Quantum physics, however, disrupts this picture. Measurement outcomes depend on the interaction between system and observer, and agency appears entangled with observation in a fundamental way.
A relational ontology recasts agency and observation as co-constitutive processes within a field of relational potential, dissolving the observer-system divide.
1. Traditional Assumptions About Observation and Agency
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Observers are distinct from observed systems,
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Agency acts upon systems from outside,
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Observations reveal pre-existing states.
2. Quantum Challenges to the Observer-Observed Divide
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Measurement outcomes depend on experimental arrangement,
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The observer effect highlights participatory reality,
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The “collapse” seems to require an agent.
3. Relational View: Agency as Systemic Participation
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Agency is not an external force but a pattern of relational actualisation within the system,
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Observation is a construal event — a local stabilisation of potential,
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Observers and systems co-arise as nodes in the relational field.
4. Implications for Scientific Practice and Philosophy
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Science becomes a participatory activity embedded in relational contexts,
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Knowledge is a co-creation between observer and observed,
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This dissolves dualisms that cause paradox and confusion.
Closing
Agency and observation are not spectatorship or external intervention. They are expressions of relational construal, central to the unfolding reality.
In the next post, we will examine how this relational approach redefines objectivity and reality in physics.
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