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Title: Adventure of Ideas
Macmillan Publishers
Item Number: 9780026272209
Number: 1
Product Description: Adventure of Ideas
Universal Product Code (UPC): 9780026272209
WonderClub Stock Keeping Unit (WSKU): 9780026272209
Rating: 5/5 based on 2 Reviews
Image Location: https://wonderclub.com/images/covers/22/09/9780026272209.jpg
Weight: 0.200 kg (0.44 lbs)
Width: 0.000 cm (0.00 inches)
Heigh : 0.000 cm (0.00 inches)
Depth: 0.000 cm (0.00 inches)
Date Added: August 25, 2020, Added By: Ross
Date Last Edited: August 25, 2020, Edited By: Ross
Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
$99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub (9296 total ratings) |
Donovan Mike
reviewed Adventure of Ideas on January 26, 2008For a philosophical treatment of the effect of ideas' on history and culture, this book was a veritable page-turner. I had read Part I probably over a year ago, and was all amped to continue, when the book disappeared from the living room coffee table. When it turned up last month in our black hole of a garage, I tore back into it, even though Blood Meridian was currently holding my interest, and, oh yeah, I was then living with a one-month old in my house. I tore into it and didn't stop until I was finished with it. That's a page-turner, right?
In case you're not familiar, Alfred North Whitehead is sometimes known as the philosopher who first put forward a coherent, comprehensive metaphysical system that we would now term "process philosophy". Many of these same people would argue that his system still stands as the best example of that branch of philosophy (he was writing about this stuff in the 1920s-1930s). Adventures of Ideas, despite my opening synopsis, is typically recommended as the most accessible of the 3 books that articulate his system-- the other two being Process and Reality and Science and the Modern World. So, though Whitehead does reference historical events to illustrate aspects of his thought, this book is mainly a work of metaphysics.
And to me, it's fascinating metaphysics. The key chapter is Chapter 11, "Objects and Subjects." There, Whitehead challenges the pervasive characterization of the subject-object relationship as "knower-known", and instead offers a characterization in which the subject experiences "concern" (as the Quakers use that term) for an object. He feels that knowledge and conscious discrimination (indeed, consciousness itself) only present themselves in the more elaborate occasions of experience. "The basis of experience is emotional," or, what subjects normally experience is an "affective tone" provoked or brought about by an object.
This essential "structure of experience" allows Whitehead to expound on his notion of "prehension," which is the "concern" or "feeling" or "affective tone" that a subject experiences when interacting with an object. A follower of Whitehead's, Charles Hartshorne, has said the concept of "prehension" is one of the great contributions to metaphysics in the 20th century. Suffice it to say, you should read about it more from someone other than me-- but do check it out if intrigued.
It also becomes clear in this chapter that, to Whitehead, "occasions of experience" constitute the fundamental unit of existence. Not "subjects" or "substances" or "matter" as various schools of Western metaphysics have offered. No, it is rather events, big and small, as they slide in and out of the present, continually into the past-- these are what existence is fundamentally made of. And as such, we should not talk about "beings", because nothing ever just "is." Everything changes-- everything becomes something and then perishes into the past. We would be more honest if we talked about things in terms of "becoming." The notions centered around "occasions of experience" is where you begin to recognize Whitehead's philosophy of process. Everything is becoming and in a state of process.
Elsewhere, Whitehead discusses the different meanings attributed to the word "law," in the history of science and in scientists' conceptions of the "laws of nature" (Chapter 7). In "The Grouping of Occasions" (Chapter 13), Whitehead talks about "societies" in many different ways. One society is a personal society-- that is, a society of occasions of experience which make up a person, or a person's soul. To me, this is by far the clearest characterization of what constitutes a soul, all other attempts being vague and/or unable to withstand to usual critiques of personal identity.
Part 4 deals with five ideals of civilization: Truth, Beauty, Art, Adventure, and Peace. All of these ideals are heavily informed by Whitehead's general metaphysics, and the way he works out their meanings and relations to each other from that starting point is first-rate.
A highlight of his discussion of Beauty is his closely related discussion of Discord (i.e., evil). I have a great interest in this topic, as music that incorporates "noise" -- in essence, treating discord as a form of beauty -- never fails to amaze me when it conjures emotions you'd usually associate with a pretty melody. "Dischord" could be my favorite record label name. The time I stopped skipping over Sonic Youth's messy parts is something I'll always remember. Etc etc etc. So I was delighted to see Whitehead engaging the topic straight-on, and to attach significant value to Discord. The details of this value, and its relation to the ebb and flow of civilizations, I'll leave for you to read.
The chapter on Adventure (19) touched on the various stages of a civilization as it struggles to its own ideal perfection, its possession of that perfection, and the slow decline once adventure loses its utility and appeal, and decadence and satire become the hallmark of an era. Again, these considerations reflected vague notions I had entertained regarding music, namely jazz. At a typical adventurous jazz show these days, you can't help getting the feeling that there's not much more room to advance from here. That, sure, it's a great experience hearing it now, but that sooner than later there won't be enough jazz players interested develop this sound to keep it alive-- and so, are we in the midst of a decline? Whitehead's general treatment of the subject didn't reveal any hidden prophecies in this regard, but it was interesting to try and fit my fleeting ideas to his very precise and considered concept of Adventure.
There are many other highlights -- for instance, the relationship between Ideals and the practice of science -- but instead of extending my recap, I'll end with a run of quotes that I liked:
"We notice that a great idea in the background of dim consciousness is like a phantom ocean beating upon the shores of human life in successive waves of specialization" (pg. 19, "The Human Soul")
"The folly of intelligent people, clear-headed and narrow-visioned, has precipitated many catastrophes" (pg. 48, "Aspects of Freedom")
"The creativity of the world is the throbbing emotion of the past hurling itself into a new transcendent fact" (pg. 177, "Objects and Subjects")
"Thus it belongs to the essence of each occasion of experience that it is concerned with an otherness transcending itself" (pg. 180, "Objects and Subjects")
"It is not a mere question of having a soul or of not having a soul. The question is, How much, if any?" (pg. 208, "The Grouping of Occasions")
"To know the truth partially is to distort the Universe. For example, the savage who can only count to ten enormously exaggerates the importance of the small numbers, and so do we whose imaginations fail when we come to millions" (pg. 243, "Truth")
[note: this one's more wrapped up in Whitehead's special terminology]
"Music elicits some confused feeling into direct apprehension. It performs this service, or disservice, by introducing an emotional clothing which changes the dim objective reality into a clear Appearance matching the subjective form provided for its prehension" (pg. 249, "Truth")
"Progress is founded upon the experience of discordant feelings. The social value of liberty lies in its production of discords. There are perfections beyond perfections. All realization is finite, and there is no perfection which is the infinitude of all perfections. Perfections of diverse types are among themselves discordant. Thus the contribution to Beauty which can be supplied by Discord -- in itself destructive and evil -- is the positive feeling a quick shift aim from the tameness of outworn perfection to some other ideal with its freshness still upon it. Thus the value of Discord is a tribute to the merits of imperfection." (pg. 257, "Beauty")
"The human body is an instrument for the production of art in the life of the human soul" (pg. 271, "Truth and Beauty")
"One principle is that the very essence of real actuality -- that is, of the completely real -- is process. Thus each actual thing is only to be understood in terms of its becoming and perishing. There is no halt in which the actuality is just itself, accidentally played upon by qualifications derived from the shift of circumstances. The converse is the truth." (pg. 274-275, "Adventure")
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