luctor et emergo

“[God] is the lure for feeling, the eternal urge of desire. His particular relevance to each creative act, as it arises from it’s own conditioned standpoint in the world, constitutes him the initial ‘object of desire’ establishing the initial phase of each subjective aim.”

After class I asked Prof. Grange about his interpretation of this passage from Part Five, Chapter II, Section II of Alfred North Whitehead’s Process and Reality. Because earlier in the class he had said that our interpretations of the paragraph differed.

I had attempted to define the paragraph as “God being the lure in all of us for godhood, or the depth and breadth of experience as found in the ‘mind of God’ which embodies the ‘unconditioned actuality of conceptual feelings (ideas) at the base of all things.’ I envisioned a lure towards a depth of experience, with godhood at experience’s widest. He rebuked that heroin addicts also have a depth of experience and get their minds blown by reality frequently, so not all experience is “positive.” He also stated that ‘value’ as determined by Whitehead is based in selective negation of certain things. So that my quest for the better (I had specified that it was not a quest for good) may best be served by asking the question: “Is this valid?”

So. I ask myself: What is valid?

Main Entry: val·id

Pronunciation:\ˈva-ləd\

Function: adjective

Etymology: Middle French or Medieval Latin; Middle French valide, from Medieval Latin validus, from Latin, strong, potent, from valēre

Date: 1571

1: having legal efficacy or force; especially : executed with the proper legal authority and formalities <a valid contract>2 a: well-grounded or justifiable : being at once relevant and meaningful <a valid theory> b: logically correct <a valid argument> <valid inference>3: appropriate to the end in view : effective <every craft has its own valid methods>

The first definition does not seem to apply to my case. The second one may be but for now I would like to shy away from “logic” (though I’ll certainly use it) and relevance to avoid the question: relevant to what? Which the third definition answers quite neatly: relevant to the end in view. So what’s my end? Depth of experience? I guess for the purposes of this entry I’ll say yes. I can change the question to any damn thing I like down the road.

So what is an appropriate means to the ends of a greater depth of experience? Mindfulness? Awareness?

I have no answers right now. Perhaps this is the wrong end, or I am misinterpreting the question.

There will be more on this later.