Science and the modern worldWhitehead, Alfred North
Religion
Science and the modern world
Whitehead, Alfred North
Science
The key to the pattern means this fact:—that from a select set of those
general conditions, exemplified in any one and the same occasion, a
pattern involving an infinite variety of other such conditions, also
exemplified in the same occasion, can be developed by the pure exercise
of abstract logic. Any such select set is called the set of postulates,
or premises, from which the reasoning proceeds. The reasoning is nothing
else than the exhibition of the whole pattern of general conditions
involved in the pattern derived from the selected postulates.
The harmony of the logical reason, which divines the complete pattern as
involved in the postulates, is the most general aesthetic property
arising from the mere fact of concurrent existence in the unity of one
occasion. Wherever there is a unity of occasion there is thereby
established an aesthetic relationship between the general conditions
involved in that occasion. This aesthetic relationship is that which is
divined in the exercise of rationality. Whatever falls within that
relationship is thereby exemplified in that occasion; whatever falls
without that relationship is thereby excluded from exemplification in
that occasion. The complete pattern of general conditions, thus
exemplified, is determined by any one of many select sets of these
conditions. These key sets are sets of equivalent postulates. This
reasonable harmony of being, which is required for the unity of a
complex occasion, together with the completeness of the realisation (in
that occasion) of all that is involved in its logical harmony, is the
primary article of metaphysical doctrine. It means that for things to be
together involves that they are reasonably together. This means that
thought can penetrate into every occasion of fact, so that by
comprehending its key conditions, the whole complex of its pattern of
conditions lies open before it. It comes to this:—provided we know
something which is perfectly general about the elements in any occasion,
we can then know an indefinite number of other equally general concepts
which must also be exemplified in that same occasion. The logical
harmony involved in the unity of an occasion is both exclusive and
inclusive. The occasion must exclude the inharmonious, and it must
include the harmonious.
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