Feeling the Supreme Beauty
"It is a Truth of Feeling and not of Verbalization."
From Whitehead's Adventure of Ideas
"Truth is various in its extent, its modes, and its relevance. But an apparent object, beautiful beyond the hope of antecedent imagination, as it functions in experience is realizing some hidden, penetrating Truth with a keenness beyond compare. The type of Truth required for the final stretch of Beauty is a discovery and not a recapitulation. The Truth that for such extremity of Beauty is wanted is that truth-relation whereby Appearance summons up new resources of feeling from the depths of Reality. It is a Truth of feeling, and not a Truth of verbalization. The relata in Reality must lie below the stale presuppositions of verbal thought. The Truth of supreme Beauty lies beyond the dictionary meanings of words.
When Appearance has to Reality, in some important direct sense, a truth-relation, there is a security about the Beauty attained, that is to say, a pledge for the future. From these functions of Truth in the service of Beauty, the realization of Truth becomes in itself an element promoting Beauty of feeling. Consciousness, with its dim intuitions, welcomes a factor so generally on the right side, so habitually necessary. The element of anticipation under the influence of- Truth is in a deep sense satisfied, and thus adds a factor to the immediate Harmony. Thus Truth, in itself and apart from special reasons to the contrary, becomes self-justifying. It is accompanied by a sense of rightness in the deepest Harmony. But Truth derives this self-justifying power from its services in the promotion of Beauty. Apart from Beauty, Truth is neither good, nor bad."
- AN Whitehead, Adventures of Ideas, Chapter XVII, on Truth and Beauty
When Appearance has to Reality, in some important direct sense, a truth-relation, there is a security about the Beauty attained, that is to say, a pledge for the future. From these functions of Truth in the service of Beauty, the realization of Truth becomes in itself an element promoting Beauty of feeling. Consciousness, with its dim intuitions, welcomes a factor so generally on the right side, so habitually necessary. The element of anticipation under the influence of- Truth is in a deep sense satisfied, and thus adds a factor to the immediate Harmony. Thus Truth, in itself and apart from special reasons to the contrary, becomes self-justifying. It is accompanied by a sense of rightness in the deepest Harmony. But Truth derives this self-justifying power from its services in the promotion of Beauty. Apart from Beauty, Truth is neither good, nor bad."
- AN Whitehead, Adventures of Ideas, Chapter XVII, on Truth and Beauty
Interpretation
Whitehead believes that all living beings, humans much included, seek harmony in their relations and in their experience. In Adventure of Ideas he speaks of harmony as beauty.
In human life the seeking of harmony, of beauty, takes many forms: harmony in personal relations, harmony in understanding, harmony in relation to the natural world, harmony in relation to the heavens.
It can also include a feeling of an ultimate Beauty, a supreme Beauty, that includes but goes beyond all these kinds of harmony. This Beauty is itself a kind of Truth: a truth about how all things are held together in a Harmony of Harmonies. But the Truth thus felt is "not a Truth of verbalization" and it lies beyond "the dictionary meaning of words." It is discovered, not recapitulated. It is, he says, a Truth of Feeling.
The feeling of Beauty in this way, as a truth beyond verbalization which can nevertheless be felt, is one of the mystical sides of Whitehead. Of course the word "mysticism" has many meanings. But at the very least mysticism names a feeling of something ultimately important, ultimately good, which gives life its meaning. Whitehead speaks of it as a "rightness" in things.
Can this feeling, this discovery of the supreme Beauty, be attained through willful effort? I think not. It seems quite similar to what Whitehead says of Peace. "It comes as a gift." You can be awed into it, you can fall into it, you can awaken to it, you can surrender to it: but you cannot attain it as a possession.
Can the Beauty be felt through the mediation of finite objects and happenings? Sunsets? Friendships? Acts of kindness? Acts of courage? I think so. Supreme Beauty, he says, "a final stretch" of the beauty we know in ordinary life even as it is incomparable in its width and depth.
Beauty may well be the horizon in which all things live and move and have their being, glimpsed through them even as more than them. Is it God? No need to say, if words get in the way. It is enough that it is so Beautiful.
- Jay McDaniel, 4/7/2021
In human life the seeking of harmony, of beauty, takes many forms: harmony in personal relations, harmony in understanding, harmony in relation to the natural world, harmony in relation to the heavens.
It can also include a feeling of an ultimate Beauty, a supreme Beauty, that includes but goes beyond all these kinds of harmony. This Beauty is itself a kind of Truth: a truth about how all things are held together in a Harmony of Harmonies. But the Truth thus felt is "not a Truth of verbalization" and it lies beyond "the dictionary meaning of words." It is discovered, not recapitulated. It is, he says, a Truth of Feeling.
The feeling of Beauty in this way, as a truth beyond verbalization which can nevertheless be felt, is one of the mystical sides of Whitehead. Of course the word "mysticism" has many meanings. But at the very least mysticism names a feeling of something ultimately important, ultimately good, which gives life its meaning. Whitehead speaks of it as a "rightness" in things.
Can this feeling, this discovery of the supreme Beauty, be attained through willful effort? I think not. It seems quite similar to what Whitehead says of Peace. "It comes as a gift." You can be awed into it, you can fall into it, you can awaken to it, you can surrender to it: but you cannot attain it as a possession.
Can the Beauty be felt through the mediation of finite objects and happenings? Sunsets? Friendships? Acts of kindness? Acts of courage? I think so. Supreme Beauty, he says, "a final stretch" of the beauty we know in ordinary life even as it is incomparable in its width and depth.
Beauty may well be the horizon in which all things live and move and have their being, glimpsed through them even as more than them. Is it God? No need to say, if words get in the way. It is enough that it is so Beautiful.
- Jay McDaniel, 4/7/2021