An enquiry concerning the principles of natural knowledgeWhitehead, Alfred North
Philosophy
An enquiry concerning the principles of natural knowledge
Whitehead, Alfred North
Knowledge, Theory of; Science -- Philosophy; Space and time
64.5 The events which are associated by us with life are also the
situations of physical objects. But the physical object though essential
is not an adequate condition for its occurrence. A change in the object
almost imperceptible from the physical point of view destroys the life
in the succeeding situations of the object. The physical object, as
apparent, is a material object and as such is uniform; but when we turn
to the causal components of such an object, the apparent character of
the whole situation is thereby superseded by the rhythmic quasi-periodic
characters of a multitude of parts which are the situations of
molecules.
In an analogous way we seek for a causal character of the event which in
some way or another is apparent to us as alive, and we seek for an
expression of this causal character in terms of the causal components of
the physical object. It would seem therefore (if the analogy is to be
pursued) that apparent life in any situation has, as its counterpart in
that situation, more complex, subtler rhythms than those whose aggregate
is essential for the physical object.
64.6 Furthermore in the physical object we have in a sense lost
the rhythms in the macroscopic aggregate which is the final causal
character. But life preserves its expression of rhythm and its
sensitiveness to rhythm. Life is the rhythm as such, Whereas a physical
object is an average of rhythms which build no rhythm in their
aggregation; and thus matter is in itself lifeless.
Life is complex in its expression, involving more than percipience,
namely desire, emotion, will, and feeling. It exhibits variations of
grade, higher and lower, such that the higher grade presupposes the
lower for its very existence. This suggests a closer identification of
rhythm as the causal counterpart of life; namely, that wherever there is
some rhythm, there is some life, only perceptible to us when the
analogies are sufficiently close. The rhythm is then the life, in the
sense in which it can be said to be included within nature.
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