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The Feeling of "If"

Gertrude Stein and Alfred North Whitehead

I may say that only three times in my life have I met a genius and each time a bell within me rang...he three geniuses of whom I wish to speak are Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso and Alfred Whitehead.

A line attributed to Alice B. Toklas in the Stein's Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1933). Stein and Whitehead were friends. Temperamentally different, they were both avant-garde in their ways. Both saw life as beginning again and again in the continuous present. Both recognized abstractions - the idea of "if," for example - as felt realities. Both believed that humans make progress through experimenting with new ideas and, especially for Stein, new forms of linguistic meaning. Both saw novelty as fundamental to being. Both knew that reality includes possibilities as well as actualities: ifs as well as facts. One of the roles of the artist in an ecological civilization is to explore and create new ideas. Stein in her way, and Whitehead in his, were artists.


​Facts and Ifs

Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) and the avant-garde poet Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) were friends. Stein famously considered Whitehead and Pablo Picasso two of the geniuses she'd known in her life. Through the voice of her lover, Alice B. Toklas, she playfully yet seriously adds a third genius, herself. Toklas puts it this way:

I may say that only three times in my life have I met a genius and each time a bell within me rang and I was not mistaken, and I may say in each case it was before there was any general recognition of them of the quality of genius in them. The three geniuses of whom I wish to speak are Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso and Alfred Whitehead. 

This page offers a PDF of an essay by Kate Fullbrook which explores the friendship and rapport Whitehead and Stein had. It offers a PDF of another essay by Maude Emerson which discusses how both, influenced by William James, developed a more expansive version of radical empiricism. On this view, feelings of abstract entities—such as the idea of "if"—are part of what is disclosed in experience, thus moving beyond dichotomies between the abstract and concrete. The abstract is just as empirical as the concrete. When live in a felt world of facts and ifs, both real.

Stein is important for still another reason. In her avant-garde explorations of language, repetition, and difference, she is a linguistic and sonic explorer, taking human consciousness beyond the familiar into the new. Her spirit of experimentation resonates with the spirit of Whitehead's thought, who saw the universe itself as a creative advance into novelty.  See excerpts from her poem New below.
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The purpose of this page is to provide springboards for reflection on Stein and Whitehead. Nothing definitive. All experimental.

- Jay McDaniel


If
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​"In his Philosophical Investigations, Ludwig Wittgenstein challenges William James’s assertion that words like “if,” “and,” and “by” correspond to felt experiences. This controversy gets at the heart of debates over literary modernism, which is often aligned either with James’s endeavor to represent the stream of experience or with Wittgenstein’s articulation of its limits. I argue, however, that both Gertrude Stein and Alfred North Whitehead pursue the project of James’s radical empiricism in ways that complicate distinctions between experience and structures, like logic and grammar, thought to lie outside of it. In the writings of Stein and Whitehead, “feeling[s] of if” are occasions that demand a more expansive conception of experience."

- Maude Emerson
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​About Gertrude Stein



Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) is known for several significant contributions to literature and art:
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  1. Innovative Writing Style: Stein's writing is characterized by its experimental and avant-garde style. She often used repetition, stream-of-consciousness, and unconventional grammar and syntax. Her most famous works include "Three Lives" (1909), "Tender Buttons" (1914), and "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas" (1933). 
  2. Literary Modernism: She was a pivotal figure in the modernist literary movement. Her work challenged traditional narrative forms and explored new ways of using language.
  3. Art Patronage: Stein was an influential art collector and patron. Along with her brother Leo, she collected works by many of the leading artists of her time, including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Georges Braque. Her Paris home became a famous salon where artists, writers, and intellectuals gathered.
  4. Mentorship and Influence: Stein was a mentor and friend to many prominent writers and artists, such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ezra Pound. Her salon in Paris was a hub for the expatriate community and the burgeoning modernist movement.
  5. Cultural Icon: Stein's persona and her openly lesbian relationship with Alice B. Toklas were groundbreaking at the time. She remains an important figure in discussions of gender, sexuality, and identity in literature and art.

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Whitehead and Stein:
​The Friendship

Kate Fullbrook

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"Notoriously, in her Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas(1933), Gertrude Stein assigns to her lifelong companion the repeated comment that she has met three geniuses in her life: Stein, Picasso, and Alfred North Whitehead. This remarkable statement, which functions as one of the main structural elements of the text, first appears at the end of the first chapter, in the context of Alice’s initial encounter with the woman who was to become her friend and lover. In typical Steinian fashion, everyday observations are mixed with wry, audacious gravity as Toklas first sets eyes on her future partner in the Paris house of Stein’s sister-in-law: I had come to Paris. There I went to see Mrs Stein who had in the meantime returned to Paris, and there at her house I met Gertrude Stein. I was impressed by the coral brooch she wore and by her voice. I may say that only three times in my life have I met a genius and each time a bell within me rang and I was not mistaken, and I may say in each case it was before there was any general recognition of them of the quality of genius in them. The three geniuses of whom I wish to speak are Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso and Alfred Whitehead. I have met many important people, I have met several great people but I have only known three first class geniuses and in each case on sight within me something rang. In no one of the three cases have I been mistaken. In this way my new full life be."



Beginning Again and Again
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in the continuous present

​The concepts of "if," "and," and "by" are not merely grammatical structures but also elements that we can feel. When we experience the presence of "if," we are sensing a specific type of possibility. This might be the potential that a chair is in the adjacent room under certain conditions or that peace can be achieved in a conflict zone if negotiators agree on a cease-fire. In Whitehead's philosophy, these possibilities are felt through what he terms "propositional feelings," "imaginative feelings," and "conceptual feelings." These feelings are tied to data, which are the possibilities themselves. These possibilities hold their own reality, just as actualities do in their context. For example, purely mathematical objects like the square root of 67 are possibilities—they are abstractions, certainly, but they are felt abstractions.

Gertrude Stein explores such possibilities within grammar and poetry, investigating the potential meanings that can emerge through her experiments in avant-garde poems.

​Her prose poems sought to focus readers on the sonic and associative textures of words, rather than "literal" meanings (whatever that might mean). She was interested in repetition and novelty, neither to the exclusion of the other. Her poems are creative but difficult to read if you are looking for literal meanings. Here is an example: an excerpt from her poem "New." The poem is readable, but by no means didactic or oriented toward a "message." The poem dwells in the continuous present. An excerpt:

We knew.

    Anne to come.   

    Anne to come.   

    Be new.

    Be new too.

    Anne to come   

    Anne to come   

    Be new

    Be new too.

    And anew.

    Anne to come.   

    Anne anew.

    Anne do come.

    Anne do come too, to come and to come not to come and as to

and new, and new too.   

    Anne do come.   

    Anne knew.

    Anne to come.   

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In the winter of 1925–26, Stein delivered her lecture “Composition as Explanation” to the Cambridge Literary Club and at Oxford University, later published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf’s Hogarth Press. Stein's genius, so many believe, lies in her ability to illuminate how the process of living parallels the process of composing. This notion, deeply embedded in her work, resonates with Whitehead's philosophy, where every moment is an act of becoming that integrates the entire history of the universe up to that point. Stein's and Whitehead's philosophies converge to offer insights into the nature of human existence, suggesting that life itself is a form of artistic creation.

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Stein's phrase "a continuous present and using everything and beginning again" encapsulates the idea that art and life are perpetually in a state of becoming. The past is never static but constantly reshaped by the present. This perspective mirrors Whitehead's concept of concrescence, where each moment of experience, or "actual occasion," involves the synthesis of past elements into a new present reality. For those in the Whiteheadian tradition, Stein's words aptly describe the ongoing activity of a concrescing life. We are always in the present, never in the past or the future. At any given moment, we are beginning again, inheriting a past that is more today than it was yesterday because it includes yesterday.

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We are, in the words of the poem "New," always beginning again. This continual renewal involves "using everything" at our disposal—our memories, experiences, knowledge, and even our mistakes. The past is not a distant or irrelevant entity but a vital component of our present reality. And yet we are different. The past today is more than the past yesterday because it includes yesterday. Each moment of experience is a creative and dynamic process, much like the act of composing a piece of art or literature. This parallel suggests that we have the power to shape our lives with the same creativity and intentionality that an artist brings to their work.

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Stein's and Whitehead's philosophies overlap on the idea that life is an ever-evolving process of composition. By embracing this continuous process of becoming, we can fully engage with the world around us, constantly creating and re-creating ourselves in response to the flow of existence. Life, like art, is a continuous present where we use everything and begin again, composing our lives as living works of art.

- Jay McDaniel

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The Experience of Grammar in
James, Stein, and Whitehead

Maude Emerson
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Key Points:​
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  1. Radical Empiricism:
    • William James: Initially coined the term "radical empiricism" to argue that relations and connections are just as much a part of experience as objects themselves. However, he did not explicitly include abstract entities like logical structures or possibilities within the realm of experience.
    • Alfred North Whitehead: Took this further by positing that possibilities, mathematical objects, and logical structures are part of our experience. Whitehead believed that when we think of a possible chair in the next room, we are experiencing a real aspect of reality—a "feeling of 'if.'"
    • Gertrude Stein: Similarly, Stein's literary experiments demonstrate how abstract concepts, like grammar and syntax, are part of our lived experience. Her work often blurs the line between abstract and concrete, illustrating that even language structures are experiential.
  2. Experience and Abstractions:
    • Both Whitehead and Stein argued that abstract entities are not detached from our lived reality but are embedded within it. For them, experiencing a possibility or an abstract concept is as valid as experiencing a physical object.
    • This contrasts sharply with the modernist trend exemplified by Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams, who prioritized direct, concrete experiences and considered abstractions inferior.
    • Ludwig Wittgenstein also offers a different view, treating logical propositions and abstractions as more fundamental and superior to empirical experience.
  3. Expanded Empiricism:
    • Whitehead and Stein advocate for an empiricism that includes abstract objects, thus extending the traditional boundaries of empirical science and philosophy.
    • This expanded empiricism acknowledges that our experiences are not limited to tangible, concrete objects but also encompass the abstract and the possible.

Implications:

  • Philosophical: This broader view of empiricism opens up new avenues for understanding the nature of reality. It suggests that our experiences are richer and more complex than traditionally thought.
  • Literary: Stein's work exemplifies this expanded empiricism in practice. Her experimental use of language shows that even the structure of our thoughts and words are part of our experiential world.
  • Scientific and Mathematical: By including mathematical objects and logical structures within the realm of experience, Whitehead provides a framework for considering these abstract entities as integral to our understanding of the universe.

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