{"id":3464,"date":"2023-10-17T22:38:18","date_gmt":"2023-10-17T22:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/?p=3464"},"modified":"2023-10-17T22:38:18","modified_gmt":"2023-10-17T22:38:18","slug":"the-new-physics-process-sophio-agapism-and-a-harmonic-universe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/?p=3464","title":{"rendered":"The \u201cNew Physics,\u201d Process, Sophio-Agapism, and a Harmonic Universe"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The \u201cNew Physics,\u201d Process, and Sophio-Agapism<\/p>\n

Alfred North Whitehead\u00a0(1861-1947) made significant contributions to Mathematics, Logic, Philosophy of Science, Metaphysics, and other areas of thought. He was instrumental in developing a philosophical outlook known as \u201cProcess Philosophy,\u201d of which he is regarded as the founder. Although Whitehead\u00a0began his academic life at Cambridge (as a mathematician) and then taught in London (as a mathematical physicist and philosopher of education), it was in America at Harvard that he became known as a philosopher and wrote his most famous works.<\/p>\n

In 1925, Whitehead\u00a0published Science and the Modern World<\/em>\u00a0(1926). [1]<\/a> In 1929, he published his Gifford Lectures at the University of Edinburgh as a metaphysical work,\u00a0Process and Reality<\/em>. [2]<\/a> In 1933, he published\u00a0Adventures of Ideas<\/em>, his most accessible work and the source of much of what we would call his \u201cpolitical philosophy.\u201d [3]<\/a> In 1938, he published Modes of Thought<\/em>, perhaps the most straightforward summary of his ideas. [4]<\/a><\/p>\n

Science and the Modern World<\/em> was published in 1926. Only fifteen or so years earlier, in 1905 (sometimes called his \u201cmiracle year\u201d), Albert Einstein published a series of papers that introduced his theory of relativity and made significant contributions to quantum physics. Fifteen years is a short time in the history of science. By this time, Whitehead, himself a mathematical physicist, had internalized the new physics of his day and gave a philosophical account of its meaning. Whitehead\u2019s lasting importance flows from his ability to create a metaphysical system compatible with relativity theory and quantum physics.<\/p>\n

End of Materialism<\/strong><\/p>\n

From Newton until the early 20th<\/sup> Century, a fundamentally materialistic worldview dominated science and philosophy. In this worldview, what is \u201creal\u201d is matter and material forces acting upon matter. The picture of the universe that emerged with quantum physics\u00a0was radically different. Fundamental subatomic particles do not appear to be material. Instead, they seem to be what Whitehead\u00a0calls \u201cpatterns\u201d or \u201cvibrations\u201d in a universal electromagnetic field, an emerging disturbance in an underlying field of potentiality. [5]<\/a> Whitehead recognized that the implications of developments in physics meant the end of the Newtonian worldview and its materialistic premises.<\/p>\n

In response, Whitehead\u00a0developed a \u201cprocess\u201d or \u201corganic\u201d view of reality in which the fundamental realities events are what he called \u201cactual occasions.\u201d [6]<\/a> Those actual occasions that take on a stable form over some period of time, Whitehead\u00a0sometimes calls \u201cactual entities.\u201d\u00a0 Actual occasions are not fundamentally material but rather a part of a process of becoming. By making the fundamental unity of reality occasions and not particles, Whitehead laid the basis for a non-materialistic metaphysical account of reality.<\/p>\n

In defining the fundamental reality as an event or occasion, Whitehead\u00a0gives metaphysical expression to the fundamental immateriality of what science believes are the basic building blocks of the universe. [7]<\/a> In so doing, \u201cWhitehead\u00a0marks an important turning point in the history of philosophy because he affirms that everything is fundamentally an event. What we perceive as permanent objects are events, or, better, a multiplicity and a series of events\u201d that have taken up a stable form. [8]<\/a> Therefore, the actual world is not fundamentally made up of objects but instead \u201cbuilt up of actual occasions.\u201d [9]<\/a><\/p>\n

Those things we perceive as stable objects (what Whitehead calls \u201cenduring objects\u201d) are events with an enduring character because of their underlying structure. [10]<\/a> The vision of the world that Whitehead\u00a0develops is decidedly not materialistic, for fundamental events are much like the waves that constitute fundamental particles\u2014vibrations or patterns which are capable are not material entities but are capable of becoming so. Higher-order events are built up through structured combinations of actual occasions\/objects. In Whitehead\u2019s thought, not only are events primary but so are \u201cstructure\u201d or the invisible noetic patterns discernable in actual occasions.<\/p>\n

A Social World<\/strong><\/p>\n

Because the notions of pattern and structure are fundamental in Whitehead, the idea of \u201csocial order\u201d\u00a0is basic to his vision of reality. As occasions develop organized and orderly patterns, social order develops, even at a subatomic level. Thus, notions of social and personal order are fundamental because they are the enduring objects\u00a0or creatures we are familiar with. That is to say, a human being is a society\u00a0built up of actual occasions. Similarly, everything from rocks to complex social entities or societies of an impersonal type. [11]<\/a> The development of order over time is a fundamental characteristic of reality, including the existence of human societies.<\/p>\n

Early in the development of quantum physics, it was realized that one of its implications was a degree of interconnectedness among the fields of activity that make it up. As previously noted, Einstein\u2019s Relativity Theory, which Whitehead\u00a0studied and understood, describes a profoundly relational universe in which time and space, ultimate attributes of reality in Newtonian physics, are known to be related to one another and make up a \u201cSpace\/Time Continuum.\u201d Much of the argument of Science and the Modern World<\/em> concerns the metaphysical implications of relativity theory, a subject to which Whitehead\u00a0himself made contributions. In the end, the world that relativity theory describes is fundamentally relational. The absolute space and time of classical Newtonian physics\u00a0had to give way to a notion of time and space that is fundamentally relational. Time and Space are related and cannot be separated except for purposes of abstract discussion. [12]<\/a><\/p>\n

At a quantum level of reality, a deep interconnectedness is revealed and symbolized by so-called \u201cspooky action at a distance,\u201d or what physicists call \u201centanglement.\u201d Reality is deeply connected at a subatomic level. Even at the level of everyday existence, there is a deep interconnectedness that is evident in so-called open systems and their tendency toward self-organizing activity\u2014the so-called \u201cbutterfly effect.\u201d [13]<\/a><\/p>\n

One implication of process thought\u00a0is based on the idea that relationships constitute reality. Actual occasions combine to form societies, which are fundamental aspects of reality. The essential character of a society\u00a0is determined by the relationships in which it is located, past, present, and future. [14]<\/a> A society of whatever character exists as a web of relationships from which it emerged in a process that leads to a future state of the society involved. According to Whitehead, the relatedness of the universe and the societies that make up the physical realities we experience is not merely external but also internal to the society itself. [15]<\/a> Thus, not only is physical matter secondary, but also physical power.<\/p>\n

The notion of reality as a kind of social order has important implications for political thinking. The idea of a society as being built up over time by the gradual unfolding of a social order that is not, at its ultimate basis, material requires a rethinking of any kind of power-based political theory\u2014and casts grave doubt over the exclusion of moral and religious considerations in political decision making.<\/p>\n

Humans as a Part of the Process<\/strong><\/p>\n

Newtonian physics\u00a0posited the existence of an observer outside the events being observed. In addition, all connections between particles were external. Quantum physics has revealed that the observer is a fundamental part of the observed reality. Perhaps more importantly, quantum physics\u00a0and relativity theory imply a universe of deep interconnection. Reality appears to participate in a profound fundamental, internal unity. As Whitehead puts it,<\/p>\n

We awake to find ourselves engaged in process, immersed in satisfactions and dissatisfactions, and actively modifying, either by intensification, or attenuation, or by the introduction of novel purpose.<\/strong> [16]<\/a><\/p>\n

In other words, all human experience and action, including science, participate in the unfolding process of the universe to which we are inextricably connected.<\/p>\n

The relationship of the observer and the observed is illustrated by the so-called \u201cdouble slit experiment.\u201d If a researcher shines light through two slits, a pattern emerges from the other side, revealing whether light is a wave or a particle. However, the result is, in some sense, determined by our observation. It is as if human conscious involvement creates the effect and defines the character of the photon, and the photon somehow \u201cfeels\u201d or senses the observer\u2019s presence.<\/p>\n

Process thought shares this view. Human beings are not outside reality but a part of the \u201cWorld Process,\u201d even our attempts at abstracting ourselves from what we observe are, at best, only partially successful. We are inevitably and inextricably connected to and sense at a deep level the social world of which we are a part. This is true of electrons and also of our families, neighborhoods, communities, nations, and world. What we say and do has an impact, however important or unimportant, on the world we inhabit. These connections are not just external but also internal. As Whitehead[17]<\/a> puts it, \u201cThe whole environment participates in the nature of each of its actual occasions. Thus, each occasion takes its initial form from the nature of its environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

A World of Experience \u201cAll the Way Down\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

One result of quantum physics is the realization that the very act of observing \u2014 of asking the question, “Through which slit will each electron pass?\u201d changes the experiment’s outcome. In other words, the experimental results indicate that, in some way, subatomic particles “know,” \u201csense,\u201d or \u201cfeel\u201d the presence of the observer, which determines the outcome of the experiment. [18]<\/a> Whitehead\u00a0was well aware of this outcome. In his view, post-modern science implies that experience\u00a0is a fundamental category of existence. To be is to experience. Even at the most fundamental levels of reality (the level of actual occasions\u00a0and fundamental particles), a \u201cfeeling\u201d or \u201cexperience\u201d of reality exists. [19]<\/a><\/p>\n

Whitehead, of course, understood, but the kind of consciousness\u00a0that human beings enjoy is not present in fundamental particles, fundamental molecules, fundamental forms of life, and even, perhaps, in some animal life. Nevertheless, there seems to be a form of \u201cfeeling\u201d or awareness of connection with surrounding reality at all levels of reality. As the phenomenon of entanglement demonstrates, this awareness of connection may extend to the limits of the universe.<\/p>\n

Whitehead\u00a0uses a technical term, \u201cprehension,\u201d to describe this feeling. [20]<\/a> It is difficult for human beings to separate consciousness\u00a0from apprehension. Whitehead, therefore, coined the term \u201cprehension\u201d to describe a form of non-cognitive apprehension as it exists in nature. Prehension is an outgrowth of the fundamental relatedness of reality as each form of existence (actual occasions) \u201cprehends\u201d\u00a0surrounding reality.<\/p>\n

Conscious perception is possible because we have a highly developed central nervous system. But this consciousness\u00a0is only a tiny part of the considerable amount of consciousness contained in the universe. It would seem that at every level of reality, there is a constantly expanding and more complex form of experience\u00a0available. All living creatures would seem to have some awareness of their surroundings and of the impacts their surroundings have upon them. In animal life, we see a growing form of awareness. In humans, we see still another form of awareness, but all this \u201cexperience\u201d is built upon a kind of awareness or prehension present in the most fundamental aspects of reality.<\/p>\n

This world of deep and beautiful order is deep and beautiful on several levels. In some way, the immaterial potentialities of the quantum world emerge, and from the indeterminate world of quantum reality, what we call ordinary reality and the laws of physics emerge. These laws that rule over matter and energy at the most fundamental levels allowed the emergence of what we would call \u201cchemistry,\u201d the basic elements making up the physical universe and their combination, out of which emerged biology, eventually resulting in the emergence of the human race\u2014a race having self-consciousness and the ability to reflect the order of the universe in its relations as well as the ability to create culture, societies, and social structures. From the human race emerge families, society, social organization, law, economic systems, arts, literature, music, morality, religion, and all the myriad of complex social relations that make up any society. [21]<\/a><\/p>\n

These levels of reality are, in some way, dependent upon each prior level in the emergent hierarchy of reality. Yet, they each possess independent rules, regulations, laws, and order founded on but not identical to the order from which it emerged. Finally, each level of reality participates in an invisible noetic order from which the material order emerges, which itself is emergent, within which various levels of existence have their conceptual order. That is to say, humans can investigate the underlying structure of reality using science and other disciplines. The means of investigation depends on the nature of the order.<\/p>\n

This organic, interconnected, and hierarchical view of reality has critical political philosophy and practice implications. Every stable society\u00a0is built ahead of multiple levels of increasingly complicated participants in the social order. For example, we tend to think that our society is made up of humans who happen to be residents of the United States of America. However, the health and functioning of the society end of the residence depends upon their interconnected participation in the universe that includes all its surrounding physical and non-physical elements.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, one fundamental application of Whiteheadian philosophy has been in the area of environmental protection. The notion that the world is built up of actual occasions\u00a0or objects connected by feelings and sense and responds to the existence and presence of one another implies that the members of our society are connected with its environment, human, non-human, organic, organic, and otherwise. If this is true, then it is impossible to have a healthy society that does not consider this web of relationships in which the human participants are located.<\/p>\n

A Physical and Mental Universe<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of Whitehead\u2019s contributions to philosophy is how he avoids the mind-body dualism inherent in modern metaphysics. According to Whitehead, every actual occasion has a mental and a physical pole. That is to say, that experience\u00a0and intelligibility are present in everything from subatomic particles to human beings. In Whitehead\u2019s view, every level of existence possesses mental and physical poles, including quanta, atoms, cells, organisms, the Earth, the solar system, our galaxy, and the universe up to God.\u00a0 For God, the whole physical universe is the physical pole, and all ideas and forms are the mental pole. [22]<\/a> In other words, there is no ultimate distinction between mind and matter. Mind and matter are two aspects of a single reality. The potential for the kind of consciousness\u00a0that human beings possess is, thus, an evolutionary possibility within the structure of the type of universe we inhabit. [23]<\/a><\/p>\n

There is also no ultimate distinction between those actual occasions\u00a0that are in some sense alive and those (like rocks) that are not or between the human race and animals. As mentioned above, the mental pole\u00a0does not imply a consciousness. Returning to the double slit experiment, when quantum physicists speak of a particle as \u201csensing\u201d the observer, they do not mean to imply that subatomic particles are conscious. This can be hard to understand., but it refers to the fact that experience\u00a0and intelligibility go all the way down, and therefore, mind, matter, organic and inorganic matter, humans and animals, for all their differences, are also in some sense fundamentally related in an intelligible way. [24]<\/a><\/p>\n

Applied to political philosophy and social theory generally, Whitehead\u2019s process view encourages investigators to look at the patterns of relationships that make up the society\u00a0and polity in which one is interested\u2014and to look at them as constantly changing events, not as an object frozen in time. What we sometimes call the American Experiment in Constitutional democracy is a good example. Our political system is not an object to be dissected and understood solely as the power applied to individuals. Instead, it is an event that comprises a complex of constantly changing and evolving relationships. To the extent that our society embraces fundamental values, those values must be continually applied to new and changing realities.<\/p>\n

As far as political philosophy is concerned, fundamental \u201cconnectedness\u201d implies that our tendency to divide our political world into \u201cus\u201d and \u201cthem\u201d is ultimately a false abstraction. We are all part of and inevitably connected to our families, communities, nation, and world, joined in profound ways to those with whom we share all levels of human society. This includes those who disagree with us and those who agree, our political allies, and our opponents. This kind of relatedness casts doubt on the viability of any political philosophy that relies solely on power to the exclusion of other relational factors.<\/p>\n

Once again, when one combines the process or event focus of Whitehead\u2019s thought with its social character, one is led away from any notion of the universe as fundamentally constituted of matter and force and away from the idea embedded in our culture through Hobbes\u00a0of society\u00a0as fundamentally formed as conglomerations of individuals related to one another by force. Power exists, but it is grounded in a deeper reality, which we shall examine next week as we talk about God, Love, and the gradual movement of human societies from force to persuasion.<\/p>\n

The evolution of the universe and human society\u00a0reflects the propensity of the universe and society to seek the kind of satisfaction that we call \u201cPeace\u201d or \u201cHarmony.\u201d\u00a0 Whitehead\u00a0believes his metaphysics has practical implications, which he outlines in his book Adventure of Ideas<\/em>. Whitehead\u2019s metaphysics supports a view that sees justice\u00a0as a kind of harmony within the social process that constitutes a society\u2014a goal that policymakers should seek rather than power or ideological victory in the political sphere.<\/p>\n

Eternal Objects<\/strong><\/p>\n

To understand Whitehead\u2019s views on the movement from a society\u00a0based on force to one based on persuasion, it is crucial to understand his notions of reality, God, and universals, what Whitehead\u00a0calls \u201cEternal Objects.\u201d As mentioned above, the world in which we live and have our day-to-day existence (what Whitehead\u00a0sometimes calls the \u201cActual World\u201d) is built up over long periods through the emergence and relationships of actual occasions. [25]<\/a> Those things we perceive as stable objects (what Whitehead calls \u201cEnduring Objects\u201d) are events with an enduring character because of their underlying structure. [26]<\/a><\/p>\n

For Whitehead, however, two objects participate in the emergence of the world of actual occasions that are not themselves actual occasions. These are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Eternal Objects, which are ideal entities that are pure potentials for realization in the actual world and form the conceptual ground for all actual occasions; [27]<\/a> and<\/li>\n
  2. God is both an Eternal Object and the primordial actual entity; God is not an actual occasion but is present in all occasions. [28]<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    According to Whitehead, eternal objects\u00a0are the qualities and formal structures that define actual occasions and related entities. An infinite hierarchy of eternal objects defines each actual entity. This feature permits each real entity to be experienced by future entities in essential ways.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Eternal objects participate in the causal connection of individual entities, functioning as private qualities and public structures, characterizing the growth of actuality in its rhythmic advance from private, subjective immediacy to public, extensively structured fact.<\/li>\n
    2. Eternal objects\u00a0are ideals conceptualized by historical actual entities. As such, they are the potential elements that ensure that the process of nature is not deductive succession but organic growth and creative advancement. [29]<\/a> This characteristic is essential for understanding such political notions as Justice.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Eternal objects\u00a0are primordially realized as pure potentials\u00a0in the conceptual nature of that one unique actual entity, which we call \u201cGod.\u201d As realized in God, eternal objects\u00a0are ideal possibilities or potentialities, ordered according to logical and aesthetic principles, which can be realized in actual occasions. As realized in God, Eternal Objects transcend the historical actual entities\u00a0in which they are realized. [30]<\/a><\/p>\n

      Persuasion<\/strong>\u00a0Instead of Force<\/strong><\/p>\n

      For Whitehead, God is \u201cactual\u201d (an actual entity) but non-temporal and the source of all creativity, the source of innovation who transmits his creativity in freedom\u00a0and persuasion. [31]<\/a> Whitehead\u2019s God has two poles of existence: a transcendent pole, which is primordial, and a consequential or physical pole. The transcendent pole is the \u201cmental pole\u201d of God, wherein one finds the existence of eternal objects.\u00a0 As primordial, God is eternal, having no beginning or end, and is the ultimate reason for the universe. [32]<\/a><\/p>\n

      God\u2019s consequential or physical pole\u00a0implies that God is present in the universe and in all actual occasions, which are the physical poles of God\u2019s existence. In this physical pole, God experiences the world and the actualization of eternal objects\u00a0in actual occasions. Because of God\u2019s physical pole, God can be impacted by and experience actuality. Thus, Whitehead\u2019s God experiences and grows with creation. Process Philosophy uniquely contributes to philosophical and theological ideas in postulating a physical pole to God.<\/p>\n

      For Whitehead, God is not an all-powerful ruler, a cosmic despot. God is intimately involved in the universe of Actual Occasions and impacts the future not by force but by persuasion. [33]<\/a> Thus, he says,<\/p>\n

      More than two thousand years ago the wisest of men proclaimed that the divine persuasion is the foundation of the order of the world, but that it could only produce such order as amid the brute force of the world it was possible to accomplish.<\/strong>\u00a0[34]<\/a><\/p>\n

      This divine persuasion, the slow working of God in history as love and wisdom, is the hope of the world that the constant resort to force and violence in human affairs can be overcome. Writing before the Second World War, before Hiroshima, and the wars of the last century, Whitehead\u00a0saw the critical role of faith and all religious groups as instruments for the evolution of the human race towards a more harmonious world based on persuasion, reason, and love rather than brute force. [35]<\/a> In a much-quoted and beautiful passage, speaking of Christianity in particular, Whitehead\u00a0writes:<\/p>\n

      The essence of Christianity is the appeal to the life of Christ as the revelation of the nature of God and of his agency in the world. The Mother, the Child, and the bare manger: the lowly man, homeless and self-forgetful, with his message of peace, love, and sympathy: the suffering, the agony, the tender words as life ebbed, the final despair: and the whole with the authority of supreme victory. I need not elaborate. Can there be any doubt that the power of Christianity lies in its revelation in human life what Plato taught in theory. [36]<\/a><\/p>\n

      The Victory of Persuasion<\/strong>\u00a0over Force<\/strong><\/p>\n

      Plato had taught that the divine agency was persuasive, relying on reason, not coercion, to accomplish the world’s creation. Plato also taught that it was a part of the reordering of the human person by virtue to recover the primordial reliance on reason and persuasion by which the world was created and by which human beings recover an original reasonableness and harmony. This view has obvious implications for political philosophy and political practice. Human freedom and flourishing are dependent upon the emergence of ever-greater harmony and reasonableness in human society, including its political organization.<\/p>\n

      For Whitehead, \u201cThe progress of humanity is defined as the process of transforming society\u00a0to make the original Greco-Roman\/Judeo-Christian ideals increasingly practicable for the individual members.\u201d [37]<\/a> The project of human civilization and every human society and political institution is, therefore, advanced by achieving the victory of persuasion over force. [38]<\/a> Recalling the words of Plato, Whitehead\u00a0writes:<\/p>\n

      The creation of the world\u2014said Plato\u2014is the story of persuasion over force. The worth of men consists in their liability to persuasion. They can persuade and can be persuaded by the disclosure of alternatives, the better and the worse. Civilization is the maintenance of social order\u00a0by its inherent persuasiveness as embodying the nobler alternative. The recourse to force, however, unavoidable, is a disclosure of the failure of civilization, either in general society\u00a0or in a remnant of individuals. [39]<\/a><\/p>\n

      Against Hobbes, Whitehead\u00a0holds that persuasion has always been a part of human society\u00a0and denies that force is the defining characteristic of human society. He disagrees that human society is \u201ca war of everyone against everyone else.\u201d The social and persuasive side of society may even be older than the recourse to force. The love between the sexes, the love of parents for children and families for one another, and even the communal\u00a0love of small groups are probably older than brute force as a fundamental aspect of human society. In other words, Whitehead\u00a0sees that a philosophy compatible with the best understanding of reality must, in every area, abandon the Newtonian emphasis on material objects and force.<\/p>\n

      This does not mean, however, that force is not an inevitable characteristic of society, for there is and always will be a need for laws, structures, and their enforcement and defense. Forms of social compulsion are an outgrowth of the need for social coordination but are (or at least should be) of themselves the outgrowth of reason. [40]<\/a> Interestingly, Whitehead\u00a0believes that Commerce is an essential component in the movement from force to persuasion, for commerce depends upon private parties reaching agreements without recourse to force, which tends to build the capacities for reason and persuasion that a free society requires. [41]<\/a> The importance of persuasion is consistent with the emphasis on the role of love, cherishing, conversation, and dialogue in human society.<\/p>\n

      Freedom and Order<\/strong><\/p>\n

      Whitehead believes that freedom of thought, speech and action are fundamental to social progress. However, there is always a social need to balance what he calls Individual Absoluteness and Individual Relativity. [42]<\/a> Generally, Individual Absoluteness refers to the area of human freedom in a society, and Individual Relativity refers to the inevitable need for individuals to limit their freedom for the good of society as a whole and other human beings. In this dichotomy, there is a recognition of how social organization and harmony require some limitations on human freedom.<\/p>\n

      Creating a harmonic balance between the desires and wills of individuals and the maintenance of a sense of social solidarity in a free society requires an understanding of the relational environment from which the individual emerges and its needs for stability in the midst of unfolding change and how individual freedom results in the emergence of a gradually evolving society. There is always an element of chance in how societies evolve, and the resolution in any given community of the tension between freedom and order can seem the arbitrary result of chance\u2014as it sometimes is. [43]<\/a>The rate and seriousness of social change can vary within a society over time. If existing institutions are working well, and the citizens and centers of power are relatively content, the rate and dimension of change may be slow. In other situations, the rate of change may be significant. [44]<\/a><\/p>\n

      The adjustments required within a society are determined mainly by what Whitehead calls Instinct, Intelligence, and Wisdom. Instinct, which relates to what Peirce calls \u201chabit,\u201d are inherited modes of organization and action that have become customary for society due to inheritance, individual, and environmental factors. Intelligence includes those theoretical factors that are uncovered by human rational inquiry. Wisdom refers to how instinctual and theoretical elements intertwine in the practical accomplishment of social progress. Wisdom can be of greater or lesser effectiveness depending upon the ability to coordinate and incorporate the primary facts of human existence in decision-making. \u00a0[45]<\/a><\/p>\n

      In the end, social progress is made when human actors in the social arena make wise decisions impacting the evolution of human societies, including their political organization. In the same way, social regress occurs when human actors make unwise decisions concerning the evolution of human society, including its political organization. Finally, there is no avoiding this result because every human decision, great and small, impacts the universe in some way, creating a future, opening up some possibilities, and closing others.<\/p>\n

      In the midst of all this is each human actor making decisions. These decisions impact the human society in which the actor is located for better or for worse. The activity of free human actors is the foundation of all human thought, and any form of tyranny is antithetical to the emergence of a harmonious social order. In a particularly important passage, Whitehead notes:<\/p>\n

      A barbarian speaks in terms of power. He dreams of the superman with the mailed fist. He may plaster his lust with sentimental morality\u2026 But ultimately, his final good is conceived, as one will imposing itself upon other wills. This is intellectual barbarism.<\/strong> [46]<\/a><\/p>\n

      It takes a little imagination to see that Whitehead is referring to Nietzsche. Writing in the United States on the verge of the Second World War, with the terrible political results of Nietzschean thought evident in Germany. Whitehead understood, as we sometimes forget, that freedom requires a willingness to love, reason, persuade, and forgo all forms of force unless absolutely required by the circumstances. The example of Nazi Germany and the various disasters of totalitarian regimes in the 20th<\/sup> century is a clear argument for adopting a \u201cpolitics of reason and relationship,\u201d called agapio-sophism<\/em>.<\/p>\n

      Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

      In the end, Whitehead\u00a0believes that there are four factors which govern the fate of social groups, including our society:<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. The existence of some transcendent aim or goal greater than the mere search for pleasure;<\/li>\n
      2. Limitations on freedom that flow from nature itself and the basic needs of human beings;<\/li>\n
      3. The tendency of the human race to resort to compulsion instead of reason, which is fatal to social growth and flourishing if extended beyond necessary limits and<\/li>\n
      4. The importance of persuasion that relies upon reason and agreement to resolve social problems. In the end, it is the way of persuasion that holds the hope for social and human flourishing. [47]<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Whitehead\u00a0is important for a sophio-agapic<\/em>\u00a0analysis of justice. Through his concept of eternal objects, Whitehead\u00a0is a noetic realist. He believes that values have a form of reality that can impact events and the evolution of any society, especially a complex political society. As a logician, physicist, and philosopher, his work in developing his metaphysical system indicates an orderliness to reality that can be examined by science and other disciplines, including political philosophy. Finally, his notion of \u201cdivine persuasion\u201d is similar to Peirce\u2019s notion of an agapic<\/em>\u00a0aspect of reality, including social reality. For Whitehead, human reason and emotions are essential in society, including its political organization. Whitehead\u2019s organic, relational\u00a0view of reality extends to his view of society and encourages attention to the relationships that make up society beyond mere law and power.<\/p>\n

        In setting out his organic and social vision of reality, Whitehead is highly sympathetic to a harmonic vision of society and the goal of social justice. What is sometimes referred to as a harmonic theory of justice is also an aesthetic theory of justice. [48]<\/a> In the end, whitehead is captured by a vision of the search for beauty that dominates all efforts to create a better society in every area. Thus, he says:<\/p>\n

        Science and Art are the consciously determined pursuit of Truth and of Beauty. In them, the finite consciousness of mankind is appropriating as its own infinite fecundity of nature. In this movement of the human spirit types of institutions and types of professions are evolved. Churches and Rituals, Monasteries with their dedicated lives, Universities with their search for knowledge, Medicine, Law, methods of Trade, \u2013 they all represent that aim at civilization, whereby the conscious experience of mankind preserves for each use the sources of Harmony<\/strong>. [49]<\/a><\/p>\n

        In the end, Whitehead\u2019s vision is a \u00a0sophio-agapic <\/em>vision. A vision of a world in which the human search for truth and beauty is a search for harmony. Human society, complete with harmony and disharmony, is a never-ending, evolutionary project in which each person and society can participate in unfolding a better and more just society.<\/p>\n

        Copyright 2023, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved<\/strong><\/p>\n

        [1]<\/a> Alfred North Whitehead, Science and the Modern World<\/em> (New York, NY: Free Press, 1925, 1967), from now on \u201cSMM.\u201d<\/p>\n

        [2]<\/a> Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality<\/em> (New York, NY: Free Press, 1929, 1957), at 90. Hereinafter, \u201cPR.\u201d<\/p>\n

        [3]<\/a> A. N. Whitehead, Adventure of Ideas<\/em> (New York, NY: Free Press, 1933), hereinafter \u201cAI\u201d.<\/p>\n

        [4]<\/a> A. N. Whitehead, Modes of Thought<\/em> (New York, NY: Free Press, 1938, 1968).<\/p>\n

        [5]<\/a> SMM, at 132.<\/p>\n

        [6]<\/a> Whitehead\u00a0uses the terms \u201cactual occasions\u201d and \u201cactual entities\u201d almost interchangeably. For this reason, I think it might be best to consider a more general term.<\/p>\n

        [7]<\/a> PR, 90.<\/p>\n

        [8]<\/a> Steven Shaviro, \u201cDeleuze\u2019s Encounter With Whitehead\u201d http:\/\/www.shaviro.com\/Othertexts\/DeleuzeWhitehead.pdf<\/a> (Downloaded July 18, 2022).<\/p>\n

        [9]<\/a> PR, 96-98.<\/p>\n

        [10]<\/a> SMM, 132-133.<\/p>\n

        [11]<\/a> Id<\/u>, 40.<\/p>\n

        [12]<\/a> Id<\/u>, 118.<\/p>\n

        [13]<\/a> This is not the place for a discussion\u00a0of these phenomena. For those who would like a deeper discussion, see John Polkinghorne, ed, \u201cThe Trinity and an Entangled World: Relationality in Physical Science and Theology<\/em>\u00a0(Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2010). I have examined this phenomenon before in a blog entitled, \u201cPolitics and the Order of the World\u201d at www.gchristopherscruggs.com<\/a> (July 8, 2020).<\/h1>\n

        [14]<\/a> SM, 152.<\/p>\n

        [15]<\/a> AI, 230.<\/p>\n

        [16]<\/a> Id<\/u>, 46.<\/p>\n

        [17]<\/a> Id<\/u>, 41.<\/p>\n

        [18]<\/a> It should be obvious that the words, \u201cknow,\u201d sense\u201d or \u201cfeel\u201d are used metaphorically. Subatomic particles do not have central nervous systems or brains and are not capable of knowing, sensing, or feeling in human terms. Nevertheless, there exists something at the subatomic level that is best described by reference to the human experience.<\/p>\n

        [19]<\/a> AI, 230-233.<\/p>\n

        [20]<\/a> SMM, 69.<\/p>\n

        [21]<\/a> John Polkinghorne, The Way the World Is: The Christian Perspective of a Scientist<\/em> (Louisville, KY: Westminster\/John Knox Press, 1983), 22.<\/p>\n

        [22]<\/a> PR,128.<\/p>\n

        [23]<\/a> Whitehead makes a substantial contribution towards the development of \u201cdual aspect monism\u201d characteristic to more recent thought.<\/p>\n

        [24]<\/a> It is beyond the scope of this paper, but the fundamental relatedness and meaningfulness of all reality has ecological as well as political implications.<\/p>\n

        [25]<\/a> PR 27, 90.<\/p>\n

        [26]<\/a> SMM, 132-133.<\/p>\n

        [27]<\/a> PR, 26<\/p>\n

        [28]<\/a> Id<\/u>, 105<\/p>\n

        [29]<\/a> Susan Shottliff Mattingly, \u201cWhitehead\u2019s Theory of Eternal Objects\u201d A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy. I am indebted to her for portions of this analysis.<\/p>\n

        [30]<\/a> It is beyond the scope of this analysis to exhaustively look at Whitehead\u2019s notion of God. He did view God as an essential element of his metaphysical system as the ground of the order and creative potential of the universe.<\/p>\n

        [31]<\/a> Alfred North Whitehead, Religion in the Making<\/em> (New York, NY: The McMillian Company, 1936), 88.<\/p>\n

        [32]<\/a> In Whitehead\u2019s system all actual occasions\u00a0have both a physical and a mental pole. Thus, intelligibility and the potential for the emergence of mind goes all the way down into the smallest actual entities\u00a0in the universe.<\/p>\n

        [33]<\/a> AI, 166.<\/p>\n

        [34]<\/a> Id<\/u>, 160.<\/p>\n

        [35]<\/a> Id<\/u>, 161. It is beyond the scope of this blog, but Whitehead\u00a0believes that it is not the existence of dogmatics and religious theories that are the problem with religion, but the attitude of finality with which these opinions are voiced. In this, Whitehead\u00a0echo\u2019s Pearce. The theories of theologians are evidence of the importance of reason to Christian faith, and reasonableness is one of the ways in which brute force is overcome.<\/p>\n

        [36]<\/a> Id<\/u>, at 167. Plato\u00a0had taught that the divine agency was persuasive relying on reason not coercion to accomplish his goal.<\/p>\n

        [37]<\/a> Id<\/u>, 17.<\/p>\n

        [38]<\/a> Id<\/u>, 25.<\/p>\n

        [39]<\/a> Id<\/u>, 83.<\/p>\n

        [40]<\/a> Id<\/u>, 69.<\/p>\n

        [41]<\/a> Id<\/u>, 70-84. This is a most interesting discussion\u00a0in which Whitehead\u00a0deals with Malthusian economics, and its limitations.<\/p>\n

        [42]<\/a> Id<\/u>, 43.<\/p>\n

        [43]<\/a> Id<\/u>, 44.<\/p>\n

        [44]<\/a> Id<\/u>, 45.<\/p>\n

        [45]<\/a> Id<\/u>, 45-7<\/p>\n

        [46]<\/a> Id, 51.<\/p>\n

        [47]<\/a> Id<\/u>, 85-86.<\/p>\n

        [48]<\/a> Id<\/u>, 261. In his chapter on beauty in AI, Whitehead speaks of harmony as the objective of the search for beauty. He also describes the way in which disharmony d<\/p>\n

        (destruction) and harmony are related. Disharmony requires the searcher for harmony to seek a higher and greater harmony, a new harmony. In the same way, each perception of harmony leads to a perception of its inadequacy, which leads to a greater harmony. This is the aesthetic ground of the progress of justice in society.<\/p>\n

        [49]<\/a> Id<\/u>, 272<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        The \u201cNew Physics,\u201d Process, and Sophio-Agapism Alfred North Whitehead\u00a0(1861-1947) made significant contributions to Mathematics, Logic, Philosophy of Science, Metaphysics, and other areas of thought. He was instrumental in developing a philosophical outlook known as \u201cProcess Philosophy,\u201d of which he is regarded as the founder. Although Whitehead\u00a0began his academic life at Cambridge (as a mathematician) and … Continue reading The \u201cNew Physics,\u201d Process, Sophio-Agapism, and a Harmonic Universe<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4CzBH-TS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3464"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3466,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3464\/revisions\/3466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gchristopherscruggs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}