Relation and Substance in Whitehead’s Metaphysics

Abstract

In the introductory chapter of Process and Reality Whitehead indicates that actual entities and eternal objects are the two fundamental types of entities in the world. The problem thereby set for himself is to interpret these fundamental entities in such a way that his system leads neither to a closed monism, nor an unreconciled dualism, nor an unameliorated disjunctive pluralism. A cardinal means employed by Whitehead toward the realization of an adequate system is the reinterpretation of the world toward a relational concept of substance. Early in his philosophical studies, Whitehead attends to the important role which the category of substance has played in metaphysical inquiry. But it is likewise clear that the theme of the connectedness of all things occupies the central place in Whitehead’s own construction. That is, he always interprets substance in the light of the real connections by which it is constituted. For Whitehead there are no solitary entities. Everything must be understood by means of its interaction with other things.