- Jan 2024
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i want to now uh introduce the key concept in in whitehead's mature metaphysics concrescence
for - key insight - concrescence - definition - concrescence - Whitehead - definition - The many become the one - Whitehead - definition - Res Potentia - Tim Eastman - definition - superject - Whitehead - definition - moment of satisfaction - Whitehead - definition - dipolar - Whitehead - definition - ingression - Whitehead definition - CONCRESCENCE - is the description of the phases of the iterative process by which reality advances from the past into the present then into the future - this definition is metaphysical and applies to all aspects of reality
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Concrescence is the process by which
- THE MANY BECOME THE ONE and
- THE MANY ARE INCREASED BY ONE
- The "many" here refers to the past
- the perished objects in the past environment
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There's another domain that whitehead makes reference to
- He's a platonist in this sense, though he's a reformed platonist
- He makes reference to this realm of eternal objects which for him are pure possibilities
- i was mentioning Tim Eastman earlier
- He calls this domain "RES POTENTIA", the realm of possibilities which have not yet been actualized
- And so for Whitehead
- the realm of possibility is infinite
- the realm of actuality is finite
- In the realm of actuality, there's a limited amount of certain types of experience which have been realized
- but the realm of actuality draws upon this plenum of possibility and
- it's because there is this plenum of possibility in relationship to the realm of actuality that
- novelty is possible
- new things can still happen we're not just constantly repeating the past
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Whitehead describes the process of concrescence or each drop of experience as DIPOLAR, having two poles:
- a physical pole and
- a mental pole
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Each concrescence or drop of experience begins with the physical pole
- where the perished objects of the past environment are apprehended or felt and
- these feelings of the past grow together into this newly emerging drop of experience
- and then in the process of their growing together
- the actualized perished objects of the past environment
- are brought into comparison with eternal objects or pure potentials possibilities and
- these possibilities INGRESS so
there's
- INGRESSION of eternal objects and
- PREHENSION of past actualities
- INGRESSION of potentials PREHENSIONS of past actualities
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and what the ingression of eternal objects do is provide each occasion of experience, each concrescence with
- the opportunity to interpret the past differently
- to say maybe it's not like that maybe it's like this
- and so these ingressions come into the mental pole
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If the physical pole is what initiates the experience of each concrescing occasion
- the mental pole is is a subsequent process that compares
- what's been felt in the past with
- what is possible alternatives that could be experienced that are not given yet in the past
- the mental pole is is a subsequent process that compares
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The subjective form is how the occasion fills the past
- The subjective aim is what draws the many feelings of the past towards the unification and the mental pole
- where
- the ingression of eternal objects and
- the feelings of past actualities
- are brought together into what Whitehead calls this MOMENT OF SATISFACTION
- where
- it's the culmination of the process of concrescence
- where a new perspective on the universe is achieved - This is the many have become one
- They are increased by one when the satisfaction is achieved
- It's a new perspective on the whole
- As soon as this new perspective is achieved
- it becomes a SUPERJECT which is not a subject enjoying its own experience anymore
- it's a perished subject
- The superject is the achieved perspective that has been experienced
- but then perishes itself int a superject-hood to become
- one among the many that will be inherited by the next moment of experience, the next concrescence and
- This superject has objective immortality in the sense that
- every subsequent concrescence will inherit the satisfaction achieved by the prior concrescences
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And so this is the most general account in Whitehead's view that we can offer
- of the nature of reality
- the nature of the passage of nature
- the movement
- out of the past
- through the present and
- into the future
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Experience is always in the present and the satisfaction that is achieved by each moment of concrescence is enjoyed in the present
- but as soon as we achieve that
- it perishes and the next moment of concrescence arises to inherit what was achieved
- and this is an iterative process
- it's repeating constantly and it's cumulative
- It's a process of growth
- building on what's been achieved in the past
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Tags
- definition - concrescence
- definition - Res Potentia - Tim Eastman
- key insight - concrescence
- definition - moment of satisfaction - Whitehead
- definition - ingression - Whitehead
- definition - dipolar - Whitehead
- definition - The many become the one - Whitehead
- definition - superject - Whitehead
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