For me, John Ralston Saul's book On Equilibrium: Six Qualities of the New Humanism points the way to the next phase of human development if we can only manage to refrain from blowing ourselves back to a cave existence.
"Whitehead sees God not as an omnipotent creator outside time, but as an “actual entity” who interweaves the entire system, eternally mediating between infinite potential and concrete actualizations. This is panexperientialism: the cosmos is a pluriverse of interlocking perspectives, each integrating its past and creatively deciding among real possibilities for the next moment, aided but not determined by God’s vision of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness."
The "God" that is ALL-THAT-IS as ONE INDIVISIBLE OF AND FROM ALL ITS PARTS as well as all of their individual interactions, prehensions and occasions, all moving toward evermore expression of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness with more or less conscious intention. Can such a "God" open the sky and shout, "WAIT!" - or in Whitehead's terminology, put a pause on all occasions - when some idiot is about to press the nuclear button? Absolutely not! Firstly, because that would by itself "annihilate" the world, since experience is fundamental to everything, and more importantly, because that's on US - to prevent. There is no one "out there" to do so. WE ARE IT, as AW (Alan Watts - curious that he and Whitehead have the same basic initials) would say.
Big strokes and grand themes, thank you for sharing your vigorous story about truth. Can I ask you to reflect on a paragraph?
Matt mentions that Kant’s Critique of Judgment hints at an “organic” dimension in nature, bridging mind with the purposiveness observed in living organisms. This presages a deeper reconsideration of whether teleology might be intrinsic to life—and thereby to the wider cosmos.
I’d love to hear you just reflect on this point but also specifically speaking- what presages a deeper reconsideration?
You got it. One of the top podcasts from this year.
For me, John Ralston Saul's book On Equilibrium: Six Qualities of the New Humanism points the way to the next phase of human development if we can only manage to refrain from blowing ourselves back to a cave existence.
"Whitehead sees God not as an omnipotent creator outside time, but as an “actual entity” who interweaves the entire system, eternally mediating between infinite potential and concrete actualizations. This is panexperientialism: the cosmos is a pluriverse of interlocking perspectives, each integrating its past and creatively deciding among real possibilities for the next moment, aided but not determined by God’s vision of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness."
The "God" that is ALL-THAT-IS as ONE INDIVISIBLE OF AND FROM ALL ITS PARTS as well as all of their individual interactions, prehensions and occasions, all moving toward evermore expression of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness with more or less conscious intention. Can such a "God" open the sky and shout, "WAIT!" - or in Whitehead's terminology, put a pause on all occasions - when some idiot is about to press the nuclear button? Absolutely not! Firstly, because that would by itself "annihilate" the world, since experience is fundamental to everything, and more importantly, because that's on US - to prevent. There is no one "out there" to do so. WE ARE IT, as AW (Alan Watts - curious that he and Whitehead have the same basic initials) would say.
Big strokes and grand themes, thank you for sharing your vigorous story about truth. Can I ask you to reflect on a paragraph?
Matt mentions that Kant’s Critique of Judgment hints at an “organic” dimension in nature, bridging mind with the purposiveness observed in living organisms. This presages a deeper reconsideration of whether teleology might be intrinsic to life—and thereby to the wider cosmos.
I’d love to hear you just reflect on this point but also specifically speaking- what presages a deeper reconsideration?