Nentism

Nentism is a fictional philosophical and cultural term used in speculative discourse to explore how meaning, perception, and social life emerge from relations rather than from fixed essences. While not an established doctrine, it appears in philosophical essays, narrative fiction, and thought experiments as a convenient label for a relational, process-oriented approach to reality.

Proponents of nentism typically argue that "nents"—a loosely defined unit of relation among persons, artifacts, and environments—constitute the primary locus of meaning. Knowledge is described as arising through embodied interaction, collaborative inquiry, and context-dependent practices rather than through detached observation of a pre-given world. Ethical orientation emphasizes attentional responsibility, care, reciprocity, and the avoidance of coercive or essentializing claims.

Origins of the term are scattered across late 20th and early 21st century writings and online discussions, where it is used more as a heuristic than as a settled theory. The lack of standardized definitions makes it a flexible umbrella for multiple overlapping ideas, including phenomenological emphasis on perception, anti-essentialist ontology, and interest in emergent social processes.

Reception is divided. Supporters value its language for highlighting relationality and practice-based knowledge; critics view it as vague or ill-defined, risking intellectual ambiguity without clear criteria for evaluation. In academic contexts, nentism remains fringe and largely debated as a conceptual tool rather than a formal movement.

See also: phenomenology, constructivism, process philosophy, speculative realism, relational ontology.