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 disclosure in sense-awareness of the structure of events classifies
events into those which are discerned in respect to some further
individual character and those which are not otherwise disclosed except
as elements of the structure. These signified events must include events
in the remote past as well as events in the future. We are aware of
these as the far off periods of unbounded time. But there is another
classification of events which is also inherent in sense-awareness.
These are the events which share the immediacy of the immediately
present discerned events. These are the events whose characters together
with those of the discerned events comprise all nature present for
discernment. They form the complete general fact which is all nature now
present as disclosed in that sense-awareness. It is in this second
classification of events that the differentiation of space from time
takes its origin. The germ of space is to be found in the mutual
relations of events within the immediate general fact which is all
nature now discernible, namely within the one event which is the
totality of present nature. The relations of other events to this
totality of nature form the texture of time.
The unity of this general present fact is expressed by the concept of
simultaneity. The general fact is the whole simultaneous occurrence of
nature which is now for sense-awareness. This general fact is what I
have called the discernible. But in future I will call it a 'duration,'
meaning thereby a certain whole of nature which is limited only by the
property of being a simultaneity. Further in obedience to the principle
of comprising within nature the whole terminus of sense-awareness,
simultaneity must not be conceived as an irrelevant mental concept
imposed upon nature. Our sense-awareness posits for immediate
discernment a certain whole, here called a 'duration'; thus a duration
is a definite natural entity. A duration is discriminated as a complex
of partial events, and the natural entities which are components of this
complex are thereby said to be 'simultaneous with this duration.' Also
in a derivative sense they are simultaneous with each other in respect
to this duration. Thus simultaneity is a definite natural relation. The
word 'duration' is perhaps unfortunate in so far as it suggests a mere
abstract stretch of time. This is not what I mean. A duration is a
concrete slab of nature limited by simultaneity which is an essential
factor disclosed in sense-awareness.
Nature is a process. As in the case of everything directly exhibited in
sense-awareness, there can be no explanation of this characteristic of
nature. All that can be done is to use language which may speculatively
demonstrate it, and also to express the relation of this factor in
nature to other factors.
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