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Strength of Beauty, Suffering, and
the Merits of Imperfection
Alfred North Whitehead
Prelude
"I sometimes think my life is wasted, that I am pouring everything I have into the cause of love, seeking to walk in the way of Jesus. Yet my efforts fall short in changing the world, and I am left feeling like a failure because things do not change in the way I hope they will. But when I read Whitehead, I catch a glimpse of another way to see it. He speaks of a 'strength of beauty' in every striving that risks freshness, even when it falls short. And he says that nothing is lost to God—that even our unfinished efforts, our noble failures, are taken into the divine life as part of its tragic beauty. I may not change the world in the way I hope to, but my struggle to walk in the way of Jesus lives on in God, woven into a harmony far greater than I can see. That thought consoles me: my apparent failures are not meaningless; they are part of the ongoing life of God. And I wonder if Jesus, too, does not know this kind of failure, and if his way of the cross is also taken up into God’s tragic beauty. Maybe this is what it means to say that his way reverses the values of the world: he introduces a new kind of perfection, the perfection of boundless love—a love that even embraces enemies and gathers the broken into God’s redeeming life."
— Ruth, a lifelong Christian activist in a small Midwestern town
— Ruth, a lifelong Christian activist in a small Midwestern town
Whitehead
Life can only be understood as an aim at that perfection which the conditions of its environment allow.
The perfection of Beauty is defined as being the perfection of Harmony; and the perfection of Harmony is defined in terms of the perfection of Subjective Form in detail and in final synthesis.
Also the perfection of Subjective Form is defined in terms of ‘Strength’. In the sense here meant, Strength has two factors, namely, variety of detail with effective contrast, which is Massiveness, and Intensity Proper which is comparative magnitude without reference to qualitative variety. But the maximum of intensity proper is finally dependent upon massiveness
There are in fact higher and lower perfections, and an imperfection aiming at a higher type stands above lower perfections. The most material and the most sensuous enjoyments are yet types of Beauty. Progress is founded upon the experience of discordant feelings. The social value of liberty lies in its production of discords. There are perfections beyond perfections. All realization is finite, and there is no perfection which is the infinitude of all perfections. Perfections of diverse types are among themselves discordant. Thus the contribution to Beauty which can be supplied by Discord—in itself destructive and evil—is the positive feeling of a quick shift of aim from the tameness of outworn perfection to some other ideal with its freshness still upon it. Thus the value of Discord is a tribute to the merits of Imperfection.
- AN Whitehead, Adventures of Ideas
- AN Whitehead, Adventures of Ideas
Interpretation and Commentary
Perfections
Every concrescing subject—every being capable of feeling—aims at a kind of perfection, not absolute but relative, shaped by what is possible in that moment and setting. This includes human beings and other sentient beings, whether large, small, or intermediate. Such perfection is aesthetic in nature, defined as beauty, and beauty itself is the harmony of contrasts integrated into a satisfying whole. Whitehead calls this harmony the perfection of subjective form—the way a concrescing subject feels itself, in the here-and-now of its experience. both in its immediate details and in the final synthesis of its experience. Thus, perfection is not flawlessness but the fullest intensity and harmony of feeling that life, given its environment, allows. A bird singing at dawn achieves a perfection relative to its place and time, weaving air, body, and sound into harmony. A child drawing with bright colors creates a harmony of contrasts that, though unpolished, has beauty proper to that moment of play. And a human act of love, even if limited or unrecognized, embodies a perfection of feeling that contributes to the ongoing beauty of the world.
Higher and Lower Perfections
Whitehead proposes that there are different kinds of perfection, not one absolute perfection. What is “perfect” in one context can be surpassed by a fresh ideal in another. Thus, what looks imperfect when measured against one standard may actually stand higher than a completed perfection that has gone stale. For example, the awkward yet passionate search for a new artistic form may surpass a flawless repetition of old forms.
Beauty in the Sensuous and Material
The most bodily, sensuous enjoyments—food, music, erotic love, touch—are forms of Beauty. Whitehead wants us to see that beauty is not confined to abstract ideals or spiritual harmony. The concrete, material, and sensual also have their place in the spectrum of beauty.
The Value of Discord
Discord—clash, disruption, conflict—normally feels destructive. Yet Whitehead argues that its value lies in jolting us out of complacency. When one “perfection” has become tame and outworn, discord helps awaken us to other possibilities. It is precisely the friction of contradiction, the pain of discord, that gives rise to novelty and fresh aims.
He writes: “Progress is founded upon the experience of discordant feelings. The social value of liberty lies in its production of discords.” This is a powerful political insight: freedom matters not just because it allows harmony, but because it permits disagreement, tension, and thus new growth.
Perfections Beyond Perfections
Perfection is always finite. No realization captures the whole. Thus, there are “perfections beyond perfections”—new horizons of beauty (harmony and intensity) always waiting to be born. What we take as ultimate at one moment becomes, in the light of novelty, only penultimate.
The Tribute of Imperfection
In many situations imperfection itself can be a gift. Imperfection keeps aspiration alive. It is through imperfection that fresh possibilities are lured into existence. Discord is not merely the enemy of beauty but also a hidden ally, contributing to beauty by forcing us toward new forms of harmony.
Concrete Illustrations
- Art: A discordant chord in music (like jazz dissonance or the “wrong” note in Beethoven’s late quartets) that unsettles and then carries the listener toward a higher, more intense beauty.
- Society: Civil rights movements, suffrage movements, and other forms of social protest appear discordant and disruptive within a stable order, yet they open the way to a deeper justice and richer communal life.
- Cosmos: In stellar evolution, the death of a star through supernova (violent discord) scatters heavy elements into space, making possible planets, life, and consciousness.
- Personal Life: A moment of crisis or failure can shatter an old self-image but become the doorway to greater maturity and compassion.
Strength of Beauty
In some contexts, as just noted, discord and imperfection are not failures of beauty but engines of its renewal. It is crucial to emphasize, however, that this perspective is not a sanctioning of suffering. In many situations, suffering is simply evil or tragic, and no good that may later emerge can outweigh the pain itself. It would have been better had it not occurred. What Whitehead offers, rather, is a recognition of the value of noble failures, fruitful imperfections, unfinished strivings, and generative mistakes—those moments when life’s incompleteness, far from being tame, carries with it what he calls a “strength of beauty.”
By “strength of beauty,” Whitehead means the capacity of a concrescing subject, in the immediacy of the moment, to integrate discordant elements into a more vital harmony. This strength does not come from avoiding difficulty but from incorporating contrast, tension, and even failure into a fresh unity of experience. Where tame perfections offer smoothness and closure, the strength of beauty is marked by vitality, intensity, and openness to renewal. It is beauty that risks freshness, beauty that does not shrink from discord but transforms it into a deeper aliveness.
This strength of beauty contributes to what Whitehead calls the tragic beauty of God. Strength of beauty is a quality of finite moments, appearing in the life of a concrescing subject. It is the capacity, in the immediacy of becoming, to integrate contrasts—including discord, imperfection, and tension—into a more vital harmony. This kind of beauty carries freshness, risk, vitality, and intensity.
Tragic Beauty
Tragic beauty, by contrast, belongs not to the finite moment but to the whole of things. In Adventures of Ideas, Whitehead describes it as the quality of the cosmic Harmony of Harmonies, and in Process and Reality he identifies this with the consequent nature of God.
It is the ultimate integration of the world’s multiplicity, including its tragedies and evils, into a larger whole that affirms the value of each life. Nothing is lost, though nothing is erased. Its tone is tenderness, poignancy, and depth: a harmony that incorporates tragedy without denying it. Taken together, strength of beauty and tragic beauty show that beauty is not fragile or tame. It is strong enough to risk discord in the immediacy of life, and tender enough to carry tragedy into the divine harmony of the whole.
Divine perfection includes failures, imperfections, strivings, and mistakes—as well as the pain, both wanted and unwanted, that marks the texture of finite life. Nothing is excluded, nothing erased. The consequent nature of God receives it all with tender care, weaving it into a harmony that does not deny tragedy but transforms it into depth. In this way, God’s perfection is not aloof or static, but inclusive and self-surpassing: a living perfection that grows with the world, expanding as the world expands, deepening as the world deepens. It is the perfection of love that bears all things, suffers all things, and yet creates out of all things a tragic beauty more profound than any tame ideal of flawlessness.