새로운 형이상학은 가능한가? - ‘개체성’ 문제를 중심으로 -

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the possibility of a new metaphysics through Whitehead's organic philosophy. This possibility is related to the theory of actuality in Whitehead's metaphysics. Actuality is central to what Whitehead refers to as the process and finite. Actuality is the agent of process, determining the outcome of concrescence by freely responding, within its own actual limitations, to stubborn fact and the value of the relevant possibilities. Another question about the 'finite' aims is: What is the process by which the aims, or ideals, impose their character on the organism? In other words, how do the aims guide the process of organic formation? Whitehead's answer is that this process is aesthetic. While Aristotle and Plato end with an ideal, Whitehead believes that an ideal which is realized in process is in itself multiplicity. For him purpose is allied to aesthetics. Here aesthetics means the realization of intensity, while intensity means realization of contrasts. The order (i.e. harmony) of intensity means the absence of attenuations due to the elimination of contrasts which some elements in the pattern would introduce and other elements inhibit. In this way, Whitehead believes that the principle of individuality is combined the principle of process and finite (ideal or purpose).