Lived Geometry
The Experience of Space in Process Philosophy
see also: What Are Strain Feelings in Process Philosophy?
As children learn to crawl, they begin to negotiate space, a skill we continue to develop throughout our lives as we reach out to others empathically, even at a distance, or receive their outreach to us. Spatial feeling—a sense of lived geometry—is at the heart of life. We often speak of Whitehead's philosophy as a "process" philosophy, but we might also call it relational philosophy or better, following Whitehead, "organic" philosophy, with an emphasis on spatial and temporal relations as connected with "feelings" or "prehensions" of connection and distance. All ideas of interconnection involve and require a sense of spatial location. Whitehead’s concept of strain feelings can help us be more attentive to this fundamental aspect of experience, highlighting how relationships and connections are not just temporal but also spatial, woven into the fabric of lived reality. In making a case for this, I am extending his discussion beyond where he took it, but hopefully in a direction he would appreciate. His aim was to offer ideas that are springboards for thought. His concept of strain feelings is one such springboard.
Strain Feelings
Strain Feelings
Whitehead’s strain feelings as presented in Process and Reality describe our embodied sense of being located in space, including how we feel tensions, balances, and location in relation to the objects around us. These feelings give us a visceral understanding of spatial relationships—how far or near something is, how much space it occupies, and whether we feel tension or release based on its position relative to our own.
Empathy similarly involves a kind of relational awareness, where we "feel into" the experiences of others. Just as strain feelings give us a sense of our location relative to objects in space, empathy gives us a sense of our emotional and psychological position relative to other people. It requires us to navigate the emotional "distance" between ourselves and others, gauging when to move closer (emotionally or physically) and when to give space.
Empathy and Geometry
Imagine standing in a crowded room where you notice someone sitting alone, looking uncomfortable. Your awareness of spatial tension—through strain feelings—alerts you to the distance between yourself and that person. You recognize that they are physically and emotionally isolated. This recognition is grounded in the spatial relationship between you and the person, as well as the emotional tension created by their discomfort.
Empathy kicks in when you intuitively adjust your behavior to bridge that distance, perhaps by moving closer to them or making eye contact in a way that signals understanding or connection. Your ability to respond empathically depends on sensing not just the physical space between you but also the emotional space that needs bridging.
In this way, spatial relations—whether experienced as physical closeness or distance—shape how we understand and engage with others empathically. Just as you feel strain or balance in your relation to objects in space, you feel the emotional “strain” in your relationship to others, guiding your empathic responses.
This concept can apply to many scenarios, from offering a comforting gesture to someone in distress to understanding personal boundaries and respecting another person’s need for emotional space. Both spatial relations and empathy involve a fine-tuned awareness of distance, orientation, and connection, whether in the physical or emotional realm. They are instances of what we might call "lived geometry."
Lived Geometry
Geometry is often understood as an abstract branch of mathematics, concerned with points, lines, angles, and shapes in a detached, intellectual way. Yet, at its core, geometry is far more fundamental to human experience. It is not simply a matter of thinking about spaces and forms but something deeply felt. From the moment people become aware of their surroundings, they experience geometry by feeling themselves located in a specific region of space, surrounded by other bodies positioned in different regions. There is an intuitive sense of shapes and boundaries that define those entities, along with a natural understanding of the lines and connections that link them. This entire process—the awareness of placement, boundaries, and relationality—reflects geometry in its most natural, lived form.
Whitehead's idea of "strain feelings" represents his attempt to articulate the geometrical side of human experience. While he is often thought to focus on two primary forms of feeling—physical and conceptual, along with combinations of the two—he also discusses a third kind in Process and Reality: strain feelings. These are not merely combinations of physical and mental sensations, but feelings of tensionality, of being stretched or pulled by the spatial relationships between bodies and entities.
Whitehead’s concept implies that geometry, as experienced, is not merely intellectual or abstract. Rather, it is deeply rooted in our physical existence, expressing itself as a bodily sense of tension and balance as we navigate and respond to the spaces we inhabit. Strain feelings capture the lived reality of how we experience a world full of distances, proximities, and orientations—where our sense of self is shaped by the spatial relationships between ourselves and the objects around us.
Getting Technical
Technically speaking, strain feelings are feelings of the locus, the region on which eternal objects are projected in presentational immediacy. This locus is where qualities such as colors and shapes are perceived to exist. For example, if we look at a picture on a wall, the locus is the region on the wall where the picture hangs and where those colors and shapes appear. If we turn our backs and see the same picture in a mirror, the locus shifts to the region in the mirror where the reflection of the colors and shapes appears. Strain feelings, in essence, give us an intuitive sense of where objects are situated in space, showing us where the picture is located and allowing us to differentiate between the "here" of ourselves and the "over there" of the objects. In addition to showing us where objects exist in relation to us, strain feelings provide a sense of self-location in the here and now. They help us recognize our position in space relative to the objects around us. These feelings also play a key role in our perception of straightness, which forms the foundation of measurement and geometry. Moreover, strain feelings reveal the space-time continuum, the extensive framework in which we live and move. In all these ways, strain feelings offer us our primary sense of space and movement, grounding us in both the physical world and the geometrical structures by which we navigate it.
To summarize, strain feelings serve us in several key ways:
The concept of strain feelings has several implications for daily life and other areas, from personal awareness to social dynamics and even ethical considerations. Here are some of the key ways this concept can influence various aspects of life:
1. Mindfulness and Spatial Awareness
Strain feelings highlight how our bodily awareness is constantly interacting with space, helping us understand where we are in relation to the world around us. This could encourage mindfulness practices that emphasize the physicality of our surroundings, grounding us in the present moment. By becoming more aware of the tension and balance in our movements and positioning, we can cultivate a deeper connection to our environment and improve our spatial sensitivity.
2. Interpersonal Relationships
The concept of tensionality and spatial relationships can also apply to how we interact with others. In social situations, we are often unconsciously aware of the physical space between ourselves and others—whether someone feels "too close" or "too distant." Strain feelings can serve as a metaphor for emotional and psychological distance in relationships, reminding us that our sense of connection or disconnection with others may be influenced by these subtle, often unspoken, spatial dynamics.
3. Architecture and Urban Planning
Strain feelings suggest that space itself exerts an influence on how we experience and navigate the world, which can have implications for the design of physical environments. In architecture and urban planning, this concept may inspire spaces that better accommodate human movement, comfort, and orientation. For example, well-designed public spaces might foster a sense of balance and ease, enhancing social interactions and reducing tension in crowded or chaotic environments.
4. Embodied Learning and Education
Recognizing that strain feelings are part of our embodied experience can reshape educational approaches. Learning is not just a cognitive process but also an embodied one. For subjects like geometry, dance, and physical education, educators might focus more on how students physically relate to space and shapes, encouraging a tactile, movement-based approach to learning that mirrors the lived, intuitive experience of geometry.
5. Physical Health and Movement
In terms of physical health, strain feelings emphasize the importance of bodily awareness in maintaining balance and coordination. Practices such as yoga, Tai Chi, or any form of mindful movement can enhance this awareness of tensionality, improving posture, reducing stress, and promoting overall well-being. Understanding how we relate to space can also aid in injury prevention by helping us avoid situations where strain leads to imbalance or harm.
6. Ethical and Environmental Awareness
Strain feelings reflect our embeddedness within a larger spatial and environmental context. This could foster a deeper appreciation for how we coexist with the natural world and encourage ethical responsibility toward our surroundings. When we recognize that we are constantly in relationship with the environment through these subtle spatial dynamics, it may prompt greater care for the spaces we inhabit and how our movements impact ecosystems, resources, and non-human entities.
7. Art and Creativity
In art and creative expression, strain feelings offer a unique lens through which to explore the relationships between objects, spaces, and emotions. Visual artists, musicians, and dancers, in particular, might use this concept to develop new ways of arranging space, form, and movement to evoke specific emotional responses or narratives. Understanding strain as a form of creative tension could enrich artistic processes by emphasizing the physical relationships between elements in any creative medium.
8. Conflict Resolution and Mediation
Recognizing the role of spatial tension and distance in human interactions can also be applied to conflict resolution. Physical space often reflects emotional and psychological boundaries. Mediators or therapists who are attuned to these subtle dynamics might help people negotiate relational or territorial "strain" in ways that promote understanding and reduce conflict, using the geometry of space to foster trust and balance in interpersonal dynamics.
9. Technological Design and Human Interaction
With increasing reliance on virtual environments, the concept of strain feelings can influence how we design digital spaces. Interfaces, augmented reality, and virtual reality environments can be shaped to align with our intuitive, embodied sense of space, improving user experiences. Technology that better mimics the natural dynamics of tensionality in real-world environments could offer more immersive and intuitive interactions.
10. Philosophical Reflection
Strain feelings can lead to deeper philosophical reflection on what it means to be situated in space and time. They remind us that we are not isolated individuals, but beings constantly influenced by and influencing the world around us through these subtle tensions. This can offer a richer understanding of existential questions, tying our sense of self to the spaces we occupy, the relationships we maintain, and the ever-changing dynamics of life.
In all these ways, Whitehead’s concept of strain feelings offers a framework for understanding the intersection of geometry, experience, and movement in daily life. It bridges the abstract and the tangible, urging us to consider how the very structure of geometrical space shapes how we live, think, and relate to the world around us.
Empathy similarly involves a kind of relational awareness, where we "feel into" the experiences of others. Just as strain feelings give us a sense of our location relative to objects in space, empathy gives us a sense of our emotional and psychological position relative to other people. It requires us to navigate the emotional "distance" between ourselves and others, gauging when to move closer (emotionally or physically) and when to give space.
Empathy and Geometry
Imagine standing in a crowded room where you notice someone sitting alone, looking uncomfortable. Your awareness of spatial tension—through strain feelings—alerts you to the distance between yourself and that person. You recognize that they are physically and emotionally isolated. This recognition is grounded in the spatial relationship between you and the person, as well as the emotional tension created by their discomfort.
Empathy kicks in when you intuitively adjust your behavior to bridge that distance, perhaps by moving closer to them or making eye contact in a way that signals understanding or connection. Your ability to respond empathically depends on sensing not just the physical space between you but also the emotional space that needs bridging.
In this way, spatial relations—whether experienced as physical closeness or distance—shape how we understand and engage with others empathically. Just as you feel strain or balance in your relation to objects in space, you feel the emotional “strain” in your relationship to others, guiding your empathic responses.
This concept can apply to many scenarios, from offering a comforting gesture to someone in distress to understanding personal boundaries and respecting another person’s need for emotional space. Both spatial relations and empathy involve a fine-tuned awareness of distance, orientation, and connection, whether in the physical or emotional realm. They are instances of what we might call "lived geometry."
Lived Geometry
Geometry is often understood as an abstract branch of mathematics, concerned with points, lines, angles, and shapes in a detached, intellectual way. Yet, at its core, geometry is far more fundamental to human experience. It is not simply a matter of thinking about spaces and forms but something deeply felt. From the moment people become aware of their surroundings, they experience geometry by feeling themselves located in a specific region of space, surrounded by other bodies positioned in different regions. There is an intuitive sense of shapes and boundaries that define those entities, along with a natural understanding of the lines and connections that link them. This entire process—the awareness of placement, boundaries, and relationality—reflects geometry in its most natural, lived form.
Whitehead's idea of "strain feelings" represents his attempt to articulate the geometrical side of human experience. While he is often thought to focus on two primary forms of feeling—physical and conceptual, along with combinations of the two—he also discusses a third kind in Process and Reality: strain feelings. These are not merely combinations of physical and mental sensations, but feelings of tensionality, of being stretched or pulled by the spatial relationships between bodies and entities.
Whitehead’s concept implies that geometry, as experienced, is not merely intellectual or abstract. Rather, it is deeply rooted in our physical existence, expressing itself as a bodily sense of tension and balance as we navigate and respond to the spaces we inhabit. Strain feelings capture the lived reality of how we experience a world full of distances, proximities, and orientations—where our sense of self is shaped by the spatial relationships between ourselves and the objects around us.
Getting Technical
Technically speaking, strain feelings are feelings of the locus, the region on which eternal objects are projected in presentational immediacy. This locus is where qualities such as colors and shapes are perceived to exist. For example, if we look at a picture on a wall, the locus is the region on the wall where the picture hangs and where those colors and shapes appear. If we turn our backs and see the same picture in a mirror, the locus shifts to the region in the mirror where the reflection of the colors and shapes appears. Strain feelings, in essence, give us an intuitive sense of where objects are situated in space, showing us where the picture is located and allowing us to differentiate between the "here" of ourselves and the "over there" of the objects. In addition to showing us where objects exist in relation to us, strain feelings provide a sense of self-location in the here and now. They help us recognize our position in space relative to the objects around us. These feelings also play a key role in our perception of straightness, which forms the foundation of measurement and geometry. Moreover, strain feelings reveal the space-time continuum, the extensive framework in which we live and move. In all these ways, strain feelings offer us our primary sense of space and movement, grounding us in both the physical world and the geometrical structures by which we navigate it.
To summarize, strain feelings serve us in several key ways:
- Self-Location: They provide us with a sense of where we are in relation to the world around us.
- Spatial Awareness: They help us intuitively understand distances, boundaries, and the placement of objects.
- Perception of Straightness: They form the basis for our ability to perceive straight lines, essential for geometry and measurement.
- Revealing the Space-Time Continuum: Strain feelings offer us a sense of the extensive continuum in which we live and move.
- Navigation: They ground us in the physical world and help us navigate through the geometrical structures that shape our lived experience.
The concept of strain feelings has several implications for daily life and other areas, from personal awareness to social dynamics and even ethical considerations. Here are some of the key ways this concept can influence various aspects of life:
1. Mindfulness and Spatial Awareness
Strain feelings highlight how our bodily awareness is constantly interacting with space, helping us understand where we are in relation to the world around us. This could encourage mindfulness practices that emphasize the physicality of our surroundings, grounding us in the present moment. By becoming more aware of the tension and balance in our movements and positioning, we can cultivate a deeper connection to our environment and improve our spatial sensitivity.
2. Interpersonal Relationships
The concept of tensionality and spatial relationships can also apply to how we interact with others. In social situations, we are often unconsciously aware of the physical space between ourselves and others—whether someone feels "too close" or "too distant." Strain feelings can serve as a metaphor for emotional and psychological distance in relationships, reminding us that our sense of connection or disconnection with others may be influenced by these subtle, often unspoken, spatial dynamics.
3. Architecture and Urban Planning
Strain feelings suggest that space itself exerts an influence on how we experience and navigate the world, which can have implications for the design of physical environments. In architecture and urban planning, this concept may inspire spaces that better accommodate human movement, comfort, and orientation. For example, well-designed public spaces might foster a sense of balance and ease, enhancing social interactions and reducing tension in crowded or chaotic environments.
4. Embodied Learning and Education
Recognizing that strain feelings are part of our embodied experience can reshape educational approaches. Learning is not just a cognitive process but also an embodied one. For subjects like geometry, dance, and physical education, educators might focus more on how students physically relate to space and shapes, encouraging a tactile, movement-based approach to learning that mirrors the lived, intuitive experience of geometry.
5. Physical Health and Movement
In terms of physical health, strain feelings emphasize the importance of bodily awareness in maintaining balance and coordination. Practices such as yoga, Tai Chi, or any form of mindful movement can enhance this awareness of tensionality, improving posture, reducing stress, and promoting overall well-being. Understanding how we relate to space can also aid in injury prevention by helping us avoid situations where strain leads to imbalance or harm.
6. Ethical and Environmental Awareness
Strain feelings reflect our embeddedness within a larger spatial and environmental context. This could foster a deeper appreciation for how we coexist with the natural world and encourage ethical responsibility toward our surroundings. When we recognize that we are constantly in relationship with the environment through these subtle spatial dynamics, it may prompt greater care for the spaces we inhabit and how our movements impact ecosystems, resources, and non-human entities.
7. Art and Creativity
In art and creative expression, strain feelings offer a unique lens through which to explore the relationships between objects, spaces, and emotions. Visual artists, musicians, and dancers, in particular, might use this concept to develop new ways of arranging space, form, and movement to evoke specific emotional responses or narratives. Understanding strain as a form of creative tension could enrich artistic processes by emphasizing the physical relationships between elements in any creative medium.
8. Conflict Resolution and Mediation
Recognizing the role of spatial tension and distance in human interactions can also be applied to conflict resolution. Physical space often reflects emotional and psychological boundaries. Mediators or therapists who are attuned to these subtle dynamics might help people negotiate relational or territorial "strain" in ways that promote understanding and reduce conflict, using the geometry of space to foster trust and balance in interpersonal dynamics.
9. Technological Design and Human Interaction
With increasing reliance on virtual environments, the concept of strain feelings can influence how we design digital spaces. Interfaces, augmented reality, and virtual reality environments can be shaped to align with our intuitive, embodied sense of space, improving user experiences. Technology that better mimics the natural dynamics of tensionality in real-world environments could offer more immersive and intuitive interactions.
10. Philosophical Reflection
Strain feelings can lead to deeper philosophical reflection on what it means to be situated in space and time. They remind us that we are not isolated individuals, but beings constantly influenced by and influencing the world around us through these subtle tensions. This can offer a richer understanding of existential questions, tying our sense of self to the spaces we occupy, the relationships we maintain, and the ever-changing dynamics of life.
In all these ways, Whitehead’s concept of strain feelings offers a framework for understanding the intersection of geometry, experience, and movement in daily life. It bridges the abstract and the tangible, urging us to consider how the very structure of geometrical space shapes how we live, think, and relate to the world around us.