07-24-2016, 12:13 PM
Alfred Whitehead was a philosopher and mathematician who developed ideas that mesh well with the Law of One, and there is actually a small link to him regarding the Law of One which I'll get to. So I just wanted to share his philosophy which you might find interesting. I'm paraphrasing a lot from these lectures #1 and #2. His books are notoriously difficult, but from what I could dig up, this is one of the better guides to start with although I haven't read it yet. This dude's videos are pretty thorough and easily understandable.
Whitehead worked with Bertrand Russell in his early career, who is a more familiar name. Later, he developed what he referred to as the philosophy of organism, which would go on to be named process philosophy. I'm drawn to him because when you read some of his quotes, he sounds very doaist, always pointing towards the middle path of unspeakable insight. He believed that no one person or belief system holds the truth, rather various perspectives circle and point towards the truth. Yet since our experience of the world is always in flux and changing, we can't fully grasp the world or truth, so having an element of mystery.
Process philosophy embraces the saying that you can't step in the same river twice. Its foundational tenet is that if we simply observe experience we can see that things are always changing and flowing, what Whitehead referred to as motion and/or becoming. So the universe is always in a process of becoming something more, a process of creation, with motion, not objects, being the primary thing, the constant. Objects don't move, we are the motion, and from this motion all things develop. Said differently, the universe isn't in a process, but is process (creation).
Whitehead was pointing to the present moment, saying that experience itself was the most real thing, which is primary to matter (it's probably best to say the "idea of matter"). He would say we don't necessarily have to look to atoms to understand the world, we can use our immediate experience to gain insight. This is a shamanistic perspective and what I believe Ra is describing as the disciplines of the personality.
Since the universe is always moving, it's best to describe and see things in terms of experience, movement, feeling, and relationship, rather than descriptions of static pieces. So there is a linkage here towards the archetypal mind describing things in terms of relationship, and I also see this idea of process as being synonymous with transformation in the Law of One, which also has a link to the great way, and how the spirit is described as a shuttle.
If the world is not made up of subjects and objects, feelings (sensation) are primary and are what subjects and objects are made of. Subjects emerge out of felt relations with others (I'd call that one definition of an energy transfer). He describes these feelings as "prehensions", and a prehension is defined as the act of grasping.
What's interesting is that it has been suggested that Dewey Larson (mentioned by Ra) developed his ideas from Samuel Alexander. Both Alexander and Whitehead were aware of each other's work, and are in the same vein. So Larson perhaps read Whitehead as well.
Whitehead called descriptions of static things, especially scientific descriptions, though useful towards invention, abstractions. Ra would say that all is either inward or outward motion. Whitehead doesn't seem to deny matter wholly, rather it is simply a lower process of relationship that is still not a physical thing. So, the consciousness that the electron experiences as it rotates around the nucleus, the experience/sensation itself, is what is real.
He actually coined the term creativity. "To his mind, modern science and philosophy were still wedded to and based upon stubborn conceptions of objects and subjects. They found it hard if not impossible, to allow for new things, for novelty. Whitehead, therefore, set himself the daunting task of elaborating a scheme which could genuinely describe how new things come to be. This is the role he assigns creativity." He described this creativity as process or flow, pure feeling, aliveness, and love.
So yeah, that's all I have to say about that. What do you think? *does a dance, backs out of thread*
Whitehead worked with Bertrand Russell in his early career, who is a more familiar name. Later, he developed what he referred to as the philosophy of organism, which would go on to be named process philosophy. I'm drawn to him because when you read some of his quotes, he sounds very doaist, always pointing towards the middle path of unspeakable insight. He believed that no one person or belief system holds the truth, rather various perspectives circle and point towards the truth. Yet since our experience of the world is always in flux and changing, we can't fully grasp the world or truth, so having an element of mystery.
Process philosophy embraces the saying that you can't step in the same river twice. Its foundational tenet is that if we simply observe experience we can see that things are always changing and flowing, what Whitehead referred to as motion and/or becoming. So the universe is always in a process of becoming something more, a process of creation, with motion, not objects, being the primary thing, the constant. Objects don't move, we are the motion, and from this motion all things develop. Said differently, the universe isn't in a process, but is process (creation).
Whitehead was pointing to the present moment, saying that experience itself was the most real thing, which is primary to matter (it's probably best to say the "idea of matter"). He would say we don't necessarily have to look to atoms to understand the world, we can use our immediate experience to gain insight. This is a shamanistic perspective and what I believe Ra is describing as the disciplines of the personality.
Since the universe is always moving, it's best to describe and see things in terms of experience, movement, feeling, and relationship, rather than descriptions of static pieces. So there is a linkage here towards the archetypal mind describing things in terms of relationship, and I also see this idea of process as being synonymous with transformation in the Law of One, which also has a link to the great way, and how the spirit is described as a shuttle.
If the world is not made up of subjects and objects, feelings (sensation) are primary and are what subjects and objects are made of. Subjects emerge out of felt relations with others (I'd call that one definition of an energy transfer). He describes these feelings as "prehensions", and a prehension is defined as the act of grasping.
What's interesting is that it has been suggested that Dewey Larson (mentioned by Ra) developed his ideas from Samuel Alexander. Both Alexander and Whitehead were aware of each other's work, and are in the same vein. So Larson perhaps read Whitehead as well.
Whitehead called descriptions of static things, especially scientific descriptions, though useful towards invention, abstractions. Ra would say that all is either inward or outward motion. Whitehead doesn't seem to deny matter wholly, rather it is simply a lower process of relationship that is still not a physical thing. So, the consciousness that the electron experiences as it rotates around the nucleus, the experience/sensation itself, is what is real.
He actually coined the term creativity. "To his mind, modern science and philosophy were still wedded to and based upon stubborn conceptions of objects and subjects. They found it hard if not impossible, to allow for new things, for novelty. Whitehead, therefore, set himself the daunting task of elaborating a scheme which could genuinely describe how new things come to be. This is the role he assigns creativity." He described this creativity as process or flow, pure feeling, aliveness, and love.
So yeah, that's all I have to say about that. What do you think? *does a dance, backs out of thread*