Relational Process Atomism: Epistemological and Methodological Considerations on the Metaphysics of Transactions

“Relational Economics” places the category of relation at the center of its conception. This fact requires consideration of how the category of relation relates to other conceptual pillars of “Relational Economics,” namely, the (distinct) transactions and the category of event or process (“Relational Economics” draws on Whitehead’s “Process Philosophy”). On the basis of a “Business Metaphysics,” which is dedicated to the question of “how the economic world works (in general),” the chapter analyses the epistemological and methodological implications of this theoretical strategy and summarizes the result with the heading “Relational Process Atomism.” The chapter argues that only a realistic epistemology is suitable to adequately address the controversy between different types of metaphysics. Thus, logically the usefulness of our theories—including our metaphysical theory, how the world works, or our economic theory, how the economic world works—depends on whether they sufficiently represent the “way the world really is.” Whitehead‘s cosmology and Commons’ economics now specify these metaphysical implications to the effect that they argue for a “Relational Process Atomism” that assumes “events” as “atoms” (“actual occasions” or “transactions” as ultimate units) with internal relations, which are then referred to as “relational transactions” in “Relational Economics.” Methodologically, research into the functioning of these “relational transactions” can only proceed through a step-by-step “tinkering” (Popper), which is illustrated by Whitehead with the image of a repeated take-off and landing of an airplane.