I Can't Handle the Truth

Brief Introduction to Newsletter:

As many of you know, I am currently enrolled in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness Master's program at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). Over the next two years, I hope to earn a PhD on my quest to become a professional educator, author, and generally interesting human being. I have been encouraged to start publishing my written work to provide a glimpse at my progress and development over time. Thus, I've started this newsletter in order to do so. With any luck, this content will elevate our minds and mood, if only for a moment. Enjoy!

CIIS Writing Prompt/Context:

Why does Alfred North Whitehead think our experience of personal identity is so metaphysically important? What does it reveal about the nature of the universe, particularly in regard to the relationship between eternity and time?

I was anxious to get to Whitehead’s final conclusions around God, personal identity, eternity, and time.? CIIS Professor Matthew Segall’s concluding remarks weighed heavily on me and gave me a lot to think about - particularly because harmony is precisely what I’ve been looking for in entering the PCC program.? I’ll start by digging into the optional prompt, before I turn my focus to Whitehead’s simple and brutal assessment of truth that I believe is related.

As Dr. Segall clearly states in the lecture and his book, Whitehead believes the most obvious evidence for the existence of God is around our own sense of personal identity - the continuity of our personalities from moment to moment connecting our past (memory) with our present (now) and anticipation (future).? Our desire for positive change at the local level is likely an indication that the greatest organism up top is also participating in its own grandiose becoming.? Eternal value is evident in the gradual evolution (the decisions) of the cosmos and its organisms, that transcend the limitations of space, time, life, and death.? As we move up the scale of complexity, memory and consciousness expand - something I would suggest - might be tied to our technological evolution.? Contemplation of the magic of our existence and what it means to be and anticipate the future is key to Whitehead’s panexperientialist ontology.

Now that contemplation, on my side, has heavily been tied to the pursuit of truth.? Admittedly, I’ve been most entertained by philosophers that met truth with incredible scrutiny (Socrates, Nicholas of Cusa, etc.).? However, Whitehead was different.? I would go as far as to say I was utterly crestfallen when I met Whitehead’s complete undressing of truth...

“Truth is a qualification which applies to Appearance alone.? Reality is just itself, and it is nonsense to ask whether it be true or false.”[1]? The simplicity of these statements was jarring.? Why?? Because I am of the belief that we humans are lied to in overwhelming ways.? Or at very least, I’ve been lied to in overwhelming ways - by a family and culture that has misrepresented the realities of work, politics, marriage, parenting, sex, drugs, history - the list goes on and on.? As a result, the ferocity with which I’ve pursued the ideal of truth has been high.? Yet, in walks Whitehead to drop the mic and say (heavily paraphrasing), “Dude, the truth is self evident.? Why debate it further.”? That stung.??

“Truth is the conformation of Appearance to Reality… a generic quality with a variety of degrees and modes… two composite facts [participating] in the same pattern.”[2]? Forgive me for being melodramatic, but I interpreted this as: “One plus one does not equal two.? Rather, one and one are similar but never the same - and don’t even talk to me about what two is.”??

This lead me back to my original application to CIIS, where I proposed the idea that the purpose and suffering of the cosmos (God) stems from its inability to truly know itself - to find truth.? What’s crazy is that for some reason, I thought I could! ?I held truth as a false ideal.? Whitehead’s work kicked the stool out from under my pursuit of truth, completely replacing this false idol with my becoming.??

Ironically (or perhaps not), I wrote about this back in 2015 after an Ayahuasca ceremony - stating “I am my actions” (movement, not object).? Whitehead finally formalized it, revealing the nature (and perhaps frustration) of the universe through the experience of our own personal identity.? What I’m now struggling to decide is whether the pursuit of truth is an action that’s harmonious with God’s becoming.? The needle of eternal value seems to lean more toward creativity.

That truth is hard to handle.

Originally written November 28th, 2021.

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[1] Alfred North Whitehead. Adventures of Ideas. (New York: Macmillan Co, 1933), p.241.

[2] Alfred North Whitehead. Adventures of Ideas. (New York: Macmillan Co, 1933), p.242