The Concept of Nature: The Tarner Lectures Delivered in Trinity College, November 1919Whitehead, Alfred North
Philosophy
The Concept of Nature: The Tarner Lectures Delivered in Trinity College, November 1919
Whitehead, Alfred North
Knowledge, Theory of; Nature; Science -- Philosophy
The theory of significance has been expanded and made more definite in
the present volume. It had already been introduced in the _Principles of
Natural Knowledge_ (cf. subarticles 3.3 to 3.8 and 16.1, 16.2, 19.4, and
articles 20, 21). In reading over the proofs of the present volume, I
come to the conclusion that in the light of this development my
limitation of infinite events to durations is untenable. This limitation
is stated in article 33 of the _Principles_ and at the beginning of
Chapter IV (p. 74) of this book. There is not only a significance of the
discerned events embracing the whole present duration, but there is a
significance of a cogredient event involving its extension through a
whole time-system backwards and forwards. In other words the essential
'beyond' in nature is a definite beyond in time as well as in space [cf.
pp. 53, 194]. This follows from my whole thesis as to the assimilation
of time and space and their origin in extension. It also has the same
basis in the analysis of the character of our knowledge of nature. It
follows from this admission that it is possible to define point-tracks
[_i.e._ the points of timeless spaces] as abstractive elements. This is
a great improvement as restoring the balance between moments and points.
I still hold however to the statement in subarticle 35.4 of the
_Principles_ that the intersection of a pair of non-parallel durations
does not present itself to us as one event. This correction does not
affect any of the subsequent reasoning in the two books.
I may take this opportunity of pointing out that the 'stationary events'
of article 57 of the _Principles_ are merely cogredient events got at
from an abstract mathematical point of view.
INDEX
_In the case of terms of frequent occurrence, only those occurrences are
indexed which are of peculiar importance for the elucidation of
meaning._
A [_or_ an], 11
Abraham, 105
Absolute position, 105, 106, 114, 188
Abstraction, 33, 37, 168, 171, 173;
extensive, 65, 79, 85
Abstractive element, 84;
set, 61, 79
Action at a distance, 159, 190
Action by transmission, 159, 190
Active conditions, 158
Activity, field of, 170, 181
Adjunction, 101
Aggregate, 23
Alexander, Prof., viii
Alexandria, 71
Alfred the Great, 137
Anticipation, 69
Anti-prime, 88
Apparent nature, 31, 39
Area, 99;
momental, 103;
vagrant, 103
Aristotelian logic, 150
Aristotle, 16, 17, 18, 24, 197
Associate-potential, 183
Atom, 17
Attribute, 21, 26, 150
Awareness, 3
Axiom, 36, 121
Axioms of congruence, 128 et seqq.
Bacon, Francis, 78
Behaviouristic, 185
Bergson, 54
Berkeley, 28
Between, 64
Beyond, 186, 198
Bifurcation, vi, 30, 185, 187
Boundary, 100;
moment, 63;
particle, 100
Broad, C. D., viii
Calculation, formula of, 45, 158
Cambridge, 97
Causal nature, 31, 39
Causation, 31, 146
Centrifugal force, 138
Change, uniformity of, 140
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