radical empiricism

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

Radical empiricism is William James’s view, developed here through Mackenzie, that relations, felt transitions and continuities belong to experienced reality rather than being later conceptual additions to isolated things. RB1 applies this to networks as maintained patterns of passage and coordination. The philosophical account complements graph description without making a topology diagram a complete account of lived relations, material infrastructure or their ethical consequences.

Explanation

The direct passage challenges a network pictured only as already finished nodes and edges. A connection can instead name a change in accessibility, and a node a temporary coordination. These are the book’s James–Mackenzie interpretation of relational reality, not a newly observed graph metric or proof that every kind of relation has conscious experience.

The source’s wireless-infrastructure account makes the practical side concrete: protocols, regulations, repairs and labor sustain connectivity. Abstract topology can describe some features while omitting this continuing work. Radical empiricism consequently enriches what a relation means without replacing technical analysis or declaring the network independent of material conditions.

RB2’s account of body–world mutuality likewise treats affordances as real relations rather than mental overlays or isolated physical properties, while retaining different theoretical approaches in parallel. PB emphasizes that relations can nourish or dominate. The proposal preserves these related registers without identifying James, ecological psychology and the author’s ethical commitments as one doctrine.

Scope and attribution

Retain James–Mackenzie attribution and the distinct philosophical, ecological and ethical contexts.

RB1 — The Real Book, Volume I: The Possible Is Real

James and Mackenzie ground the lived-transition interpretation and maintained infrastructure.

Occurrence locators: 191, 192, 239.

Background used in the editorial explanation

Named theories and mechanisms are distinguished from neighboring background, homonyms and the author’s own synthesis. Reproduced AI passages retain their separate voice.