Contrasts As the Condition for Relationality in the Metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead
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Contrasts as the Condition for Relationality in the Metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead By Ian Patrick McHugh, M.A. A Thesis Presented to The University of Guelph In partial fulfillment of requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In Philosophy Guelph, Ontario, Canada © Ian Patrick McHugh, December 2017 ABSTRACT CONTRASTS AS THE CONDITION FOR RELATIONALITY IN THE METAPHYSICS OF ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD Ian Patrick McHugh Advisor: University of Guelph, 2017 Andrew Bailey Co-Advisor: Jay Lampert (Duquesne University) My thesis argues that contrasts are the condition for relationality in the metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead. A contrast is a function within an event to synthesize the content of a disjunctive plurality into a unity. The various relational determinations of actual reality that we experience are due to constant’s resultant unity, and the various conceptions of relations we may engender are abstractions from these unities and their process of unification. I must show that this is a defensible explanation for relationality and our conceptions of it, and consider the works of Hume, Bradley, Russell, and others that offer dissenting explanations. I must also show that this is a defensible interpretation of Whitehead’s relational metaphysics, and consider whether the eternal objects are already relational without contrasts. The consequences of this project include explaining how the relation conditioning nature of contrasts also conditions perception, possibility, conceptualization, and systematization. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express my deep and sincere gratitude to the Guelph Philosophy Department, to my advisors Jay Lampert and Andrew Bailey; to the other members of my dissertation committee, Jeff Mitscherling, Murray Code, and Karen Houle; to my graduate coordinator, Andrew Wayne; to the department secretary, Janet Thackray; to my friends Peter Loptson, Kyle Bromhall, Lucca Olivia Fraser, Michael Kim, Petra Kendall, John Bova, Vedran Grahovac, Matt King, Brenton Ables, Corey Sawkins, Kosta Gligorijevic, Kenneth Dorter, Brooke Strucke, Jeannette Hicks, Daniel Griffin, Tom Sparrow, John Harvey, Michael Holden, Luke Robeaudeau, and Josh Norton; to my beloved husband, Gene Ellena Bertram; to my parents, Charles and Barbara McHugh; to my sister, Anna, my grandmother Anna Connolly Irot, and the rest of my family. Without their support, guidance, friendship, and love, I could never have gotten even a smidgen as far as I have. iii CONTENTS ABBREVIATIONS x INTRODUCTION 1 1. My Argument 1 2. The Nature of Contrasts 1 3. Chapter Breakdown 5 CHAPTER ONE CONTRASTS AND THE PROBLEM OF RELATIONS 10 1. Introduction 10 1. 1. Do Contrasts Presuppose Relations? 10 1. 2. Is Relationality Due to Eternal Objects? 14 2. Philosophy as the Criticism of Abstractions 18 2. 1. The Fallacy of Misplaced Concreteness 19 2. 2. Relations and Abstraction 20 2. 2. 1. Relations and Propositions 24 2. 2. 2. Whitehead’s Sense of “Proposition” 27 2. 2. 3. Subject-Predicate Propositions 28 3. F. H. Bradley 31 3. 1. Bradley’s Presuppositions 32 4. Bertrand Russell and David Hume 34 4. 1. Logical and Epistemological Atomism 36 4. 2. The Subjectivist and Sensationalist Principles 38 5. Whitehead’s Relational Metaphysics 42 5. 1. The Importance of Asymmetry 43 5. 1. 1. Internal and External Relations 44 5. 1. 2. Propositions as Syntheses 46 5. 2. Serially Connected Unities 47 6. Conclusion 49 iv CHAPTER TWO THE THREE MODES OF PERCEPTION AND GENERALIZED NOTIONS 50 1. Introduction 50 2. Beginning Perception with Symbols 51 2. 1. Symbol and Meaning 53 2. 2. Presentational Immediacy 57 2. 2. 1. A Kantian Objection 59 2. 2. 2. Presentational Immediacy and Abstraction 61 2. 3. Causal Efficacy 64 2. 3. 1. Causation 66 2. 3. 2. A Humean Objection 68 2. 3. 3. Objectification 70 2. 3. 3. 1. Objective and Formal Existence 72 2. 3. 4. Feelings 75 2. 4. Symbolic Reference 77 2. 4. 1. Imagination 80 3. Generalizing Notions from Experience 80 3. 1. Descriptive Generalization 81 3. 2. Imaginative Generalization 82 3. 3. Terms for Genetic Realization 85 3. 3. 1. Prehension 86 3. 3. 1. 1. Prehensions and Propositions 88 3. 3. 2. Actual Entities 92 3. 3. 2. 1. Actual Entities and Substances 95 3. 3. 2. 2. Experience and Scientific Description 97 3. 3. 2. 3. Nexus and Nexūs 99 3. 3. 3. Potentiality and Possibility 101 3. 3. 3. 1. Eternal Objects 102 3. 3. 3. 1. 1. Discerning Eternal Objects 104 4. Conclusion 106 v CHAPTER THREE CONTRASTS AND THE IMMANENCE OF CREATIVITY 107 1. Introduction 107 2. Metaphysical Explanation 108 2. 1. Explaining Without Explaining Away 109 2. 2. Criterial Desiderata for Explanation 111 2. 2. 1. Logical Coherence and Consistency 112 2. 2. 2. Applicability and Adequacy 115 2. 2. 3. Necessity 118 2. 2. 3. 1. Two Necessary Principles 122 3. Applying the Hypotheses 124 3. 1. Levels of Explanation 126 3. 1. 1. Cosystemizability 126 3. 1. 2. The Causal-Genetic 128 3. 1. 3. The Homeotypal and the Heterotypal 128 3. 1. 3. 1. Homeotypal Explanation 129 3. 1. 3. 2. Heterotypal Explanation 130 4. The Immanent Conditions for Whitehead’s Metaphysics 131 4. 1. Creativity 132 4. 1. 1. Pattern and Contrasts 137 4. 1. 2. Value and Feelings 140 4. 1. 2. 1. Value and Appetition 142 4. 1. 3. Subjective Form and Satisfaction 144 4. 1. 4. Eternal Objects as Values 149 4. 2. Creativity, Pattern, and Value 152 5. Contrasts and Whitehead’s System 156 5. 1. Contrasts and Contrasts-as-Process-in-System 159 6. Conclusion 162 vi CHAPTER FOUR CONTRASTS, PREHENSIONS, AND ACTUALITY – PART ONE: PHYSICAL AND CONCEPTUAL PREHENSIONS IN AN ACTUAL ENTITY 163 1. Introduction 163 1. 1. Ground for the Becoming of Prehension 163 1. 2. Setting the Scene 166 2. Primary Feelings 169 2. 2. Physical Feelings and Objectification 170 2. 2. 1. Negative Prehensions 171 2. 2. 2. Subjective Form – Revisited 175 2. 2. 3. The Subjective Aim 177 3. The Objective Datum and the Given Nexūs 180 3. 1. Contemporary Events 182 3. 2. Extensive Regions 184 4. Conceptual Prehensions 187 4. 1. The Subjective Aspect 188 4. 2. The Integrated Datum and Negative Prehensions 190 4. 3. Valuation 193 4. 4. The Aim at Contrasts 195 4. 5. Contrasts Within the Early Stages of Concrescence 197 5. Transmuted Feelings and the Decision 199 5. 1. The Transition to Propositions 201 6. Conclusion 204 vii CHAPTER FIVE CONTRASTS, PREHENSIONS, AND ACTUALITY – PART TWO: GOD’S PREHENSIONS AND THE RELATIONALITY OF ETERNAL OBJECTS 205 1. Introduction 205 2. God 206 2. 1. Envisagement 208 2. 2. God as a Causal Condition for Actualization 211 2. 3. God’s Primordial and Consequent Natures 212 2. 3. 1. God’s Valuative Feelings 214 2. 3. 1. 1. Gradation Without Negativity 218 3. The Order of Eternal Objects 221 3. 1. Patterns and Sensa 222 3. 2. Abstractive Hierarchies 223 3. 2. 1. Connexity 225 3. 2. 2. The “Realm” of Eternal Objects 228 3. 3. The Extensive Continuum 230 3. 3. 1. Perception and the Extensive Continuum 232 3. 3. 2. Patrick and the Extensive Continuum 233 3. 4. Is There Anything Inevitable for the Eternal Objects? 236 4. Why a Pre-Given Order of Eternal Objects is Unnecessary 237 4. 1. Bringing Order to the Eternal Objects 238 4. 2. The Multiplicity of Eternal Objects 240 4. 3. Formal and Objective Existence – Revisited 243 4. 4. Explaining Relational and Individual Essence 244 4. 5. Actual Activity is the Requirement for Any Unity 246 5. Conclusion 247 viii CHAPTER SIX CONTRASTS, PREHENSIONS, AND ACTUALITY – PART THREE: CONSCIOUS FEELINGS, CONCEPTUALIZATIONS, AND FINALIZATION 249 1. Introduction 249 2. The Propositional Stage 250 2. 1. Logical Subjects and Predicative Patterns 252 3. Perception and Propositions 254 3. 1. Imaginative Feelings 257 3. 2. Conscious Perception 259 4. Feeling Music and Thinking Relations 261 4. 1. Discerning “Musical Qualities” 262 4. 2. Propositions and Judgments 264 4. 2. 1. Symbolic Reference – Revisited 265 4. 3. Discerning Relations 266 4. 3. 1. From Relations to Contrasts 268 4. 4. Finalization 272 5. A Return to the Criterial Desiderata 273 5. 1. Applicability and Adequacy 274 5. 2. Coherence and Consistency 275 5. 3. A Prelude to Necessity 276 5. 3. 1. Eternal Objects and Consistency 276 5. 4. Necessity 279 5. 4. 1. A Problem with Whitehead’s God 280 5. 4. 1. 1. God’s “Propositional Feelings” 280 5. 4. 1. 2. God’s Incoherent Consequent Nature 282 5. 4. 2. A Possible Solution 283 6. Conclusion 285 GLOSSARY OF TERMS FROM CHAPTERS FOUR, FIVE, AND SIX 288 BIBLIOGRAPHY 292 ix ABBREVIATIONS Whitehead, Alfred North AI Adventures of Ideas IS The Interpretation of Science: Selected Essays L “Letter from Alfred North Whitehead to Charles Hartshorne, 1936” PR Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology RM Religion in the Making S Symbolism: It’s Meaning and Effect SMW Science and the Modern World: Lowell Lectures, 1925 x INTRODUCTION 1. My Argument My thesis argues that contrasts are the condition for relationality in Whitehead’s process metaphysics. Contrasts function as part of the development of an actual event. The products of contrasts are included as determining characteristics within the facticity of that event, specifically the relationality of its features. A contrast describes a synthetical process within the becoming of an actual event: it is a synthesis of potentials into a unity. The unity’s pattern determines a type of relation within actual fact. The pattern of that unity and its derivative relations cannot be divorced from the process of synthesis in the contrast without abstraction. Our discernment of any type of relation – whether it is of connectivity or externality, identity or diversity, temporality or causality, intensive difference or of relative dependence – is derived from an analysis of the qualitative and quantitative features within that unity.