Science and the modern worldWhitehead, Alfred North
Religion
Science and the modern world
Whitehead, Alfred North
Science
The total temporal duration of such an event bearing an enduring
pattern, constitutes its specious present. Within this specious present
the event realises itself as a totality, and also in so doing realises
itself as grouping together a number of aspects of its own temporal
parts. One and the same pattern is realised in the total event, and is
exhibited by each of these various parts through an aspect of each part
grasped into the togetherness of the total event. Also, the earlier
life-history of the same pattern is exhibited by its aspects in this
total event. There is, thus, in this event a memory of the antecedent
life-history of its own dominant pattern, as having formed an element of
value in its own antecedent environment. This concrete prehension, from
within, of the life-history of an enduring fact is analysable into two
abstractions, of which one is the enduring entity which has emerged as a
real matter of fact to be taken account of by other things, and the
other is the individualised embodiment of the underlying energy of
realisation.
The consideration of the general flux of events leads to this analysis
into an underlying eternal energy in whose nature there stands an
envisagement of the realm of all eternal objects. Such an envisagement
is the ground of the individualised thoughts which emerge as
thought-aspects grasped within the life-history of the subtler and more
complex enduring patterns. Also in the nature of the eternal activity
there must stand an envisagement of all values to be obtained by a real
togetherness of eternal objects, as envisaged in ideal situations. Such
ideal situations, apart from any reality, are devoid of intrinsic value,
but are valuable as elements in purpose. The individualised prehension
into individual events of aspects of these ideal situations takes the
form of individualised thoughts, and as such has intrinsic value. Thus
value arises because there is now a real togetherness of the ideal
aspects, as in thought, with the actual aspects, as in process of
occurrence. Accordingly no value is to be ascribed to the underlying
activity as divorced from the matter-of-fact events of the real world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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