Prologue
The term Relational Naturalism has appeared sporadically within academic discourse, most notably in environmental and feminist philosophy, to describe a vision of nature as an interdependent web rather than a collection of isolated entities. Yet in this manifesto, the phrase is reimagined as a broader metaphysical and ethical framework. Here, Relational Naturalism unites cosmology, consciousness, and compassion under a single natural order: a universe of processes that know themselves through awareness, empathy, and participation. It seeks to harmonize scientific realism with the immediacy of lived experience, offering a humanism without hierarchy and a spirituality without the supernatural. (see Annotated Bibliography)
The Manifesto of Relational Naturalism
Whereas existence unfolds as a single, seamless current of causes and conditions— and from it arise matter, mind, and awareness;
Whereas every creature that feels is part of this current— none self-made, none apart, each a momentary expression of the whole;
Whereas to understand causation is to see that separation, superiority, and retribution are errors of vision;
Whereas compassion and cooperation are not moral additions, but the natural extension of a world that knows itself through empathy born of consciousness;
Whereas beauty—whether known in paint, sound, or light on water—is reverence made visible, the mind’s recognition of its kinship with form;
Whereas all knowledge is provisional, and humility before mystery is the most honest expression of reason;
Whereas impermanence governs existence, reminding us that meaning is found in participation, not possession;
Whereas freedom is not conquest but relation— sustained by reciprocity, dialogue, and autonomy balanced with care;
Whereas the moral horizon extends beyond our species, calling for equal compassion toward all beings capable of suffering or joy;
Whereas the body itself is awareness made tangible, the bridge where perception becomes understanding and understanding becomes act.
Therefore, let a coherent life seek lucidity without pride, empathy without illusion, and engagement without domination.
Let it be a practice of relational naturalism— rooted in reason, nourished by compassion, and alive to the creative unfolding of the natural world.
Annotated Bibliography — Relational Naturalism (Lineage & Context)
Gould, Hannah, and Anna Halafoff. “Girl Mossing, Rotting, and Resistance: Relational Naturalism and Dying Well Together.” Religions 16, no. 4 (2025): 447. — Uses the exact phrase relational naturalism to articulate an ethic of interdependence and ecological mortality within contemporary environmental humanities.
Peters, Karl E. “Empirical Theology in the Light of Science.” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 27 (1992): 197–214. — Early use of the phrase dynamic, relational naturalism linking empirical theology with a process-oriented, non-reductive naturalism.
Alexander, Thomas M. The Human Eros: Eco-Ontology and the Aesthetics of Existence. New York: Fordham University Press, 2013. — Develops a Deweyan, process-relational eco-ontology; secondary literature describes this trajectory as relational naturalism, uniting aesthetics and environmental philosophy.
McElwain, Gregory S. “Relationality in the Thought of Mary Midgley.” Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements 87 (2020): 235–253. — Interprets Midgley’s environmental ethics through relational ontology, offering a humane, non-reductive naturalism consistent with relational approaches.
Rouse, Joseph. “Barad’s Feminist Naturalism.” Hypatia 19, no. 1 (2004): 142–161. — Analyses Karen Barad’s agential realism as a form of feminist naturalism grounded in relational ontology, closely allied to what this manifesto terms relational naturalism.
Warren, Karen J. Ecofeminist Philosophy: A Western Perspective on What It Is and Why It Matters. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000. — A foundational ecofeminist text articulating anti-dualist, relation-centered critiques of domination; a key contextual source for feminist relational approaches to nature and ethics.
