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
Within the short present duration the 'here' of the percipient event has
a definite meaning of some sort. This meaning of 'here' is the content
of the special relation of the percipient event to its associated
duration. I will call this relation 'cogredience.' Accordingly I ask for
a description of the character of the relation of cogredience. The
present snaps into a past and a present when the 'here' of cogredience
loses its single determinate meaning. There has been a passage of nature
from the 'here' of perception within the past duration to the different
'here' of perception within the present duration. But the two 'heres' of
sense-awareness within neighbouring durations may be indistinguishable.
In this case there has been a passage from the past to the present, but
a more retentive perceptive force might have retained the passing nature
as one complete present instead of letting the earlier duration slip
into the past. Namely, the sense of rest helps the integration of
durations into a prolonged present, and the sense of motion
differentiates nature into a succession of shortened durations. As we
look out of a railway carriage in an express train, the present is past
before reflexion can seize it. We live in snippits too quick for
thought. On the other hand the immediate present is prolonged according
as nature presents itself to us in an aspect of unbroken rest. Any
change in nature provides ground for a differentiation among durations
so as to shorten the present. But there is a great distinction between
self-change in nature and change in external nature. Self-change in
nature is change in the quality of the standpoint of the percipient
event. It is the break up of the 'here' which necessitates the break up
of the present duration. Change in external nature is compatible with a
prolongation of the present of contemplation rooted in a given
standpoint. What I want to bring out is that the preservation of a
peculiar relation to a duration is a necessary condition for the
function of that duration as a present duration for sense-awareness.
This peculiar relation is the relation of cogredience between the
percipient event and the duration. Cogredience is the preservation of
unbroken quality of standpoint within the duration. It is the
continuance of identity of station within the whole of nature which is
the terminus of sense-awareness. The duration may comprise change within
itself, but cannot--so far as it is one present duration--comprise
change in the quality of its peculiar relation to the contained
percipient event.
In other words, perception is always 'here,' and a duration can only be
posited as present for sense-awareness on condition that it affords one
unbroken meaning of 'here' in its relation to the percipient event. It
is only in the past that you can have been 'there' with a standpoint
distinct from your present 'here.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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