Abstract

This paper develops a relational account of identity, behavior, normativity, and agency grounded in a single organizing principle: systems persist by maintaining coherence across time. Beginning from the premise that relations precede objects, the framework derives a sequence of axioms showing how coherence‑preservation generates the familiar structures of organized life without invoking essences, internal agents, or teleological primitives. Systems maintain identity by minimizing incoherence, regulate themselves by preserving coherence‑enabling constraints, and develop directional tendencies through the reinforcement of coherence‑increasing interactions. Error signals arise when coherence is threatened, and recurrent corrections stabilize into norms and functions. As interacting systems align these norms, shared structures—linguistic, institutional, and symbolic—emerge to stabilize coherence across larger scales. These structures enable anticipatory organization, allowing systems to project coherence forward in ways that resemble intention and agency. The resulting framework offers a unified, non‑teleological account of how complex behavior and meaning emerge from relational dynamics, providing a common explanatory structure for physical, biological, cognitive, and social systems.