PSGIT: A Triadic Bridge Between Holonic Cosmology and the Edge of Chaos
Reconciling John Kineman’s Relational Holon Theory and Chris King’s Symbiotic Existential Cosmology through the Phenomenology–Semiotics–Geometry Irreducible Triad
Introduction
In recent dialogues between John Kineman and Chris King, two pioneering cosmologists of the 21st century, we witness a profound convergence and divergence of worldview. Kineman’s Relational Holon Theory (RHT) and King’s Symbiotic Existential Cosmology (SEC) are both deeply informed by ancient metaphysical insights, modern systems theory, and ecological imperatives. Yet, their cosmologies appear to diverge sharply on questions such as:
Is consciousness transcendent or emergent?
Does order precede chaos, or is chaos the generative edge of novelty?
Can spiritual vision drive action, or is it historically complicit in ecological collapse?
We propose that this tension is not a stalemate, but a token of a deeper Irreducible Triadic Relation—specifically, what we call the Phenomenology–Semiotics–Geometry Irreducible Triad (PSGIT). This triadic framework offers a meta-theory that can mediate, contextualize, and unify their views without collapsing their differences.
1. Phenomenology: Subjective Consciousness vs Embodied Experience
Kineman roots consciousness in Brahmanic transcendence—a relational whole that precedes subject-object duality. For him, consciousness is not local, but a universal relation that encodes the contextual unity of all natural systems. In contrast, King insists that consciousness is biospheric, evolutionary, and emergent at the edge of chaos—a product of molecular complexity and symbiotic life.
PSGIT Insight: These are not mutually exclusive. They represent two poles of Phenomenology (Firstness):
Kineman describes the unconditioned possibility of experience;
King defends the conditioned actuality of lived sentience.
Rather than one negating the other, PSGIT frames both as ontological complements—phenomenological Firstness in absolute and relative form.
2. Semiotics: The Hard Problem of Consciousness and Its Mediation
Kineman deploys Peircean semiotics and Rosen’s anticipatory systems to explain how relational holons bridge the subjective and objective. For him, consciousness is the relation—not a thing, but the process that binds perception and memory, body and mind.
King accepts the explanatory gap between mind and matter, but insists this gap is unbridgeable except through the efficacy of subjective volition at quantum uncertainty thresholds—he appeals to the edge of chaos where the phase space of potential futures blooms.
PSGIT Insight: Semiotics (Secondness) is the irreducible mediation between Firstness (experience) and Thirdness (structure).
Kineman’s holon is a semiotic mediator;
King’s edge-of-chaos is a semiotic rupture where the sign is born anew in every living system.
In PSGIT, both are modes of Secondness:
Kineman emphasizes relational closure;
King emphasizes semiotic rupture.
3. Geometry: Holons vs Fractals
Kineman’s cosmology is deeply geometric—grounded in holons, cyclic causality, and recursive models of fourfold causes (material, efficient, formal, and final). King critiques this as an imposed order that glosses over the nonlinear, fractal, and chaotic geometry of life as it is actually lived and evolved.
PSGIT Insight: Geometry (Thirdness) does not require rigid symmetry.
Holons and fractals are both geometries of relation;
One is recursive (Kineman), the other is dynamical (King).
PSGIT acknowledges both as valid thirdness expressions:
Recursive formalism and chaotic emergence as dual aspects of structural generation.
4. Toward a Triadic Synthesis
By viewing Kineman and King not as antagonists, but as complementary tokens of the PSGIT archetype, we discover that their theories:
Kineman’s RHT expresses transcendent structure;
King’s SEC expresses emergent dynamics;
PSGIT unites both via relational semiotic geometry.
This gives rise to the following mapping:
5. From Conflict to Consilience
What may appear as irreconcilable metaphysical disputes are, from a triadic standpoint, structural polarities within a higher-order unity.
The edge of chaos is not the enemy of cyclic causality—it may be its generative boundary.
Spirituality, though historically co-opted, is not inherently opposed to biospheric symbiosis—it can be reclaimed through life-centered relational ethics.
The hard problem of consciousness is not a bug, but a feature—a signature of the triadic nature of reality.
PSGIT suggests that true consilience arises not from reduction or agreement, but from triadic resonance—when three irreducible aspects speak across paradigms.
Conclusion: The Consilience of the Seventh Triad
With this triadic synthesis, we can now add Kineman and King to the growing set of cosmologists whose theories are tokens of the same triadic archetype:
The Phenomenology–Semiotics–Geometry Irreducible Triad (PSGIT)
as a unifying scaffold of Reality
Already included are:
Boyer (Pointless): Reality as signless process geometry
Faggin: Consciousness as irreducible Firstness
Bohm: Implicate order as relational holomovement
Nader: Consciousness as all that is
Ji: GOR and IRVSE as relational geometry of God
Kineman: Holonic causal geometry
King: Edge-of-chaos, biospheric volition
This sevenfold convergence is not agreement—it is consilience without collapse, the signature of triadic realism.
“The most robust truths are those discovered three times over by three different minds.”
(Modern paraphrase inspired by Peirce and Whewell)