Whitehead's concept of subjectivity.
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Abstract
The history of philosophy has manifested diverse
considerations of the subject of experience and the
subject as the primary metaphysical entity or substance.
Two positions have been prevalent: the Aristotelian
aubstance philosophies, and the philosophies of subjective
phenomenalism. Whitehhead's philosophy does
not seem to fit either. The concept of subjectivity
as employed and formulated by Whitehead is available
for analysis only through a preliminary analysis of the
Categorial Scheme. Thus, an analysis of the categorial
scheme in its relevance to the concept of subjectivity
precedes the analysis of the subject in Whitehead's
philosophy.
The method Whitehead employs is speculative, but
it is firmly founded on scientific knowledge. Whitehead
justifies speculative philosophy on the grounds
that it is only through the free play of imagination
grounded in fact that interpretive knowledge is possible.
Interpretive knowledge is the province of philosophy,
and thus philosophy is never divorced from the other
branches of knowledge. Further, the categ ories which
are evolved in philosophy must be applicable to all
areas of experience. The primary category of existence
is actual entities. They are the res verae. An actual
entity is an act of experience arising out of data.
This is contrary to the traditional substance philosophies.
Every actual entity has a definite referential
relation with all other actual entities. This relation
is prehension, which may be either positive or negative.
The coming of actual entities is a concrescent process
whereby many things achieve individual unity. Qualities
are the result of prehensions of eternal objects or pure
potentials. The ingression of eternal objects into actual
entities provides definiteness to the actual entities.
Actual entities are both the subjects of experience and
the "substance" of the universe.
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Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University
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