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

# R11. Relationships Need Not Be Pairwise

On Relationships

Must every relationship be pairwise?

## Short answer

A relationship can involve two things, three things, or an entire network. Treat the relationship as a thing, then zoom into its participants as parts.

## Complete explanation

Through Simultaneity, every Relationship may also instantiate a Distinction and a System. An n-ary relationship can be distinguished as an identity and systematized as a relational whole containing any number of participating identities. This is operationalized by the RDS Barbell / Relationship Zoom.

## Why the apparent counterexample arises

The apparent difficulty arises because relationships are assumed to be fundamentally pairwise. Through Simultaneity, any Relationship may itself be distinguished as an identity and systematized as a relational whole, allowing ternary, n-ary, hypergraph, collective, and network relationships without introducing a new primitive.

## Cases this settles

- [Whether relationships must hold pairwise](https://dsrpevidence.org/case/29)

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