The project seeks to explore what reality must be like for relation, coherence, embodiment, persistence, identity, meaning, value, directionality, and participation to become possible. Drawing upon process philosophy, emergence theory, complexity studies, contemporary cosmology, systems thinking, and open-relational approaches to reality, the series progressively develops a relational account of existence centered upon becoming, coherence, embodiment, persistence, and participation.
The series ultimately gave rise to the ontological framework originally termed Embodied Process Realism (EPR) and subsequently refined as Embodied Relational Reality (ERR), in which relation is understood as the ontological primitive while process describes the dynamism of relational becoming.
The Reality & Cosmology Series emerged from a broader effort to investigate the relationship between science, philosophy, theology, history, and contemporary understandings of reality.
While influenced by the process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead, the series also engages questions arising from complexity theory, emergence studies, consciousness research, cosmology, systems theory, and contemporary metaphysics. Throughout the project, reality is approached as an open and evolving field of relational becoming rather than as a fixed collection of isolated substances.
A central question repeatedly appears throughout the series:
What must reality be like for anything to exist, relate, persist, become meaningful, and matter?
Rather than beginning with theological or metaphysical assumptions, the project proceeds through a sustained ontological inquiry into the structures and patterns underlying existence itself.
This methodological commitment is summarized by one of the recurring principles of the series:
Before meaning comes being; and before interpretation comes reality.
The Reality & Cosmology Series is organized as a progressive investigation into reality beginning with ontology and extending through cosmology, consciousness, culture, ethics, religion, and participation, while ultimately opening toward metaphysics.
The project is structured around the methodological principle that:
Ontology precedes metaphysics; metaphysics orients interpretation; and within interpretation, theology emerges.
Accordingly, the series first asks what reality is before asking what reality means.
Ontological Foundations
The opening essays investigate the fundamental structures of existence through discussions of:
- relation
- coherence
- embodiment
- persistence
- emergence
- identity
- value
- meaning
- directionality
- participation
These studies establish the ontological foundations upon which later sections are built.
Narrative Ontology
Several companion essays employ narrative structures as vehicles for exploring ontological themes.
Most notable among these are the Jonah essays, which examine rupture, descent, transformation, and reconciliation as recurring patterns within becoming. These narrative studies function as illustrative companions to the broader ontological investigations developed elsewhere in the series.
Boundary and Horizon Essays
A number of transitional essays explore the limits of explanation and the horizons of inquiry.
Topics include:
- dimensionality
- hidden structures of reality
- Q-Box theory
- hyperdecoherence
- explanatory limits
- cosmological openness
- scientific uncertainty
These studies explore the boundaries of ontological explanation while opening toward questions later pursued more fully through metaphysical inquiry.
Cosmology and Consciousness
Later sections investigate:
- consciousness
- participation
- emergence
- artificial intelligence
- complexity
- cosmological evolution
- relational time
- open futures
Particular attention is given to the relationship between local forms of experience and larger cosmic processes.
Religion, History, and Reconstruction
Several studies examine religious development, biblical history, manuscript traditions, and Christianity's evolving search for God.
These essays approach sacred texts historically while exploring their significance within broader cultural and philosophical contexts. The project frequently emphasizes the dynamic interaction between religious traditions and changing understandings of reality, while resisting the imposition of theological conclusions upon the prior ontological inquiry.
Metaphysical Development
The later portions of the series increasingly approach the boundary between ontology and metaphysics, raising questions concerning:
- becoming
- continuity
- possibility
- participation
- teleology
- coherence
- cosmological directionality
These investigations eventually opened into the companion Reality & Metaphysics Series, where such questions are pursued through the Open and Relational Process Metaphysics of Becoming (ORPMOB). Together, the ontological investigations of ERR and the metaphysical investigations of ORPMOB contribute to the emergence of Generative Relational Realism (GRR), the broader philosophical synthesis developed across both inquiries.
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Ontology
The primary focus of the series is ontology, understood as the philosophical study of what is real.
Throughout the project, ontology functions as the foundation upon which later metaphysical and interpretive inquiries are constructed, including theological interpretation.
Reality as Relational
One of the central claims of the series is that reality is fundamentally relational rather than atomistic.
Objects, organisms, persons, cultures, ecosystems, and societies are interpreted as emerging from dynamic networks of relation rather than existing as isolated entities.
Coherence and Embodiment
A recurring theme concerns the relationship between coherence and embodiment.
The project argues that coherence becomes effective within reality through embodied forms capable of sustaining continuity across time.
This emphasis became one of the defining characteristics of the original Embodied Process Realism and remains essential within its subsequent development as Embodied Relational Reality.
Continuity and Becoming
The series repeatedly examines how patterns persist through change and how continuity emerges within an evolving universe.
Rather than treating permanence and becoming as opposites, the project explores persistence as an achievement of ongoing relational processes.
Directionality Without Determinism
The project proposes that reality exhibits recurring tendencies toward increasing coherence, participation, organization, and complexity without requiring predetermined outcomes.
This position has been described as an account of open or participatory directionality.
Consciousness and Participation
Consciousness is explored as an emergent dimension of increasingly complex relational organization through which embodied forms of interiority, experience, awareness, and participation become possible.
Participation functions as a key category linking agency, responsibility, creativity, and future possibility.
Open Futures
The series rejects both deterministic closure and radical indeterminacy.
Instead, reality is portrayed as possessing structured openness - a universe characterized by genuine possibilities, evolving trajectories, and unfinished futures.
Cosmology and Civilization
The later essays extend ontological questions into discussions of:
- ethics
- democracy
- ecology
- technology
- religion
- culture
- artificial intelligence
- future civilization
These studies investigate how ontological assumptions shape social and cultural development.
As the Reality & Cosmology Series progressed, recurring themes concerning relation, coherence, embodiment, persistence, identity, meaning, and participation gradually coalesced into a broader ontological framework.
These developments were eventually summarized in A Manifesto of Embodied Relational Reality (2026), originally formulated through the language of Embodied Process Realism (EPR) and subsequently refined as Embodied Relational Reality (ERR). The manifesto distilled many of the central insights of the series into a concise ontological statement.
One of the defining conceptual sequences emerging from the project is:
Relation → Coherence → Embodiment → Persistence → Identity → Value and Meaning → Direction → Possibility → Participation
The Reality & Cosmology Series served as the foundation for several subsequent developments, including:
- Embodied Relational Reality (ERR), originally developed as Embodied Process Realism (EPR)
- Open and Relational Process Metaphysics of Becoming (ORPMOB)
- Generative Relational Realism (GRR)
- post-Whiteheadian philosophical investigations
- consciousness, interiority, and participation studies
- cosmological and metaphysical inquiry
- process-relational approaches to interpretation, religion, ethics, and culture
The series continues to function as the ontological foundation and reference framework for ongoing explorations of metaphysics, cosmology, consciousness, interpretation, ethics, participation, and civilization.
The Reality & Cosmology Series represents one of the largest philosophical projects undertaken by R. E. Slater. Through its progression from ontology through cosmology, consciousness, and cultural inquiry, while ultimately opening toward metaphysics, the series develops a sustained ontological account of reality grounded in relation, coherence, embodiment, persistence, and participation.
Although the project remains open to revision and further development, it established the conceptual foundations from which Embodied Relational Reality emerged and upon which the subsequent metaphysical investigations of ORPMOB and the broader philosophical synthesis of GRR continue to develop.
Like the reality it seeks to understand, the series presents itself not as a completed system, but as an ongoing inquiry into the nature of existence, becoming, and possibility.
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