Relational Causality: From Quantum Connectivity to Agency

Causality—the principle that causes precede effects—underpins much of classical physics and everyday reasoning. Yet, quantum phenomena challenge the simplicity of linear cause-effect chains. Nonlocal correlations, entanglement, and the fluidity of quantum time and space call for a re-examination of what it means for one event to cause another.

Building on our relational understanding of quantum time and space, this post reframes causality as a fundamentally relational process emerging from networks of constraint, coherence, and actualisation.

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1. The Limits of Classical Causality

Classical causality assumes:

• Well-defined, localised events occurring in a fixed spacetime,

• A linear temporal ordering with a clear “before” and “after”,

• Independent entities transmitting influences through contiguous spacetime regions.

Quantum mechanics complicates these assumptions:

• Events may be temporally diffuse or indeterminate,

• Correlations appear instantaneously across space-like separations,

• Entities lack fixed individuality apart from relational context.

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2. Causality as Relational Constraint and Actualisation

From a relational perspective:

• Causality is not a transmission from one isolated entity to another but a pattern of constraints shaping possible actualisations within the whole system,

• Causes and effects are co-constituted within relational fields, inseparable and interdependent,

• The network of relations is primary; causal relations are emergent features of relational dynamics.

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3. Quantum Nonlocality and Causal Structure

Entanglement and nonlocal correlations show:

• Causal relations may extend beyond classical spatial separations,

• What appear as “instantaneous” influences reflect the holistic nature of relational coherence rather than signal transmission,

• Classical locality is an emergent approximation, not fundamental to causality at the quantum level.

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4. Agency in a Relational Universe

Rethinking causality impacts notions of agency:

• Agency is distributed across relational networks, not confined to discrete, autonomous actors,

• Action and reaction emerge from mutual actualisations within systemic constraints,

• Causal influence becomes a matter of shaping relational potentials, not unilateral effect.

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5. Implications and Outlook

Viewing causality relationally:

• Offers a conceptual framework to integrate quantum and relativistic insights,

• Challenges reductionist, mechanistic models in favor of processual, systemic ones,

• Provides fertile ground for rethinking responsibility, influence, and emergence in physics and philosophy.

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Closing

Relational causality dissolves the classical chain into a web of mutual actualisations embedded in quantum space-time’s dynamic fabric. Cause and effect are not isolated points but patterns of becoming within an interconnected whole.

Our next post will delve into the question of measurement and observation—how relational ontology reshapes the role of the observer in quantum physics.