Process and Reality — the Gifford Lectures, 1929

In other words, philosophy is explanatory of abstraction, and not of concreteness. It is by reason of their instinctive grasp of this ultimate truth that, in spite of much association with arbitrary fancifulness and atavistic mysticism, types of Platonic philosophy retain their abiding appeal; they seek the forms in the facts. Each fact is more than its forms, and each form ‘participates’ throughout the world of facts. The definiteness of fact is due to its forms; but the individual fact is a creature, and creativity is the ultimate behind all forms, inexplicable by forms, and conditioned by its creatures.

SECTION II

THE CATEGORIES

• I. The Category of the Ultimate.
• II. Categories of Existence.
• III. Categories of Explanation.
• IV. Categoreal Obligations.

It is the purpose of the discussion in these lectures to make clear the meaning of these categories, their appli-

2 In this connection I may refer to the second chapter of my book
The Principle of Relativity, Cambridge University, 1922.

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cability, and their adequacy. The course of the discussion will disclose how very far they are from satisfying this ideal.

Every entity should be a specific instance of one category of existence, every explanation should be a specific instance of categories of explanation, and every obligation should be a specific instance of categoreal obligations. The category of the Ultimate expresses the general principle presupposed in the three more special categories.

The Category of the Ultimate

‘Creativity,’ ‘many,’ ‘one’ are the ultimate notions involved in the meaning of the synonymous terms ‘thing,’ ‘being, ‘entity,’ ‘These three notions complete the Cate gory of the Ultimate and are presupposed in all the more special categories,

The term ‘one’ does not stand for ‘the integral number one, which is a complex special notion. It stands for the general idea underlying alike the indefinite article ‘a or an,’ and the definite article ‘the, and the demonstratives ‘this or that,’ and the relatives ‘which or what or how.’ It stands for the singularity of an entity. The term ‘many’ presupposes the term ‘one,’ and the term ‘one’ presupposes the term ‘many.’ The term ‘many’ conveys the notion of ‘disjunctive diversity’; this notion is an essential element in the concept of ‘being.’ There are many ‘beings’ in disjunctive diversity.

‘Creativity’ is the universal of universals characterizing ultimate matter of fact. 1t is that ultimate principle b 1 any, which are the universe disjunctively, become the one actual occasion, which is the universe conjunctively. It lies in the nature of things that the many enter_into complex unity,

‘Creativity’ _is_the principle of novelty. An_actual occasion is a novel entity diver ity 1 many’ which it unifies. Thus_ ‘creativity’ introduces novelty into the content _of the many, which are thep. 32 universe disjunctively. The ‘creative advance’ is the application of this ultimate principle of creativity to each novel situation which it originates.

‘Together’ is a generic term covering the various special ways in which various sorts of entities are ‘together’ in any one actual occasion. Thus ‘together’ presupposes the notions ‘creativity,’ ‘many,’ ‘one,’ ‘identity’ and “diversity.’ The ultimate metaphysical principle is the advance from disjunction to conjunction, creating a novel entity other than the entities given in disjunction. The novel entity is at once the togetherness of the ‘many’ which it finds, and also it is one among the disjunctive ‘many’ which it leaves; it is a novel entity, disjunctively among the many entities which it synthesizes. The many become one, and are increased by one. In their natures, entities are disjunctively ‘many’ in process of passage into conjunctive unity. This Category of the Ultimate replaces Aristotle’s category of ‘primary substance.’

Thus the ‘production of novel togetherness’ is the ultimate notion embodied in the term ‘concrescence.’ These ultimate notions of ‘production of novelty’ and of ‘concrete togetherness’ are inexplicable either in terms of higher universals or in terms of the components participating in the concrescence. The analysis of the components abstracts from the concrescence. The sole appeal is to intuition.

The Categories of Existence

There are eight Categories of Existence:

(1) Actual Entities (also termed Actual Occasions), or
Final Realities, or Rés Verae.

(11) Prehensions, or Concrete Facts of Relatedness.

(111) Nexis (plural of Nexus), or Public Matters of
Fact.

(iv) Subjective Forms, or Private Matters of Fact.

(v) Eternal Objects, or Pure Potentials for the Specific
Determination of Fact, or Forms of Definiteness.

(vi) Propositions, or Matters of Fact in Potential

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Determination, or Impure Potentials for the Specific
Determination of Matters of Fact, or Theories.

(vii) Multiplicities, or Pure Disjunctions of Diverse
Entities.

(viii) Contrasts, or Modes of Synthesis of Entities in one Prehension.

Among these eight categories of existence, actual entities and eternal objects stand out with a certain extreme finality. The other types of existence have a certain intermediate character. The eighth category includes an indefinite progression of categories, as we proceed from ‘contrasts’ to ‘contrasts of contrasts,’ and on indefinitely to higher grades of contrasts.

The Categories of Explanation

There are twenty-seven Categories of Explanation:

(i) That the actual world is a process, and that the process is the becoming of actual entities. Thus actual entities are creatures; they are also termed ‘actual occasions.’

(11) That in the becoming of an actual entity, the potential unity of many entities—actual and non-actual —acquires the real unity of the one actual entity; so that the actual entity is the real concrescence of many potentials.

(i111) That in the becoming of an actual entity, novel prehensions, nexts, subjective forms, propositions, multiplicities, and contrasts, also become; but there are no novel eternal objects.

(iv) That the potentiality for being an element in a real concrescence of many entities into one actuality, is the one general metaphysical character attaching to all entities, actual and non-actual; and that every item in its universe is involved in each concrescence. In other words, it belongs to the nature of a ‘being’ that it is a potential for every ‘becoming.’ This is the ‘principle of relativity.’

(v) That no two actual entities originate from an idenp. 34tical universe; though the difference between the two universes only consists in some actual entities, included in one and not in the other, and in the subordinate entities which each actual entity introduces into the world. The eternal objects are the same for all actual entities. The nexus of actual entities in the universe correlate to a concrescence, is termed ‘the actual world’ correlate to that concrescence.

(vi) That each entity in the universe of a given concrescence can, so far as its own nature is concerned, be implicated in that concrescence in one or other of many modes; but in fact it is implicated only in one mode: that the particular mode of implication is only rendered fully determinate by that concrescence, though it is conditioned by the correlate universe. This indetermination, rendered determinate in the real concrescence, is the meaning of ‘potentiality.’ It is a conditioned indetermination, and is therefore called a ‘real potentiality.’

(vii) That an eternal object can be described only in terms of its potentiality for ‘ingression’ into the becoming of actual entities; and that its analysis only discloses other eternal objects. It is a pure potential. The term ‘ingression’ refers to the particular mode in which the potentiality of an eternal object is realized in a particular actual entity, contributing to the definiteness of that actual entity.