[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# Whether relationships must hold pairwise

Biology & ecology · 

## Why it looked like it would break the theory

Some relations involve three or more participants and cannot be adequately understood as a collection of pairwise links. Ternary relations, hyperedges, collective interactions, and network effects therefore appear to exceed a Relationship pattern represented between two identities.

## Why it failed

**The counterexample failed** because every Relationship can simultaneously be distinguished and systematized. Using the RDS Barbell, or Relationship Zoom, the relationship is identified as a Relationship, distinguished as an identity, and systematized by zooming into its parts. The relational whole may contain any number of participating identities, so binary, ternary, n-ary, distributed, and networked relationships are all representable without a fifth pattern.

Settled by [R11](https://dsrpevidence.org/resolution/11). Not yet published.

[All cases](https://dsrpevidence.org/counterexamples)