I. Why Process?
II. From Substance to Relation
III. Recovering Becoming
IV. Why Relation Matters
V. Emergence, Embodiment, and the Creativity of Reality
Bibliography
Taken individually, these traditions often appear to compete with one another. Some emphasize substance, others relation; some permanence, others change; some consciousness, others matter; some reason, others experience. Yet viewed together, another possibility begins to emerge. Beneath their many differences, certain themes recur with remarkable persistence. Relation, emergence, interdependence, creativity, process, and participation increasingly appear - not as isolated ideas - but as recurring attempts to understand the same reality from different philosophical horizons.
This observation does not establish a new metaphysical system, nor does it diminish the enduring contributions of earlier philosophies. Rather, it invites a different question. Instead of asking which philosophical system ought to prevail, we may ask whether the recurring patterns appearing across many contemporary conversations point toward a more comprehensive understanding of reality itself.
The purpose of this essay is therefore not to defend process-relational philosophy simply because it is one philosophical option among many. Rather, it asks why process and relational metaphysics have re-emerged with renewed significance in contemporary thought. What questions do they answer particularly well? What limitations of classical substance metaphysics do they seek to address? Why have ideas once considered peripheral increasingly become central to discussions concerning emergence, ecology, consciousness, complexity, and the nature of existence itself?
These questions guide the essays that follow. Our purpose remains what it has always been throughout this series: not to persuade reality to conform to our philosophical preferences, but to allow our philosophical understanding to correspond as faithfully as possible to the reality we all inhabit.
Every age has sought the foundations of reality.Ours increasingly discovers that those foundations may themselves be relational.- R. E. Slater
Yet the previous essays have revealed something remarkable.
Across many of today's philosophical conversations - whether concerning emergence, consciousness, ecology, systems thinking, information, or relational ontology - a different emphasis has begun to appear. Independent thinkers, often working from very different assumptions and pursuing very different questions, repeatedly return to the language of relation, development, interdependence, and becoming. Although they do not always describe themselves as process philosophers, many nevertheless find themselves asking questions that process-relational philosophy has long considered central.
This convergence deserves careful attention. It does not prove that process metaphysics is correct, nor does it invalidate the substantial contributions of earlier philosophical traditions. It does, however, suggest that reality itself may be inviting philosophers to reconsider assumptions that have guided metaphysical reflection for centuries. If so, then process philosophy deserves renewed consideration - not because it is new, but because it appears capable of integrating insights that increasingly emerge across otherwise diverse fields of inquiry.
The question before us is therefore not whether everything changes. Few contemporary philosophers would deny that reality exhibits continual transformation. The deeper question is whether change belongs merely to the appearance of reality, or whether becoming itself belongs to reality's deepest nature.
That question marks a significant turning point in the history of metaphysics.
For if reality is fundamentally relational, if novelty genuinely emerges, if identities persist through ongoing interaction rather than isolated independence, then metaphysics itself must learn to speak a different language. It must explain not only what things are, but how they continually become what they are.
It is this possibility that process philosophy places before us.
The question is whether change itself belongs to the very nature of reality.
- R.E. Slater
Yet the contemporary conversation increasingly suggests that another question deserves equal attention. Rather than asking only What endures?, philosophers increasingly ask How does enduring reality come to be?
This shift subtly transforms the metaphysical landscape. Substance is no longer viewed simply as the starting point of philosophical explanation. Increasingly, it is understood as something that itself requires explanation. Stable identities, enduring organisms, coherent ecosystems, social institutions, and even galaxies appear not as isolated givens but as relatively enduring achievements arising through countless ongoing relationships.
A process-relational metaphysics therefore begins from a different intuition. Rather than treating relation as something that exists between independently complete entities, it asks whether relation itself belongs to the very constitution of reality. If so, becoming is no longer merely the movement of already existing things. Becoming becomes the continual emergence of reality through relational participatory interaction itself.
One way of expressing this intuition is through a simple metaphysical progression:
- Relations give rise to becoming (the process)
- Becoming gradually stabilizes into enduring embodiments (the activity)
- Those embodiments enter new relationships, giving rise to further becoming (the achievement)
Reality therefore appears neither as a collection of isolated substances nor as perpetual, undifferentiated flux. Rather, relatively stable identities emerge through ongoing relational processes whose temporary achievements become the starting point for further transformation.
Within this understanding, being and becoming no longer stand opposed to one another. Being may instead be understood as the enduring embodiment of successful becoming, while becoming continually renews the relations through which new forms of existence emerge. Stability and change cease to be philosophical rivals. They become complementary dimensions of one continuously unfolding reality.
This perspective does not reject the substantial insights of Plato or Aristotle. Rather, it seeks to reinterpret them within a broader metaphysical horizon. Substance remains indispensable for describing persistence, identity, and continuity. A process-relational metaphysics simply asks whether these enduring realities themselves emerge through deeper patterns of relational becoming.
If this possibility proves persuasive, then relation is no longer a secondary characteristic of independently existing things. It becomes one of the primary conditions through which reality continually constitutes itself.
Every age has sought the foundations of reality.Ours increasingly discovers that those foundations may themselves be relational.- R. E. Slater
Yet this telling of philosophical history is only part of the story.
The question of becoming never disappeared. It remained present, sometimes quietly, sometimes forcefully, whenever philosophers sought to explain life, growth, novelty, creativity, history, evolution, and transformation. Heraclitus' insight that reality is characterized by continual change never ceased challenging metaphysics to account not only for permanence but also for emergence.
The modern revival of process-relational thought should therefore not be understood as an abrupt departure from the Western tradition. It is better understood as the recovery of a conversation that had long remained in the background. Rather than rejecting classical metaphysics, contemporary process-relational philosophy asks whether becoming deserves a more foundational place alongside being in our understanding of reality.
Alfred North Whitehead gave this recovery its most comprehensive philosophical expression. Rather than beginning with enduring substances, Whitehead proposed that reality is fundamentally composed of events, occasions, and ongoing processes of creative becoming. Stability, on this view, is not denied. It is explained. Enduring objects, organisms, and persons become relatively stable achievements arising from continuous relational activity rather than permanently self-contained substances.
Since Whitehead, process philosophy has continued to develop through thinkers such as Charles Hartshorne, John B. Cobb Jr., David Ray Griffin, and Nicholas Rescher. Yet contemporary process-relational metaphysics has also been enriched by conversations extending well beyond the classical process tradition. Developments in emergence theory, ecological philosophy, systems thinking, relational ontology, and complexity studies have all reinforced the intuition that reality may be better understood through patterns of dynamic relation than through static independence alone.
For this reason, process-relational metaphysics should not be viewed merely as one philosophical school among many. It increasingly functions as a meeting place where several independent philosophical conversations converge. What began as a recovery of becoming through Whitehead has gradually expanded into a broader investigation of relation, emergence, embodiment, participation, and the ongoing creativity of reality itself.
This does not mean that the classical Greek questions concerning substance, identity, or permanence have been abandoned. On the contrary, they remain indispensable. The difference lies in how they are interpreted. Rather than treating permanence as metaphysically primary, process-relational philosophy increasingly understands enduring realities as relatively stable embodiments emerging through continuing relational becoming.
In this way, the older philosophical polarity between being and becoming begins to soften. Instead of opposing one another, they become mutually illuminating. Being speaks of persistence. Becoming speaks of generation. Relation discloses the dynamic through which both are continually held together.
Nothing exists entirely by itself.
Everything becomes through relation.- R. E. Slater
This insight has become increasingly significant across contemporary philosophy. Organisms develop within ecological communities. Persons mature within families, cultures, and histories. Languages arise through shared human experience. Scientific knowledge advances through collaborative inquiry. Even the physical universe is increasingly described through interacting fields, systems, and networks rather than isolated objects existing independently of one another.
A process-relational metaphysics therefore proposes that relation is not merely something added to already complete entities. Rather, relation belongs to the very conditions through which entities become what they are. Identity is not erased by relation; it is constituted through relation. Independence remains possible, but only as a relative achievement emerging within larger patterns of mutual dependence.
This perspective helps explain why contemporary discussions increasingly emphasize emergence, complexity, embodiment, ecology, and participation. Each of these approaches recognizes that wholes frequently exhibit properties that cannot be adequately explained by examining isolated components alone. Novelty appears through interaction. Order develops through cooperation. Stability emerges through dynamic equilibrium. Reality continually demonstrates that relationship is often more explanatory than isolation.
This does not imply that relation dissolves individuality. On the contrary, relations make individuality possible. Every organism possesses its own integrity precisely because it participates within larger relational systems that sustain its existence. Individuality and community therefore become complementary rather than contradictory. Each continually gives meaning to the other.
One of the most significant consequences of this perspective concerns the nature of identity itself. Classical metaphysics often understood identity as something possessed. A process-relational metaphysics increasingly understands identity as something achieved. Every enduring reality embodies a history of successful relationships that have gradually stabilized into coherent forms. Identity therefore becomes less a static possession than an ongoing accomplishment continually renewed through participation in the larger realities from which it arises.
Seen in this light, relation is no longer simply one characteristic among many. It becomes one of the primary conditions through which becoming generates embodiment, embodiment sustains identity, and identity enters new relationships that give rise to further becoming. Reality reveals itself not as an aggregation of isolated parts but as an ever-deepening community of relational participation.
Being is the enduring achievement of becoming.
- R. E. Slater
Reality not only becomes - it continually enlarges the possibilities of becoming.
- R.E. Slater
This is the philosophical significance of emergence.
Emergence proposes that reality possesses an inherent capacity to generate forms of organization that cannot be fully explained by examining their individual components in isolation. New possibilities arise through relationship itself. Complexity gives rise to coherence. Coherence gradually stabilizes into embodied forms. Embodiment, in turn, becomes the starting point for further participation in an ever-expanding web of relations.
This perspective helps explain why reality repeatedly exhibits creativity without requiring arbitrary interruption. Galaxies form. Stars ignite. Planets develop. Life emerges. Consciousness awakens. Cultures evolve. Moral communities arise. At every level, enduring structures appear not as static givens but as relatively stable achievements arising through ongoing processes of relational organization. Each achievement, in turn, becomes the condition for further achievements. Reality does not simply continue; it continually enlarges the possibilities of its own becoming.
Within this understanding, embodiment becomes one of the central categories of metaphysical reflection. Reality does not remain an abstract flow of becoming. Becoming continually seeks embodiment. Every organism, ecosystem, culture, institution, and person represents a temporary but genuine achievement through which relational activity acquires coherent form.
Embodiment should therefore not be understood as the termination of becoming. Rather, embodiment provides becoming with continuity. Stable identities endure because relational patterns continue to sustain them. When those relationships change, embodiments also transform, giving rise to new possibilities of becoming. Reality continually renews itself through this rhythm of emergence, embodiment, and participation.
One may therefore summarize the process-relational movement of reality in a simple progression:
Relation → Becoming → Embodiment → Participation
- Relation generates becoming.
- Becoming achieves embodiment.
- Embodiment enters participation.
- Participation generates new relations.
Reality unfolds not through repetition but through an ever-deepening spiral of creative development in which each embodiment enriches the field of future relations, and each new relation opens further possibilities for becoming.
There are many examples here but the one which comes to mind almost immediately is Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES). Where classical Neo-Darwinism asked, "How do organisms change?" EES ask, "How do developmental systems, organisms, environments, behaviors, cultures, and inherited relationships co-generate evolutionary novelty?" That is profoundly process-relational which is seen in its elementary grammar: interaction, niche construction, developmental plasticity, epigenetics, reciprocal causation, ecological inheritance, systems, emergence. These are all relational concepts.
Seen from this perspective, creativity is no longer an occasional feature of the universe. It belongs to the very manner in which reality continually constitutes itself. Reality not only becomes; it continually generates new possibilities for becoming. Every successful embodiment enlarges the horizon from which future embodiments may emerge.
This understanding neither dissolves permanence into perpetual change nor freezes becoming into static being. Instead, it recognizes reality as an open process-relational movement in which persistence and transformation continually sustain one another.
Every philosophy eventually becomes a way of living.
- R. E. Slater
An open relational process metaphysics begins not with isolated substances but with reality understood as fundamentally relational, dynamic, and participatory. Rather than assuming that permanence alone defines what is ultimately real, it asks how enduring realities continually arise through ongoing patterns of relation, becoming, and embodiment.
This openness should not be confused with uncertainty or philosophical relativism. Reality itself remains the measure of every metaphysical proposal. Openness simply acknowledges that our understanding of reality remains continually subject to refinement as philosophical reflection, scientific discovery, historical experience, and human understanding continue to develop. A metaphysics that seeks correspondence with reality must therefore remain capable of learning from reality.
For this reason, an open relational process metaphysics understands truth not as a possession secured once and for all but as an ongoing correspondence between human understanding and the reality we inhabit. Philosophical systems remain indispensable, yet none should become immune from revision when reality itself discloses new dimensions of understanding.
This posture also helps explain why so many contemporary conversations appear increasingly relational in their explanatory grammar. Whether in ecology, systems theory, complexity studies, information philosophy, relational ontology, or developments such as the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis, independent fields increasingly describe reality through interaction, emergence, reciprocal influence, and dynamic organization rather than isolated mechanisms alone. Although these disciplines do not thereby become metaphysics, they nevertheless illustrate a broader intellectual movement toward relational modes of explanation.
Such observations do not establish an open relational process metaphysics as the final philosophical word. They do, however, suggest that reality may be inviting a broader metaphysical vocabulary than earlier substance-centered paradigms could easily provide.
Several recurring themes now appear with increasing frequency throughout contemporary philosophical reflection:
- relation before isolation,
- becoming alongside being,
- embodiment rather than abstraction,
- emergence rather than reduction,
- participation rather than detachment,
- creativity rather than determinism,
- openness rather than closure.
These themes do not constitute a finished philosophical system. They represent recurring patterns that increasingly appear across contemporary metaphysical reflection. Together they suggest a vision of reality that is less mechanical than organic, less static than dynamic, less fragmented than relational, and less closed than continuously unfolding.
An open relational process metaphysics therefore does not seek to replace the great philosophical traditions that preceded it. Rather, it seeks to gather their enduring insights into a broader conversation. Plato's concern for enduring reality, Aristotle's concern for intelligible order, the medieval search for coherence, the modern emphasis upon reason, the existential concern for lived existence, the hermeneutical concern for interpretation, the ecological concern for interdependence, and contemporary investigations into emergence, consciousness, complexity, and information each illuminate genuine dimensions of the same reality.
The question is therefore no longer whether one philosophical tradition should triumph over another. Increasingly, the question becomes whether reality itself invites a more comprehensive metaphysical grammar capable of holding these insights together without diminishing their distinctive contributions.
An open relational process metaphysics does not claim to have completed that task. It simply accepts the invitation to continue it.
Reality does not ask us to defend our philosophies.It asks whether our philosophies correspond to reality.
- R. E. Slater
The journey we have traced throughout these essays suggests that contemporary metaphysics is undergoing precisely such a period of renewal. Independent philosophical conversations increasingly converge upon themes of relation, becoming, emergence, embodiment, participation, and openness. They do not always arrive at identical conclusions, nor should they be expected to. Yet together they suggest that reality may be more profoundly relational, dynamic, and generative than many earlier metaphysical systems could fully explain.
An open relational process metaphysics emerges from this wider conversation rather than standing apart from it. It does not seek to replace the enduring wisdom of earlier traditions, but to gather their lasting insights into a broader and more coherent understanding of reality. In doing so, it remains committed to a principle that has guided this series from its beginning: philosophy exists not to preserve its own systems, but continually to refine them in response to reality itself.
The essays that follow therefore move beyond the question of why a process-relational understanding has become increasingly compelling. They begin asking what such a metaphysics might disclose about the nature of existence, identity, consciousness, freedom, value, culture, religion, and the future of human participation within an unfinished universe.
For if reality is fundamentally relational, then philosophy can no longer remain merely descriptive.
It must also become participatory.
Every metaphysic eventually becomes a way of inhabiting the world.
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Relational Ontology and Contemporary Metaphysics
Ferraris, Maurizio. Manifesto of New Realism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2014.
Gabriel, Markus. Why the World Does Not Exist. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2015.
McDaniel, Kris. The Fragmentation of Being. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.
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Emergence, Systems, and Complexity
Capra, Fritjof. The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems. New York: Anchor Books, 1997.
Capra, Fritjof, and Pier Luigi Luisi. The Systems View of Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Holland, John H. Emergence: From Chaos to Order. Reading, MA: Perseus Books, 1998.
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Evolution and Emergence
Jablonka, Eva, and Marion J. Lamb. Evolution in Four Dimensions. 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2014.
Laland, Kevin N. Darwin's Unfinished Symphony: How Culture Made the Human Mind. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2017.
Laland, Kevin N., Tobias Uller, Marcus W. Feldman, Kim Sterelny, Gerd B. Müller, Armin Moczek, Eva Jablonka, and John Odling-Smee. "The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis: Its Structure, Assumptions and Predictions." Proceedings of the Royal Society B 282, no. 1813 (2015).
Noble, Denis. Dance to the Tune of Life: Biological Relativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016.
Pigliucci, Massimo. Evolution: The Extended Synthesis. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010.
Consciousness and Participation
Chalmers, David J. The Conscious Mind. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Goff, Philip. Galileo's Error. New York: Pantheon Books, 2019.
Kastrup, Bernardo. The Idea of the World. Winchester, UK: Iff Books, 2019.
Nagel, Thomas. Mind and Cosmos. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
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