A Relational Cosmos: Lessons from an Empty Classroom

by Theodore Richards

What is the world made of? 

This is the sort of question we don’t often ask; for it seems so obvious, so commonsensical. It’s made, of course, of people, places, things. Stuff. Each being or object, from planets to atoms, discrete. We might bump into one another, affect one another, even transform or love one another, but it is a collection of individual things that make the whole, the cosmos. 

What’s commonly called common sense is often the product of a worldview or cosmology. To human beings, the narratives that define our world culturally are like water to the fish—a background, a context, that is scarcely even noticed. Assuming this context without having to think about it helps us get by—the fish doesn’t need to expend energy contemplating the water; humans are better able to get through their day without contemplating the nature of the Universe—but cultural assumptions can also get in the way of seeing things as they are.

And so, the notion that our world consists of things, and t…