Contrasts as the Condition for Relationality in the Metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead

305 Pages·2017·1.72 MB·English

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.

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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
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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

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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

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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

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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

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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
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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
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