The Architecture of Relational Materialism: A Categorial Formation of Onto-Epistemological Premises

This study formulates the basic premises of materialism, which has largely lost its visibil- ity despite being one of the fundamental philosophical approaches that have been effec- tive in the development of modern scientific practice and the construction of philosophy of science, in an alternative way, and aims to develop a new materialist interpretation of it that is non-reductive, pluralistic and open to the use of more than one scientific discipline. This interpretation, expressed with the term relational materialism, first addresses matter with the concept of signifier and foregrounds the concept of beable as the general philo- sophical category of matter. Secondly, it formulates the category of beable within the irre- ducible integrity of the categories of relationality, nonstaticity, and finitude; and positions knownability in terms of its correspondence to these general onto-epistemological catego- ries. Thirdly, it clarifies the conditions of existence and knownability of particular entities under general categories based on specially corresponding onto-epistemological categories (interactability, structurability, contextuality, transformability, scale-dependency, actuality, contingency). In this respect, this study offers a pluralistic philosophical framework within which different methodological positions and scientific disciplines can be formulated and criticized based on combinations of different particular categories under general catego- ries. In the conclusion of this article, the meaning and potential of relational materialism for the development of scientific research programs are evaluated.