Introduction
The global harmony which we are in need of is, generally and theoretically speaking, a balanced whole. In concrete terms, it can mean a balanced development and consequently a balanced world. We speak about a balanced development or a sustainable development because our propaganda of development is anthropocentric. Human development focuses on socio-political, cultural, economic development. It leads to human activities cantered on what humans need irrespective of the environmental carrying capacity. It results in unsustainable human development. We need to preserve the carrying capacity of the environment for long-term and sustainable human development. The environmental disasters as reported worldwide show that we cannot continue the anthropocentric unsustainable development. On the other hand, amidst many warnings given by the nature itself, we force our activities either by exhausting the natural resources which are unrenewable such as, fossil fuels or by polluting the environment. This human development is not inclusive but exclusive that prioritizes human development at the expense of a productive ecosystem and biodiversity. The extinction of ecosystem and biodiversity causation us about the unproportionate, excessive, improper, and irrational human intervention in the natural process of the ecosystem, the reconceptualization of the human development, and the demand of the human effort to maintain global harmony. A kind of global harmony we are aiming at was already prefigured by the prophet Isaiah in the Bible, of course, in an exaggerated way. What Isaiah was imagining was a co-existence – a co-existence among all the inhabitants of the world. The allegorization of the desired harmony goes as follows:
6 The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat,the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.7 The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.8 The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
- Isaiah 11: 6-8
Whitehead’s metaphysical ideas about organism explains the miniature realities of the world, its process, and its interrelatedness, brings metaphysical justification to the co-existence of the nature and the holistic development of all, and finally emphasizes on the importance of global harmony for the betterment of all.
Global harmony is not easily attained. It requires effort. We must, first, reconceptualize human development to incorporate a development common to all living and non-living beings (holistic development) in the light of the Whitehead’s metaphysics of organism. Added to the reconceptualization of human development, maintaining a good balance between our organismic idea about the natural world, modern scientific development, and technology can surely put us in right track towards this new vision of sustainable human development or rather a holistic development.
1. Whiteheadian Process Metaphysics of Organism
Process and Reality metaphysics of organism, as it is given in his major work, Process and Reality, is essentially a philosophy of nature. It is all about investigating the processual characteristic of the organismic world. What he talks about in his philosophy is the age-old theory only namely, the mixture of ancient Platonic, atomic and Heraclitan process theories. But it is given in a newer fashion with more concrete, scientific and deeper meaning about the natural world, its functioning, and its purpose.
The term ‘organism,’ as applied to mean a living being in the sense of an organized physical structure, came to the use only in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century (Foltz & Frodeman, 2004, p. 117). Oxford English Dictionary would explain the word ‘organism’ as “a living thing especially one that is extremely small or a system consisting of parts that depend on each other.” Even for Whitehead, organism means the same.
The following couple of questions will serve as a starting point for the exploration of the organism: Why does whitehead talk about ‘organism’? and In Whiteheadian sense, what that word stands for? Fundamentally, as we all know, in every philosophy, it is taken for granted that there is an ultimate which is actual in virtue of its accidents, and to which, later, we attribute accidental embodiments (Whitehead, 1985, P. 7). In Whiteheadian process philosophy, what we call the ultimate is known as ‘actual entity’ (Whitehead, 1985, p. 35). An actual entity is nothing but an atom-like reality, of which the world is composed. In other words, the actual entities, like the atoms in atomic theory, are the building blocks of the universe. Whitehead understands these fundamental organismic units of the natural world as “processes” or “events” or “happenings” or “occasions” or “actualities.” (Hosinski, 1993, p. 9). As per the size of these entities, he describes that an actual entity is a millionth part of a centimetre (Whitehead, 1967, p. 126). According to Whitehead, these actual entities are microcosmic realities, of which this gross world is constituted. The atoms and the so-called sub-atomic particles are far bigger than the actual entities. In fact, whitehead calls the atoms and subatomic particles as societies of actual entities (Whitehead, 1985, P. 35). It means that they are already combinations of actual entities. The things that we see and experience in the world are enormously complicated societies composed of numerous societies of actual entities. Each cell in any body is a society of actual entities. Actual entity is incapable of further analysis into independent entities because of the unity of actual entities which is intact without further divisions (Whitehead, 1967, p. 177). But at the same time, an actual entity is not simple, but it is composite; it is an ultimate type of composite unity, and all other compositions are derivatives or exemplifications of actual entities (Whitehead, 1985, P. 148). In more simpler term, we can understand the actual entity as a microcosmic or quantum unit of this actual world.
Whitehead’s fundamental assumption is that the actual entities are basically organismic and processual (Whitehead, 1985, P. 7). As actual entities are organisms, they are capable of development, growth, annihilation, and reproduction. The actual entity is organismic, because in one sense, it is the ‘Form’ or ‘Actuality’ in the traditional sense, but always changing and dynamic as opposed to static nature of traditional metaphysical sense; and in another sense, it is “[…] at once the subject experiencing and the superject of its experiences” (Whitehead, 1985, P. 29). Actual entities, as subjects, constitute themselves to be substantive realities and as superjets, i.e., on the completion of their self-construction, they perish as constituting subjects and become the data (object) for future constituting actual entities. By becoming data for future actual entities, actual entities as superjets or objects never perish; they are immortal (Whitehead, 1985, P. 29). The subjective activity of self-construction and objective passivity of becoming data for the construction of other subsequent actual entities inevitably make actual entities as organisms and processes.
2. Process and Actual Entities
Actual entities are basically processual because, they are constantly creating themselves; and in creating themselves, they come to exist as entities. Once they accomplish their task of creating themselves, they become constituting elements for the forthcoming actual entities. They become constituting elements not only for the immediate next generation of actual entities, but also for the endless generation of actual entities. Actual entities, once constructed or concretized or constituted, never perish. In this sense, there are two types of process according to Whitehead: process as ‘becoming’ or ‘concrescence’ and process as ‘transition.’ The distinction between these two processes can also be called as internal process (process of becoming) and external process (process of transition).
3. Process of Concrescence or Process of Becoming
Etymologically, the word, ‘concrescence' can be divided into cum/con (Latin word for together) + crescence (the Latin root for it, is crescere/cret meaning to grow). Therefore, concrescence is the central idea in Whitehead’s philosophy of organism which generally entails the fact of growing together. It is a fundamental processual activity of the actual entity in which a universe of many things is objectified and appropriated or incorporated to become part of the self-constitution of a novel entity. The process of becoming or the internal constitution (self-creation) of actual entity is what explicated by the term ‘concrescence’ (Whitehead, 1985, P. 210). “‘Concrescence’ is the name for the process in which the universe of many things acquires an individual unity in a determinate relegation of each item of the ‘many’ to its subordination in the constitution of the novel ‘one’” ((Whitehead, 1985, P. 85).
The ‘process as becoming’ means ‘coming to be’ or ‘coming into being.’ Whitehead describes process of concrescence as, “That how an actual entity becomes, constitutes what that actual entity is; […] its ‘being’ is constituted by its ‘becoming.’ This is the principle of process” (Whitehead, 1985, P. 23). This ‘becoming’ is always becoming of a creative advance into novelty (Whitehead, 1985, P. 28). This is the originative phase in the process whereby, determinate definiteness of actual entities is achieved in this process. This process is primary and qualitative because it creates the individual essence of the actual entity (Nobo, 1986, p. 31).
More particularly, concrescence is concerned with the genetic formation of actual entity. It is a fundamental characteristic activity of actual entity that determines the being and the nature of actual entity. It is an activity in which the formative elements of an actual entity interact with each other, and out of this interaction there comes out the concrete actual entity. The concretizing activity of actual entity ends in the completion of its construction – the perfection of actual entity. Whitehead calls this as building up of determinate satisfaction.
The concrescence is thus the building up of a determinate ‘satisfaction,’ which constitutes the completion of the actual togetherness of the discrete components. The process of concrescence terminates with the attainment of a fully determinate ‘satisfaction; and the creativity thereby passes over into the ‘given’ primary phase for the concrescence of other actual entities (Whitehead, 1985, P. 85).
There is end to the process of constitution of the individual organisms or actual entities, but these completed organisms contribute to on-going process of the creation by becoming elements of future processes of organisms.
3.1.Prehension
The important term to understand the process of concrescence is prehension. The root word for ‘prehension’ comes from Latin: prehensio (noun), from prehendere (verb) which means 'to grasp.' Prehension, according to Whitehead, is an activity by which an actual entity carries out its own concretion – an activity of knowing the data and synthesizing or appropriating them into its self-constitution or concrescence (Whitehead, 1985, P. 52). It is an act of ‘grasping’ of other entities so as to make them components for one’s concrescence. By the act of prehension, the other actual entities with their formal existence are included objectively in the activity of its becoming. By way of prehending, an actual entity is in perfect and eternal bond with the rest of the things in the world. Whitehead explains how the act of prehension works in a cell theory as follows:
In the genetic theory, the cell is exhibited as appropriating for the foundation of its own existence, the various elements of the universe out of which it arises. Each process of appropriation of a particular element is termed a prehension. The ultimate elements of the universe, thus appropriated, are the already constituted actual entities, and the eternal objects (Whitehead, 1985, P. 219).
Alternatively, whitehead also uses the word, ‘feeling’ instead of ‘prehension’ to mean the functioning through which the actuality which is in concrescence appropriates the datum to make its own (Whitehead, 1985, P. 164).
3.1.1. Two Species of Prehensions
Prehensions are two types: positive and negative prehensions. Positive prehension is the definite inclusion or incorporation of data in the progressive constitution of an actual entity. Negative prehension is the definite exclusion of the data from the positive contribution to the internal constitution of the actual entity (Whitehead, 1985, P. 25 & 41). By virtue of these two species of prehensions, there are varieties among the species of both the living and non-living beings in the world. For example, Plutonium is chemically toxic to human body. Therefore, human bodies do not incorporate or appropriate or prehend it to make it their own constituting element. That means that it is negatively prehended.
3.1.2. Two Sides of Prehensions
The two sides of prehension are: physical and conceptual or mental prehensions. There are these two kinds of prehensions because, actual entities are basically bipolar: physical and mental. These two are essentially related for the reasons of process, self-construction, novelty, purposiveness, and valuation in actual entities. Whitehead transforms the age-old mind-body problem by giving altogether a different explanation for the union of body and mind in his conception of the ultimate fact (actual entity). His metaphysics deals with reality in its totality considering it as one, single, individual, and distinct unit, namely the actual entity. He writes, “The integration of the physical and mental side into a unity of experience is a self-formation which is a process of concrescence and which by the principle of objective immortality characterizes the creativity which transcends it” (Whitehead, 1985, P. 108). Though mental and physical poles are there in the constitution of an actual entity, they are not two different real activities, but two aspects of one and the same concretizing activity of the actual entity.
Physical prehension means that during concrescence, the actual entity grasps or appropriates to itself the physical data, i.e., the already settled or objectified actual entities. These actual entities have finished their subjective or self-constitution and have become objective data for the prehension of the presently concretizing actual entities. Mental or conceptual prehension is the act of absorbing eternal objects which are actually ‘qualities’ or ‘forms’ or ‘values’ for the determination and specifications of the actual entities (Dunham, 2010, p. 141). Eternal objects are nothing but the formal determinants of actual entities. In Platonic understanding, it is the world of ideas or forms. They include essences, theories, principles, values, and God, who is the holder of those eternal objects. In that sense, Whitehead understands eternal ideas as constituents of the primordial nature of God (Whitehead, 1985, P. 46). They are those entities which. make it possible for there to be anything in the world of space and time which can be a definite 'this' or 'that.' It means that they are formal determinant factors, i.e., non-temporal, non-empirical and spiritual elements of actual entities. Hall delineates five functions of eternal objects - universality, abstractness, permanence, identity, and potentiality (Hall, I930, pp. 29-44). Due to the reason of eternal objects, determinate definiteness of actual entities is achieved. Conceptual prehension is qualitative because, the qualitative aspect, i.e., the individual essence of the actual entity is created (Nobo, 1986, p. 31).
3.2.Process of Transition
‘Transition’ entails a passage from one actual entity to another actual entity – from one generation of actual entities to another generation of actual entities. When one accomplishes the process, it becomes the constituting principle for subsequent emergence of actual entities. Whiteheads writes:
The other kind is the fluency whereby the perishing of the process, on the completion of the particular existent, constitutes that existent as an original element in the constitutions of other particular existents elicited by repetitions of process. This kind I have called ‘transition.’ (Whitehead, 1985, P. 210)
In this fashion, process of transition connects past, present, and future actual entities. The past actual entities are unavoidable for the concretization of the present ones and the present ones are as important as the past ones for the future actual entities. In short, the past is the constituting principle of the present and future. This temporal dimension of coming together of actual entities creates the world history and its process. In this sense, every creature that exists presupposes an earlier creature (Whitehead, 1985, P. 68). Whatever the world is synthesizing or experiencing now is going to be a drop of experience for future world and an unalterable context of the future (Lowe, 1962, pp. 18-19).
In this sense, the origin of the present world is always in conformity with the power of the past world (Whitehead, 1985, P. 210). Since ‘transition’ creates new occasions and objectifies in them the superjects which are already in existence, repeatability which is important for the continuity of the history of the world is maintained in the process of ‘transition,’ so that, each new actual entity does not create a break away from the old or from the universe whence it emerges to be. Transition also supports the principle of creativity and by virtue of which the universe is involved in its on-going creation. Finally, the process of transition is relational because it connects past, present and future. The vast physical universe, according to Edwin Hubble, is expanding infinitely not only quantitatively, i.e., in space and time but also qualitatively. According to Big Bang, the world is still evolving with millions of new species coming to life. These theories can be theoretically explained by Whiteheadian process of prehension.
4. Interrelatedness
Relatedness or connectedness is the characteristic feature of the actual entity whereby, each actual entity essentially involves its connection with the universe of other things (Whitehead, 1968, p. 66). Whitehead writes, “But no two actualities can be torn apart: each is all in all” (Whitehead, 1985, P. 348). This relatedness is concerned with the prehension or appropriation of objectified actual entity (finished processes) by the actual entities which are active in process.
The positive doctrine of these lectures is concerned with the becoming, being, and the relatedness of ‘actual entities.’ […] All relatedness has its foundation in the relatedness of actualities; and such relatedness is wholly concerned with the appropriation of the dead by the living – that is to say, with ‘objective immorality’ whereby what is divested of its own living immediacy becomes a real component in other living immediacies of becoming (Whitehead, 1985, P. xiii-xiv).
Relatedness can be conceived at different levels. At the microcosmic level, there is interrelatedness between actual entities. This is the relation between contemporary actual entities. Therefore, all things are products of interrelatedness of various actual entities.
This interdependence or mutual immanence between or among contemporary actual entities is not causally initiated because no two contemporary actual entities are in any direct relation to efficient causation. They can be only related by way of common past and common future. The above-given diagram explains the mutual immanence of contemporary actual entities and their common past and future. From the diagram, we understand that the past is objectified or incorporated in the present and the future is immanent in the present or in other words, the present constitutes the future (Whitehead, Adventures of Ideas, 194). “The occasions originate from a common past and their objective immortality operates within a common future. But the immediate activity of self-creation is separate and private, so far as contemporaries are concerned” (Whitehead, 1961, p. 195).
As he insists on the interconnectedness of actual entities, Whitehead never compromises with the subjective freedom of the actual entities. For Whitehead says, “The mutual independence of contemporary occasions lies strictly within the sphere of their teleological self-creation” (Whitehead, 1961, p. 195). There is a purpose in the freedom or the independence of the contemporaries. The purpose is to create their future. Each contemporary actual entity is responsible for its future. This is why the purpose in actual entities is always geared towards their teleological self-creation. There is freedom at the same time responsibility – freedom of creating oneself and responsibility for creating the common future, that is, the future of the world. Actual entities by creating themselves create the universe – the future of the universe.
Consequently, there is interrelatedness at the macrocosmic level of the world because, all gross things in this world are societies of actual entities about which we shall see in the next title. There is also interrelatedness between microcosmic (actual entities) and macrocosmic entities (the beings of the world). This is the external relation of the actual entities whereby; the actual entities go out of their way to relate with other actual entities to form the world.
5. Nexus
A nexus is a group of actual entities. “Any such particular fact of togetherness among actual entities is called a 'nexus'” (Whitehead, 1985, P. 20). In other words, nexus is a collection of actual entities. that are unified by means of their prehensions of one another (Whitehead, 1985, P. 24). Whitehead says that the nexus is the correlate to the concrescence. “‘The nexus of actual entities in the universe correlate to a concrescence is termed 'the actual world' correlate to that concrescence” (Whitehead, 1985, P. 23). Actual entities are by nature nexus (we can also use the term, ‘society’ in place of ‘nexus’, even though Whitehead slightly differentiates these two.) due to their natural characteristics of togetherness through the activities of prehension and objectification. Whitehead asserts, “That a nexus is a set of actual entities in the unity of the relatedness constituted by their prehensions of each other, or - what is the same thing conversely expressed - constituted by their objectifications in each other” (Whitehead, 1985, P. 23).
To form a society, the actual entities should be temporally related. In other words, they should possess the quality of endurance. The fact of endurance needs antecedent and subsequent actual entities (Whitehead, 1985, P. 34). Actual entity only becomes and perishes, but a society changes according to the changing circumstances. The nature and quality of nexus depend on the mutual immanence of its members. Every living creature is a nexus and the whole universe is composed of nexuses. The universe is full of living organisms which are complex nexuses. Nature is full of living and non-living things that are, of course, nexuses. Therefore, nature itself is a nexus and in the same way, the whole universe is a complex nexus. In this sense, there is nothing which does not have value, and there is nothing which is valuable in its isolation. The universe achieves its value by the reason of its interrelatedness or coordination between nexuses. Whitehead describes universe as solidarity of many actual entities. As nexus, when an actual occasion synthesizes the many data which are already self-created actual entities and unifies them into its subject, it experiences the solidarity of other actual entities (Whitehead, 1985, P. 40).
6. Primordial and Consequential Natures of God and the World
In Whitehead’s understanding, God and the world are not entirely opposites. In Whiteheadian system, even though God and the world maintain their own separateness and uniqueness, yet they interact each other. One may question what makes God and the world to mutually interact. Whitehead explains the mutual fulfilment of both God and the world by introducing primordial and consequential natures to both (Whitehead, 1985, pp. 342-351). God in his primordial nature is transcendent, absolute, unchanging, and infinite. God’s primordial nature is like the Aristotle’s conception of God as Unmoved Mover. God in his primordial nature is not moved by the love and hate of any corporeal being (Whitehead, 1985, p. 105). It means that God is not touched by the world. But his consequential nature is just opposite whereby he becomes immanent, fluent, determined, incomplete, consequent, everlasting, fully actual and conscious (Whitehead, 1985, p. 345). The primordial nature of the world is constituted of its finitude, limitations, imperfections, and change. And its consequential nature consists of its everlastingness (Whitehead, 1985, p. 349), and perfection.
Both God and the world are undertaking a process – process of self-constitution. God constitutes his consequential self by incorporating whatever the world has achieved or perfected so far. God is fulfilled only when he constitutes his consequential self which is the God’s union with the world. In the same way, the world also moves towards its perfection when it transcends from its primordial nature to its consequential nature, i.e., the world’s union with the consequential nature of God. Hence, both God and the world cannot be fulfilled without each other’s contribution – a mutual fulfilment (Whitehead, 1985, p. 32).
God’s transitional process from his primordial nature to his consequent nature is initiated by his physical experience of the world. He goes through this experience by feeling and objectifying the material world into the constitution of his consequent nature (Whitehead, 1985, p. 345). The world constitutes its consequential nature, namely, its fulfilment, its perfection and its everlastingness especially when God assimilates the world into himself or in other words, when he objectifies the actual world for the construction of his consequential nature. He realizes the actual world in himself. He incorporates the world to himself by becoming the object for the becoming of the world. His consequent nature is the unification of his physical feeling of the world with his primordial nature.
The consequent nature of God is the fluent world become ‘everlasting’ by its objective immorality in God. Also, the objective immorality of actual occasions requires the primordial permanence of God, whereby the creative advance ever re-establishes itself endowed with initial subjective aim derived from the relevance of God to the evolving world (Whitehead, 1985, p. 347).
In this consequential nature of God and the world, both God and creatures meet each other, fulfil each other, and feel mutually completed and satisfied; and there exists everlasting union between God and creation (Whitehead, 1985, p. 347). In Whiteheadian philosophical system of organism, God is panentheistic. God is both immanent and transcendent. It implies that there is an interrelatedness and interdependency between God and the world. Whitehead goes to the extent of saying that God creates the world and conversely the world creates God. Though it looks rather perverse, yet there is truth in it. The world needs God for its self-creation and in return, God needs the worldly creatures for the constitution of his consequent nature which later is assumed or incorporated by his primordial nature. (see the figure)
In God’s nature, permanence is primordial, and flux is derivative from the world: in the World’s nature, flux is primordial and permanence is derivative from God. Also the world’s nature is primordial datum for God; and God’s nature is a primordial datum for the world. Creation achieves the reconciliation of permanence and flux when it has reached its final term which is everlastingness – the Apotheosis of the World (Whitehead, 1985, p. 348).
Whitehead requires the concept of God as the principle of concretion which is the primal activity of the basic organism in his system as Aristotle required Him as Prime Mover to his system of cosmology (Whitehead, 1967, p. 174). In his primordial nature, God is the ground of all potentialities. By being the reservoir of eternal objects God orders the eternal objects according to their relevance for the process of self-constitution of the actual entities. God, by establishing the subjective aim and the initial object of desire to the constitution of the actual entities, becomes the lure (appetite) for the feeling of prehension of actual entities. It means that God is the reservoir or the holder of all values, qualities, virtues, and ethics. Even though, he provides eternal objects to the actual entities, God never determines the actual course of the actual entities. He only provides them a universe of eternal objects to choose and concretize.
God, in consequential nature, leaves his status as transcendent and comes to the creatures as their constituting part. He becomes the constituting principle of concretion by being the initiator of the concrescence of the actual entities or organisms and the provider of the possibilities. God is responsible for all novelty in the actual world, for, the objectification of the already concretized actual entities is done in God himself. Therefore, the novelty that the present actual entities are aiming at, are already presupposed in the objectification of the actual world in God.
Whitehead’s naturalistic theism says that “all things are in God,” and the world is an essential part of the divinity. Hartshorne confirms that Whitehead’s God is the soul of the world and therefore the existence of the world is no more contingent but an essential part of divine essence (Hartshorne, 1984, p. 59). David Griffin reaffirms that the relationship between God and the world is beyond the will of both God and the world and is founded on the necessity of the nature of God and of the world (Griffin, 2007, p. 27 & Whitehead, 1961, p. 168). In other words, the relationship between nature and God is in a way necessitated. Divine influence in the on-going creation of the world is a necessary dimension of the process of creation.
7. Whitehead's Metaphysics of Organism and the Origin and the Submit of the Global Harmony
Whiteheadian metaphysics of organism comes under theoretical metaphysics. In a way it is a kind of description of what the reality is in its microcosmic and macrocosmic levels and how the actual entities construct themselves and come to life and by doing so through its characteristic principle of interrelatedness, form this visible material world. This material world is simply the combination of those of actual entities. The microorganisms, i.e., actual entities are continuously creating themselves in the primary phase and by entering in relationship with other actual entities, they form nexuses in the secondary phase. These nexuses are the gross realities in the world. This is the formation of this material world, and this formation is a processual one which is unending. What happens in this process of the world is explained by the metaphysical principles of organism such as, concrescence, prehension, teleological transition, interdependence, and nexus.
The paper claims that Whiteheadian metaphysics of organism is the origin and summit of the global harmony. The argument for this claim can be established as follows. The harmony which is the need of the time is not foreign to the world. According to Whitehead, harmony is there already at the genetic level of the organism or actual entity (at the level of the self-construction of the organism) and at the transitional level, i.e., the teleological level of the nexuses of organisms (at the level of the formation of the gross realities of the world, i.e., nexuses of actual entities). In other words, harmony is found at the microcosmic and macrocosmic level of the construction of the world.
According to Whitehead, as Anaxagoras puts it, "all things possess a portion of everything", every organism has incorporated everything else either by way of its fundamental characteristic activity of prehending or by becoming objects for the prehensions of other organisms. In this sense, the organism by nature is in harmony with everything else in this world. Consequently, the world as the constitution of the organisms, is also in perfect harmony with all that constitute it. This is the harmony which was allegorically narrated by Isaiah in the Bible. This harmony has to be maintained as it is. It is the need of the time and it is what most governments wish today.
In 1972, Lovelock developed Gaia[1] hypothesis which establishes that all living organisms together with the atmosphere and the oceans constitute some kind of super-organism that controls chemical changes in the environment according to its own ends. Gaia controls temperature, oxidation-reduction potential, and Hydrogen-iron concentration, and other entities in the environment. Overall, Gaia creates an optimal or a positive condition for life in the atmosphere. This Gaia hypothesis is based on the fact that biological processes affect the chemical and physical environment on the surface of the earth (Fenchel, 2002, 149). It proposes that all living organisms interact with their inorganic surrounding to form a cooperative or interactive and self-regulating complex system that helps to maintain and perpetuate the favourable conditions for life on the planet. Gaia claims that the earth is a self-regulating system and demands that the physical and chemical environment should be optimal for life. It is in this line Whitehead says that microscopic organisms undergo changes according to the changes that take place in the macro level environment.
It seems possible that there may be physical laws expressing the modification of the ultimate basic organisms when they form part of higher organisms with adequate compactness of pattern. It would, however, be entirely in consonance with the empirically observed action of environments (Whitehead, 1985, P. 150).
Whiteheadian metaphysics of organism affirms that the natural process or the natural self-constitution of each living organism in the environment is interrupted and tampered when humans empty the non-renewable natural resources such as, fossil fuels, pollute the environment, and inflict toxic and other harmful materials emitted into the surface. In fact, we need scientific and technological development to meet the rising needs of human society. However, excessive scientific and technological intervention in the natural process of the world brings unwanted and negative impacts in the environment contributing to various disasters such as, global warming, whether extremes, and the extinction of living organisms.
The harmony which is there both at the origin and the culmination of the world should not be tampered by human irrational intervention. Any harmful and unwanted intervention in the process of the macrocosmic world will affect the process or self-creation of the microorganisms. The affected microorganisms will become incapacitated, devitalized, malnutritional, weak, unproductive, degenerated. This negative impact will be carried on to the next generation of organisms especially when affected microorganisms become objectified data for the constitution of the future organisms. At the end, many micro warms, and vulnerable beings will be extinct, generations will be weakened, and at large the world will have shortened lifespan.
Many times, we intervene in the natural process of the world unconsciously, especially when we throw the used polyethene, use pesticides, fertilizers and so on to increase the harvest, use refrigerators and other machineries in the kitchen, eat all kinds of junk foods of burgers, drink chemically charged soft drinks, and consume excessive water and electricity. In this fashion, when we introduce elements foreign, unwanted, and harmful to the organisms, they appropriate them and construct themselves accordingly. These stuffs which are forcefully introduced in the organisms become part of their being and when these organisms are objectified for the construction of the future organisms, the future organisms get devitalized, made unproductive, become impotent as mentioned above. These genetic deficiencies caused in the macrocosmic organisms by anthropogenic activity will be reflected in the microcosmic organism. Some may argue also saying that the world, as Gaia believes, heals itself. But when the damage goes beyond the viable level, the organisms get deteriorated and there happens the collapse of the ecosystem.
Conclusion
Whitehead excavates the organism in order to give a rational and process explanation to the reality of the world. His excavation into the very nature of the organism helps us understand that world is organismic and processual. These two characteristics of the world tells us that we cannot simply carry out human development without considering all the inhabitants of the world, because any harm done to any of the elements of the world will affect the whole organism of the world.
Therefore, we must reconceptualize human development to incorporate a development common to all the inhabitants of the world. Secondly, we should maintain a good balance between intuitive understanding of the world, modern scientific development, and technology so that we may not miss science and technology and their benefits and simultaneously may save the world and its inhabitants. Thirdly, we must learn to live a natural life. Fourthly, let us stay away from all that harmful to the organismic ecosystem. Finally, we must learn to use moderately water, electricity, paper, etc.
Reference
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[1] Gaia is a primordial earth goddess in Greek myth, literally, "earth".
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