Relational Monism as a Further Approximation of Self‑Becoming Consciousness
1. Introduction
Relational monism is not a closed doctrine, nor a final answer to the question of what reality is. It is a further approximation — a moment within an endless process in which consciousness seeks to understand the conditions of its own emergence. Every philosophical theory, regardless of its period, style or conceptual framework, is such an approximation: a configuration shaped by the historical, social and individual horizon in which it appears.
Consciousness is not a fixed entity. It is a process of self‑becoming, a continuous movement through which human beings attempt to grasp themselves, the world, and the relations that constitute them. Relational monism enters this movement not as a dogma, but as an open proposal — one that acknowledges its own provisional nature and its dependence on context.
2. Philosophy as a Sequence of Approximations
Every philosophical theory is legitimate precisely because it is an authentic response of consciousness to its current horizon of experience.
What emerges at a given moment is conditioned by:
- the individual — biography, sensibility, intellectual disposition,
- the social — language, culture, institutions, conflicts,
- the historical — the epoch, its tensions, its questions.
Philosophy is not a linear march towards truth. It is a succession of configurations, each revealing a different aspect of the same relational field. A doctrine is “true” in the sense that it expresses consciousness at a particular stage of its unfolding.
3. Relational Monism as a Stage in an Infinite Process
Relational monism does not negate earlier systems. Instead, it treats them as necessary predecessors that made this new approximation possible.
In this sense:
- dualisms attempted to grasp tension,
- substantial monisms attempted to grasp unity,
- phenomenology attempted to grasp experience,
- hermeneutics attempted to grasp meaning,
- dialogical philosophies attempted to grasp relation.
Relational monism is a synthesis and a surpassing of these movements. It proposes that reality is neither substance, nor a collection of things, nor pure experience, but a relational structure in which everything exists through everything else.
4. Consciousness as Self‑Becoming
Consciousness is not an observer standing outside the world. It is a participant within the relational field.
Its development consists in:
- deepening its capacity to perceive relations,
- recognising its own conditions and limitations,
- transcending earlier models,
- forming new configurations of meaning.
Every philosophical theory is therefore a moment in the self‑becoming of consciousness. It is not an error — it is a stage. It is not an absolute — it is an approximation. It is not a dogma — it is a proposal.
5. Why Relational Monism Matters Now
Our contemporary world is saturated with relations: technological, informational, social, symbolic. Older models — substantial, atomistic, individualistic — can no longer adequately describe this density.
Relational monism responds to the present moment because it:
- sees the subject as a relational node,
- sees reality as a field of tensions,
- sees morality as the quality of relations,
- sees meaning as an emergent configuration,
- sees freedom as the capacity to shape the field without violence.
It is not a “new metaphysics”, but a new vantage point from which the perennial questions of philosophy can be re‑examined.
6. Conclusion
Relational monism is not the final word of philosophy. It is a further step in the infinite process through which consciousness seeks to understand itself by understanding the relations that bring it into being.
Every theory is valid as a stage — and relational monism is valid as a contemporary stage, responding to the tensions and needs of our epoch.