Relational Emergence Theory： A Hierarchical Emergent Cosmological Model Based on Relational Ontology

This paper proposes "Relational Emergence Theory," which asserts that the essence of the universe is neither matter, nor energy, nor information, but "relation." Relations continuously derive across different scales, and the process of derivation itself constitutes spacetime. Humans, along with their perception, logic, science, philosophy, and religion, are all localized self-observational phenomena within this relational network. This paper demonstrates the compatibility of this framework with physics, mathematics, biology, cognitive science, philosophy, and religion, and responds to challenges from Gödel's incompleteness theorems, quantum entanglement, Yogācāra Buddhism, the God hypothesis, and nihilism. The paper concludes that although this framework does not provide new observable predictions, it offers a meta-theory capable of delineating boundaries for existing disciplines and indicating ways in which they interconnect, while simultaneously providing a naturalistic foundation for questions of human meaning.