Maintaining the reality of the red glow of the sunset
For Whitehead there’s something important at stake in the framing of human experience in terms of the bifurcation of nature that Stengers wants us to pay attention to; namely, the bifurcation of nature requires a certain kind of sacrifice on behalf of human experience that we may not wish to accept. Stengers describes this sacrifice, which is implied in the acceptance of the modern ontology, as a work of mourning. Stengers writes: “The work of mourning to which readers are going to be obliged is already announced to them. They will be asked to limit legitimate statements about experience to those that designate a ‘pure’ perceptual experience” (p. 32). As Whitehead says, “the mind is cut out altogether” (p. 34) when we attempt to determine, ontologically, what belongs to the content of nature and what belongs only to the content of our minds. Whitehead suggests something different altogether: “For us the red glow of the sunset should be as much a part of nature as are the molecules and electric waves by which men of science would explain the phenomenon” (TCN, p. 29).
Maintaining the reality of the red glow of the sunset, revealed to us in our psychic life, alongside the reality of the molecules and electric waves revealed by the sciences, is the goal of Whitehead’s philosophy of organism.
More excellent writing here on Whitehead and the bifurcation of nature—this piece comes from Adam Robbert. In the passage above he cites Isabelle Stengers book, Thinking With Whitehead. What is being said here is so important to me. Realizing that self-conscious human beings/becomings are not an exception to nature but only certain developed example OF nature has huge implications on how we live our lives. And also, realizing the importance and legitimacy of the psychic/mental life is so, so crucial. Ideas, feelings, seeings, hearings, senseings, impressions, emotions and experiences are all just as real (if not more so) as “matter.”
I honestly don’t think most people understand or take this seriously. This is why I think philosophy/theology/ideas are so important, and why I agree with Integral thinkers when they talk about every problem in the world potentially being understood, at least partially, as a problem of consciousness.
…
Photo Credit: michaelmoth
0 Comments