“A dog smells in order to find out if the person in question is that It to which its affections cling. The room, or stable, may be full of odours, many of them for a dog sweeter. But he is not smelling for the pleasure of that smell, but to discover that It who claims his whole affection. An analogous substitute may deceive, but when discovered never does as well. The analogy may claim affection. But the original It commands a poignancy of feeling.”
Alfred North Whitehead, Adventures of Ideas
All of us who love dogs know how important they are to us. Our lives would be incomplete without them. They are family.
In Adventures of Ideas, Alfred North Whitehead offers a brief but poignant reflection on the value we hold for dogs—on what we mean to them. The context is his discussion of the love that individual beings, human and non-human alike, can feel for other individuals. He refers to the beloved individual as “It,” which may strike modern readers as impersonal; yet he could just as easily have said “You.” If we are good and kindly companions to our dogs, we are not mere objects in their world—we are subjects of deep emotional significance.
Whitehead’s image is powerful: a dog, using its keen sense of smell, is not just sniffing aimlessly but searching for that particular scent—the one that signals the presence of the person it loves above all others. For the dog—at least the one Whitehead envisions—the relationship with its human is defined by unwavering affection and steadfast loyalty. The dog is not seeking general affection; it is seeking the one who holds its whole heart. This singular focus, this emotional resonance, reveals a bond that is far more than mere companionship. It is a testament to the profound capacity for love and fidelity that dogs offer their human friends.
For those of us with a theological mindset, it’s hard not to wonder whether a dog’s love for a human being isn’t, in its own way, a revelation of the kind of love that lies at the heart of the universe—what many of us call God. People often say that through their dogs they experience something like unconditional love, even grace. But perhaps it's more than a like. Perhaps it is, in its own creaturely way, a direct expression of divine love: steadfast, forgiving, joyful, and loyal. Just as a dog remains faithful through all seasons—waiting at the door, rejoicing at our return, sensing our moods—so too might we imagine God as the faithful companion of the world: not coercive or aloof, but quietly and persistently loyal. Through the affection of dogs, we may glimpse something of God's own loyalty to creation: a love that does not let go.
For those who think of animals as lesser than human beings, this analogy may seem problematic—perhaps even an insult to God, likening the divine to a dog. But for those who love dogs, and who are not trapped in such dualistic thinking, the analogy makes good sense. Interestingly, Whitehead uses the word loyalty in another context as well. He speaks of our human need to experience and embody what he calls world-loyalty: a loyalty to the world itself, to life on Earth, as something that can orient and inspire our lives. Just as dogs are faithful to us, so might we become faithful to the Earth. Loyal companions in return.
In Adventures of Ideas, Alfred North Whitehead offers a brief but poignant reflection on the value we hold for dogs—on what we mean to them. The context is his discussion of the love that individual beings, human and non-human alike, can feel for other individuals. He refers to the beloved individual as “It,” which may strike modern readers as impersonal; yet he could just as easily have said “You.” If we are good and kindly companions to our dogs, we are not mere objects in their world—we are subjects of deep emotional significance.
Whitehead’s image is powerful: a dog, using its keen sense of smell, is not just sniffing aimlessly but searching for that particular scent—the one that signals the presence of the person it loves above all others. For the dog—at least the one Whitehead envisions—the relationship with its human is defined by unwavering affection and steadfast loyalty. The dog is not seeking general affection; it is seeking the one who holds its whole heart. This singular focus, this emotional resonance, reveals a bond that is far more than mere companionship. It is a testament to the profound capacity for love and fidelity that dogs offer their human friends.
For those of us with a theological mindset, it’s hard not to wonder whether a dog’s love for a human being isn’t, in its own way, a revelation of the kind of love that lies at the heart of the universe—what many of us call God. People often say that through their dogs they experience something like unconditional love, even grace. But perhaps it's more than a like. Perhaps it is, in its own creaturely way, a direct expression of divine love: steadfast, forgiving, joyful, and loyal. Just as a dog remains faithful through all seasons—waiting at the door, rejoicing at our return, sensing our moods—so too might we imagine God as the faithful companion of the world: not coercive or aloof, but quietly and persistently loyal. Through the affection of dogs, we may glimpse something of God's own loyalty to creation: a love that does not let go.
For those who think of animals as lesser than human beings, this analogy may seem problematic—perhaps even an insult to God, likening the divine to a dog. But for those who love dogs, and who are not trapped in such dualistic thinking, the analogy makes good sense. Interestingly, Whitehead uses the word loyalty in another context as well. He speaks of our human need to experience and embody what he calls world-loyalty: a loyalty to the world itself, to life on Earth, as something that can orient and inspire our lives. Just as dogs are faithful to us, so might we become faithful to the Earth. Loyal companions in return.
Addendum
Generalized Aromas
"Undoubtedly the emotional value of particular individuality arises from the generalization of emotions, so as to get rid of their mere sensory elements. Such generalized emotional qualities are love, admiration, the feeling of exquisiteness, the feeling of worth, hate, horror, the general feeling of association, that is of particular objects entwined with one’s own existence. The successive immanence of occasion after occasion in the life of the soul will in the present occasion of that life include the cumulation of the successive prehensions of some particular object. In the various prehensions of it new qualities secure prominence, original qualities are present with some difference. There is thus a gradual elimination of the more special types of quality, which vary and fluctuate, from conformal effectiveness in the tone of the final prehensions. Generalized aromas take their place—the basic feelings of lifelong devotion, of lifelong repulsion, or of aesthetic excellence. Thus the indication of that It, partly by its status in the pattern of experience and partly by its immediate exhibition of minor qualities, produces a strong sharp-cut emotional tone of dominating significance. The significance is not merely for the general complex of subjective form in the immediate percipient. It is also reflected back onto the original objective It. Thus the It which is indicated by minor details of a status and quality is finally prehended in Appearance as It with its permanent character."
- Alfred North Whitehead, Adventures of Ideas
- Alfred North Whitehead, Adventures of Ideas