Relationality: A Living Philosophy for our Times
Jul Bystrova Free
Welcome, and thanks for visiting!
This is the site for my work on "Relationality" or also known as "Relationalism". Since 1995, I have been developing this philosophical model for facilitating a dialogue between science and religion, as well as a language that might help articulate how we understand the fundamental nature of our world.
Relationality is a principle at work that is simple, elegant and natural. It is the soup we swim in, so to speak--so it is challenging to 'get at'. But our current thinking and language tends to favor a duality that we need to find ways to grow out of. We need a new language that negotiates this duality and describes the world in ways that are helpful to our rational thinking and to our experience as whole human beings.
A relational perspective helps us to talk about the world in terms of the dynamics and processes of relational events. Relationality is a philosophy that offers a vision of how the world works through the dynamic of life, matter and forces relating to each other. It borrows from process philosophy, the physical sciences, subjective experience, psychology, biological sciences, field theories, systems thinking and much more.
Relationality is an attempt to explain the cosmos and the nature of reality in all its aspects, in terms of relationships.
This is the site for my work on "Relationality" or also known as "Relationalism". Since 1995, I have been developing this philosophical model for facilitating a dialogue between science and religion, as well as a language that might help articulate how we understand the fundamental nature of our world.
Relationality is a principle at work that is simple, elegant and natural. It is the soup we swim in, so to speak--so it is challenging to 'get at'. But our current thinking and language tends to favor a duality that we need to find ways to grow out of. We need a new language that negotiates this duality and describes the world in ways that are helpful to our rational thinking and to our experience as whole human beings.
A relational perspective helps us to talk about the world in terms of the dynamics and processes of relational events. Relationality is a philosophy that offers a vision of how the world works through the dynamic of life, matter and forces relating to each other. It borrows from process philosophy, the physical sciences, subjective experience, psychology, biological sciences, field theories, systems thinking and much more.
Relationality is an attempt to explain the cosmos and the nature of reality in all its aspects, in terms of relationships.
Relationality: A Living Philosophy for our Times”
BOOK ABSTRACT
by Jul Bystrova
The ‘big picture’ questions about the nature of the world and the cosmos have been engaging humans throughout history. The disciplines of science and philosophy, as well as the faith-oriented pictures within religious models, have all attempted to explain what the universe is and our place in it. However, because each of these models comes from their respective angles, they leave many more questions than answers and lack valuable insight contained outside their scope.
The state of the world today, both in its potential perils and advances, is calling for an understanding that can weave together the disparate parts of the human experience. We need to know the ground on which we stand and that which connects us all, and embrace the mystery of what we cannot know as well. We need a bigger story than any one perspective can give us. But we need to build this story with what we can confidently know to be true.
This philosophy offers what I believe is essential building material for this story, ‘the principle within everything’. This principle must be at work in all the aspects of life and the cosmos; it must be able to include an understanding of the quantum world as well as force, matter, motion, space, time, evolution, life, consciousness, and more. We are whole beings, living in a whole, interconnected world. It seems reasonable to assume that the best picture of the “whole reality” must take into account not only the different subject areas of knowledge, but also the subjective ways of knowing, that go beyond what can be adequately, or analytically, described, as well.
I suspect that the scope of this agenda is ultimately too large, too broad, to be fully grasped in any conclusive way; there will always be a fundamental mystery in our models of the whole picture. Resting on the works of such thinkers as Immanual Kant and Kurt Godel, we cannot ‘think the whole’ from within the whole, nor can rationality alone grasp the entirety, even when talking about 'relationality'. However, we can construct an inclusive, holistic model that points in the most likely direction of the way this world, this reality, really is constructed. That is what I intend to offer in the Relational Model, the feature of this work.
To get closer to ascertaining this overarching view, it makes sense that the model must somehow be approachable by a great variety of ways of understanding our world. The method and information used must belong to no single discipline, but be truly interdisciplinary, in fact--transdisciplinary. While staying compatible with science as well as our spiritual sensibilities, this perspective must ultimately transcend all of the disciplines, This approach offers an integrated picture of the world and the nature of reality, as it strives to be coherent with the collective understandings of human knowledge and the human subjective, relational experience.
My hypothesis is this: that to build a big picture view, I must first find that which is true for all subjects which offer their ideas on what we think, know, believe and/or experience about the world. Then, using this common idea, construct a working model for the principle that “runs the show” for all of life and the cosmos. To do this task, I take a look at some of the more significant contributions in science, the humanities, religion and the arts. I selected some of the more prominent theories and ideas, laws, beliefs and so forth, drawing from many notable and well established thinkers. I also have entered into dialogue with some more recent thought leaders.
From these conversations and and analysis, I distill these ideas down into their most principle components in order to look for a common denominator, particularly the natural sciences and some of the theories and discoveries that have prompted the most intense philosophical discussion, such as quantum mechanics, electromagnetism, complexity, biological and evolutionary systems, ideas on the nature of consciousness and the nature of the subjective and objective world. I also draw from ideas and concepts in philosophy and religion in order to add to a language of a simple underlying principle across these subjects. In addition, I intend to include the subjective aspect by offering the audience of this paper a guided exercise that will bring this more fully into their awareness.
Stay tuned for a link here to the book. Meanwhile if you would like to read more, please email me at julbystrova@gmail.com