1. Personal ontology
Each person constitutes reality through a distinctive relational organization of concepts. This organization is necessary for orientation and action, but it is necessarily limited: no personal ontology exhausts reality, nor can it be certain that it contains all relevant concepts or that the relations it establishes among them are correct.
2. Autonomy
It is a basic human need to not only constitute but also to articulate one’s own personal ontology.
3. Autopoiesis
Because one’s ontology is limited, one cannot fully correct it from within itself. One’s capacity for continued self-constitution and self-correction depends upon new experiences and access to what other ontologies make visible.
4. Leeway
In order for external, autonomous personal ontologies to become genuinely accessible, one needs a capacity for experiencing them without immediately absorbing them into one’s personal ontology through judgment, reaction, persuasion, or conformity. One’s self-continuation processes need to be paused in order to allow self-correction to initiate.
5. Ma
Leeway creates the possibility of experiencing ma: an interval in which another relational organization can be encountered rather than immediately evaluated. The encounter can or cannot lead to auto-correction.
6. Responsibility for the Other
Because one’s capacity for self-correction depends upon access to what other autonomous ontologies make visible, it is in one’s autopoietic interest to remain receptive to the Other - another individual authentically expressing their personal ontology. Responsibility for the Other emerges when the Other is recognized not merely as an object of one’s ontology, but as a source of possible self-correction alongside new experiences that escape immediate absorption into one’s personal ontology. Responsibility for the Other is an important aspect of being responsible for one’s own self-correction.
7. Belonging
It is a basic human need to be seen, heard, and accepted by Others. The active exercise of leeway by Others, through ma and responsibility for the Other, provides a fulfilment of this need.
8. Ethics and utilitarianism meet
Autopoiesis provides the bridge: responsibility toward Others is not opposed to the interest of the self since the self’s capacity for correction co-depends upon Others. Under the right circumstances, responsibility for the self and responsibility for the Other meet, and a third basic human need, that of achievement, is fulfilled.
9. Interdemocracy
Interdemocracy provides at least some of these circumstances. Its basic layer increases the chances of autonomous constitution and ma, and, as a result, potential subsequent self-correction. Its participation layer increases the chances that encounters with Others become consequential by connecting autonomous personal ontologies to collective reflection and action.
In summary
- Autonomy: I constitute myself.
- Autopoiesis: I cannot fully correct myself.
- Leeway/ ma: I become capable of encountering what exceeds me.
- Responsibility: I remain receptive to Others and new experiences.
- Belonging: Others remain receptive to me.
- Achievement: Through my relation with Others and my new experiences, I become more capable of self-correction and self-continuation.