differentiate and guide,
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how agents align within dynamic fields,
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and how reflexive construal becomes a grammar of becoming.
We have seen that systems are not static things,
but living tensions held open in relation.
Meaning is not made once and for all,
but always emerging—
in motion, in negotiation, in the unfolding now.
We are not outside these systems,
nor merely within them.
We are of them—
reflexive participants in a universe
that theorises itself through us.
This is not a metaphor.
It is the structure of meaning in motion.
To know is to orient.To theorise is to align.To live meaningfully is to hold the field open—again, and again, and again.
So we return not to a conclusion,
but to a rhythm:
the recursive dance of instance and system,
of unfolding and reflection,
of alignment and renewal.
The world is not something we come to understand.
It is something we help to construe.
And in that construal,
we ourselves are made.