ontology of the between

Compiled with AI assistance and selectively reviewed. Please consult the cited passages; the books remain the authoritative source. About this companion

Editorial synthesis · provisional

Definition

An ontology of the between treats relation as part of the process through which beings become determinate, rather than empty space connecting already completed entities. RB2 develops this through interdependence, Buber and Haraway while retaining distinct participants. The proposal preserves constitutive relation without making terms unreal, dissolving every boundary or deriving the goodness of a relation merely from its existence.

Explanation

The between is the site where beings become articulate, not an additional substance inserted among otherwise self-sufficient objects. Buber’s originary-relation formulation and Haraway’s encounter account remain attributed contributions. Their comparison does not erase differences among those thinkers or make every relation operate through one identical mechanism.

RB2’s inversion makes apparently discrete entities local coherences stabilized through recurrent relations. The mesh image preserves difference while denying isolation, and its native note explicitly adopts Morton’s image without his object-oriented commitments. The proposal retains that selective borrowing rather than importing an entire outside ontology.

Haraway’s normative filter blocks the inference that relation is good simply because it is basic. Histories and asymmetries can enable flourishing or sustain extraction. The entry therefore treats relational formation as an ontological claim that still requires ethical discrimination, rather than a self-sufficient justification of every network or established dependency.

Scope and attribution

Keep Buber, Haraway and selective Morton borrowing attributed.

AB — The Actual Book

Source-verified occurrence; see the printed-page references below.

Occurrence locators: 124; Thinker register: 227; Notes: 243.

RB2 — The Real Book, Volume II: Becoming Is Being

Constitutive between preserves distinction, selective attribution and normative discrimination.

Occurrence locators: 193, 194, 196, 199, 207; Notes: 196.

RB3 — The Real Book, Volume III: Murmurations

Source-verified occurrence; see the printed-page references below.

Occurrence locators: 331.

Background used in the editorial explanation

Morton’s mesh is expressly borrowed without adopting his object-oriented commitments; Buber and Haraway remain attributed.