Reading Group: 01 November 2011

Next Tuesday we continue with the second half of Chapter 3: The Phases of Concrescence, pages 54 to 70.

Last time, we discussed the first two phases, namely (a) conformal feelings and (b) conceptual feelings. The constitution of an actual entity is a product, both of other actual entities that form its environment (physical feelings) and the potentiality embodied by eternal objects (conceptual feelings). The former gives the object an element of contingency, while the latter crafts the necessity of its being.

Now we move to the third phase, i.e., (c) comparative feelings, which may be either simple or complex.

Date: 01 November 2011 (Tuesday)

Time: 2:30 pm

Venue: Library, Department of Philosophy, University of Delhi

Reading Group: 18 October 2011

After the riveting debate over the meaning of 'potentiality' last week, we now move to Chapter 3: The Phases of Concrescence. Since it is a lengthy chapter, we will be breaking it into two sessions. For next Tuesday we read pages 36 to 54. 

Date: 18 October 2011 (Tuesday)

Time: 2:00 pm

Venue: Library, Department of Philosophy, University of Delhi

What is concrescence?

[It] is the name given to the process that is any given actual entity; it is the 'real internal constitution of a particular existent'. Concrescence is the growing together of a many into the unity of one. 

Ek Chidiya, Anek Chidiya

Films Division, Doordarshan

Reading Group: 11 October 2011

Whitehead conceives of three formative elements:

1. Eternal object is always a potentiality for actual entities; but in itself, as conceptually felt, it is neutral as to the fact of its physical ingression in any particular actual entity in the temporal world. 
2. God is the organ of novelty, aiming at intensification. He is the lure for feeling, the eternal urge of desire. The primary element in the 'lure for feeling' is the subject's prehension of the primordial nature of God. 
3. Creativity is the principle of novelty. An actual occasion is a novel entity diverse from any entity in the 'many' which it unifies. Thus 'creativity' introduces novelty into the content of the many, which are the universe disjunctively. 

Next week, we read Chapter 2: The Formative Elements (pp. 20-35) from A Key to Process and Reality.

Date: 11 October 2011 (Tuesday)


Time: 2.30 pm


Venue: Library, Department of Philosophy, University of Delhi