Whiteheads Prolificacy in Logic and Philosophy - Essay Example

Alfred Whitehead Number: Introduction That the world has been blessed with critical thinkers and philosophers is a matter which is well underscored by Alfred N. Whitehead (1861–1947) and his works. Whitehead’s prolificacy in logic and philosophy is confirmed in him being a philosopher and mathematician. Whiteheads Philosophy of Organism remains one of his profound pieces, as will be seen forthwith. Metaphysics Whitehead maintained that there is dire need to construct metaphysics in light of the emerging objectives of scientific worldviews, without neglecting subjective human experience.

According to Whitehead, there should be no omission of the subjective (experience drunk) and the objective (experience sober). Because of this, Whitehead issues the warning that philosophy must not make a dereliction on the multifarious aspect of the world. It is for this same reason that Whitehead describes beauty as the union of intensity, harmony and vividness which involve perfection of importance for an occasion. The same explains the reason for Whitehead seeing God as the set of all processes and relationships, so that God is radically transcendent (universe-in-god) and radically incarnate (god-in-universe).

Whitehead maintains that the metaphysical status of eternal objects is resistant to change, so that they remain incomprehensible without an actuality and only intelligible within a broader conceptual frame (Stein, 2006). Science Whitehead noted that experiences of science, ethics, aesthetics and religion greatly influence the worldview of the Western culture and should, therefore, factor a more comprehensive and holistic cosmology. This cosmology should be comprehensive enough to provide systematic descriptive theories of the world, which are applicable for deducing human intuitions that have been arrived at through scientific, ethical, aesthetic and religious experiences.

Whitehead maintains that in order for science to be, there has to be the presence of sufficient structures, given that intelligibility is a general condition essential for science and all knowledge. Whitehead also continues that science is progressive and imposes upon humanity, progressivity in thinking and inquiry. Whitehead also sees science as existing for posterity, since its progressive technology enables the generation-generation transition into uncharted seas of adventure or inquiry.

Verification According to Whitehead, the essence of truth readily necessitates the need for verification. This is because what may be true for an observer may not be lucid for another, even if the same event or object is involved. Whitehead maintains that this does not mean that truth is reduced to relativism, but it allows for the verification of the truth by its correspondence to the very prevailing state of affairs. To defend the need for verification, Whitehead explains that truth is not established by the extent it identifies with an absolute universal, but by how well that truth describes and depicts a specific state of affairs, within a specific context and from a given perspective.

Whitehead continues that the truth of a law of nature is only established under the control of reciprocal ideas of discovery. Whitehead explains that all mathematical calculations on the course of nature must commence from a specific law of nature. Nevertheless, no matter how accurately the calculations have been done, doubts will always linger. Therefore, if the law that has been used states a specific result, it may be precisely inaccurate. This calls for the verification of the law that has been used (Mills, 2003).

Physical Reality, Experience, and Time: Past, Present and Future According to Whitehead, the fundamentally real is not things, but events, given that all events are rational, having causal antecedents and consequences in a series of varying intensity, significance and complexity. At the same time, all events (or experiences) exhibit some measure of intrinsic self-creative liberty not fully determined or predictable by their causal antecedents and consequences. Whitehead takes the view that there is neither present nor past, and that instead, what is perceived as present is a vivid fragment of memory which is mixed with anticipation.

Thus, all things that are have at one point materialized. Herein, he supposes that memory performs the near-mystic role of integrating inner experiences with external experiences of the world. The future can be conjured up again through the use of elements of the past.ReferencesMills, J. (2003). Whiteheads unconscious ontology. Theory & Psychology, 13 (2), 209. Stein, R. (2006). A process theory of enzyme catalytic power – the interplay of science and metaphysics. Foundations of Chemistry, 8 (1), 3–29.