Seeking "the fundamental" has often been seen as a narrowing, a process of whitling down. For example, many physicists try to find or theorize the "most fundamental" constitutents (quarks, strings etc.) and explain everything else through them, from the ground up. However, the historical development of quantum mechanics as well as some proposals by the author, suggest that entities are not things in themselves. Instead, their character and perhaps even their existential status, depend on interactions and relationships among them.
Neil Bates