On Coordinate Divisions in the Theory of Extensive Connection

Abstract

Pages 436–8 (comprising Section II of Chapter I, “Coordinate Division,” of Part IV, “The Theory of Extension”) of Whitehead’s Process and Reality, are perhaps the most difficult in this notoriously difficult book. The pages are crucial, however, for an understanding of the difference between an actual entity and a coordinate division. It is by means of the latter “entities,” if such they be, that Whitehead seeks to accommodate the foundations of geometry. Let us try to determine precisely what coordinate divisions are supposed to be, according to Whitehead, for these constitute the basic kind of entity in the theory of extensive connection. Whitehead’s own statements here are highly obscure and unsatisfactory. In examining them afresh by way of an explication de texte, we may be in a position to suggest an interpretation that would be viable on Whitehead’s own grounds and even perhaps to help pave the way for an adequate theory as to what geometry is.

“De Non Apparentibus et De Non Existentibus Eadem Est Ratio.”