perspective

Lecture IV of Section II in Alfred North Whitehead’s book Modes of Thought

Notes

• The technology of writing progressed gradually over time, but the strongest division was when it began being used as a means of writing “intimate thoughts” (66)
  • an abstraction from environment
• Point 2: Each entity has its own perspective of the world
  • Fact relies on the current perspective, and the ‘elimination of alternatives’
  • eternal objects & muddiness
  • actual occasions
• Point 3: “Absolutes”
  • “Extreme” type of being → God? Zero?
  • “Realm of ‘completely real’” (68) → “absolutes”
  • “In the house of forms, there are many mansions” (69)
  • There is no “absolute reality,” everything refers to something externally & referentially. → see Process Philosophy
  • The “unreal” (69)
  • “Extremes of Existence” - Actuality & Potentiality in a reciprocal relationship. Actuality is the exemplification of Potentiality, which is the characterization of actuality.
  • Evidence of philosophy comes from the shared (uniquely) human experience (70)
• Point 4: What is Character?
  • Enjoyment (71)
  • (Intimate) Experience and the body are entangled. (The way seeing a sunrise makes you feel)
  • Complexity, vagueness, and compulsive intensity.
• Point 5: Sense perception - How we discern the external world (72)
  • Clarity, distinctness, indifference.
    • form, color, quality
  • Definition of “Nature” (73)
    • We (humans) are characters of higher animal experience.
  • Approximate accuracy, qualitative assignment, essential omission.
    • Science is the omission of irrelevant modes of existence.
• Point 6: Start Vague!
  • The 3 principles of division, in 3 pairs of opposites (75)
  • Goodness and Order and Mathematics (76)
    • Goodness requires “badness,” you can’t have a good time if you cant count!
    • differentiate forms (78)
• Point 7: Infinitude
  • There cannot truly be an “infinite,” all things must be ‘this’ and not ‘that’.
  • “Exclusion means finitude”
  • Clarity + Order must go along with vagueness + disorder, or we become definite and it sucks. (79)
  • Referring back to Part I, averages and uniformity is a characteristic of non-life. life comes from ambiguity + flux.
  • How can the afterlife be so great if its unchanging and infinite? “Eternal life” an oxymoron?
  • Math + definite / perfect forms are a “glimpse of eternity” (81)
• Point 8: Separation from Creativity
  • The process has been lost. (81)
  • “Changeless world of ultimate reality” → derived into (our) historic world of change
  • Knowledge is action! not perfection!
  • “vitiated to ruin” (82)
  • Static systems of math vs life + motion + reality (82)
• Point 9: We are embodied in process
  • Infinitude and finitude require each other (83)
  • Existence requires a past/present/future
  • Triviality mentioned on page 84
  • 4 Modes of Characterizing Existence
    • 3 Aspects within aesthetic experience
      • Sense of Genius, Disclosure, and Translation
    • 3 Aspects of Matter of Fact
      • Experiences of Unity, Multitude, and Transition
    • 3 Primary grounds of division
      • Clarity + Vagueness
      • Order + Disorder
      • Good + Bad
    • 2 Ultimate Types of Existence
      • Eternal forms dual existence Potential, Appetition, Realized Fact
      • Realized fact and past/present/future

Lecture IV of Section II in Alfred North Whitehead’s book Modes of Thought

Notes
The technology of writing progressed gradually over time, but the strongest division was when it began being used as a means of writing “intimate thoughts” (66)

• an abstraction from environment

Point 2: Each entity has its own perspective of the world

• Fact relies on the current perspective, and the ‘elimination of alternatives’
• eternal objects & muddiness
• actual occasions

Point 3: “Absolutes”

• “Extreme” type of being → God? Zero?
• “Realm of ‘completely real’” (68) → “absolutes”
• “In the house of forms, there are many mansions” (69)
• There is no “absolute reality,” everything refers to something externally & referentially.
• The “unreal” (69)
• “Extremes of Existence” - Actuality & Potentiality in a reciprocal relationship. Actuality is the exemplification of Potentiality, which is the characterization of actuality.
• Evidence of philosophy comes from the shared (uniquely) human experience (70)

Point 4: What is Character?

• Enjoyment (71)
• (Intimate) Experience and the body are entangled. (The way seeing a sunrise makes you feel)
• Complexity, vagueness, and compulsive intensity.

Point 5: Sense perception - How we discern the external world (72)

• Clarity, distinctness, indifference.
  • form, color, quality
• Definition of “Nature” (73)
• We (humans) are characters of higher animal experience.
• Approximate accuracy, qualitative assignment, essential omission.
• Science is the omission of irrelevant modes of existence.

Point 6: Start Vague!

• The 3 principles of division, in 3 pairs of opposites (75)
• Goodness and Order and Mathematics (76)
  • Goodness requires “badness,” you can’t have a good time if you cant count!
  • differentiate forms (78)

Point 7: Infinitude

• There cannot truly be an “infinite,” all things must be ‘this’ and not ‘that’.
• “Exclusion means finitude”
• Clarity + Order must go along with vagueness + disorder, or we become definite and it sucks. (79)
• Referring back to Part I, averages and uniformity is a characteristic of non-life. life comes from ambiguity + flux.
• How can the afterlife be so great if its unchanging and infinite? “Eternal life” an oxymoron?
• Math + definite / perfect forms are a “glimpse of eternity” (81)

Point 8: Separation from Creativity

• The process has been lost. (81)
• “Changeless world of ultimate reality” → derived into (our) historic world of change
• Knowledge is action! not perfection!
• “vitiated to ruin” (82)
• Static systems of math vs life + motion + reality (82)

Point 9: We are embodied in process

• Infinitude and finitude require each other (83)
• Existence requires a past/present/future
• Triviality mentioned on page 84
• 4 Modes of Characterizing Existence
  • 3 Aspects within aesthetic experience
    • Sense of Genius, Disclosure, and Translation
  • 3 Aspects of Matter of Fact
    • Experiences of Unity, Multitude, and Transition
  • 3 Primary grounds of division
    • Clarity + Vagueness
    • Order + Disorder
    • Good + Bad
  • 2 Ultimate Types of Existence
    • Eternal forms dual existence Potential, Appetition, Realized Fact
    • Realized fact and past/present/future