Augment Whitehead with Sri Aurobindo

RESEARCH IN PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION-ABSTRACTS DEVI, S., A Critical Study of the Concept of Creativity in Philosophy with special reference to Bergson, Whitehead and Sri Aurobindo, Ph. D. Phil., Kur. U., 1976

The objectives of the study were (i) to find out if creativity was the general scheme of reality, (ii) to find out if creativity was linked with different concepts of this universe, that is, with becoming, cosmic evolution, consciousness, organic evolution and teleology, (iii) to trace the historical background of creativity both in Indian and in Western thought, with special reference to the Vedas, Upanishads, Plato and Plotinus, (iv) to locate the concept of creativity in Bergson's ideas, (v) to investigate how Whitehead contributed to the concept of creativity, (vi) to identify the concept of creativity in the ideas of Sri Aurobindo, and (vii) to analyse various theories of creative evolution developed by S. Alexander, L. Morgan and James Ward.

The methodology adopted was philosophical, historical and comparative. The study was philosophical in the sense that ideas of various personalities were organized, critically analysed and evaluated. It was historical because the development of the concept of creativity from various sources had been traced. Further, it was comparative as commonness between the ideas and theories of various persons on the concept of creativity had been identified and critically evaluated. Content analysis was used both as a tool and technique to analyse the educational ideas of Tagore and Whitehead. Content analysis consisted of documentary analysis and thematic analysis. For content analysis, primary as well as secondary sources were used. The material was also examined to find out its suitability for the proposed research by way of internal and external criticism.

Some of the findings of the study were:

1. Creativity constitutes the very basis of reality.

2. Creativity has been conceived by various thinkers as an exercise of nonfigurative powers of the whole psyche involving all its substance, the play of its entire energy. The creative action is more than cerebral, more than visceral, involving more than mind and heart, intellect and emotions. It augments the structure of human vision by introducing some new, vital configuration of ideas or from among those available to organize experience.

3. Creativity was the power to evolve a pattern that remained omnipotent insofar as it touched the details of actualization. Creativity was a widely recognized ideal for every human being.

4. Both east and west emphasized that what was creative about spiritual experience was not its psychological accompaniments but the inward change which manifested itself in the fruits of the spirit-peace, JOY and loving suffering. A new type of life emerged with a higher correspondence between one's self and the ultimate sources of reality. New qualities of mind and character were called forth out of ordinary men and women, qualities which manifested the Divine in them.

5. Bergson's concepts elan-vital had led to a revolutionary syndical that would restore a purified social life by insisting that social change in any class of people could be achieved only by the force of their own associations, through means that would evolve so as to suit their particular needs. In the theory of science, he had inspired a new `positivism' that criticized scientific data in a vigorous and original way and showed how much arbitrariness there was in our methods of measurement of magnitudes.
6. Whitehead introduced an omnibus principle called creativity, which was a sort of universal blanket to cover all logical branches that his philosophy had created. Whitehead's emphasis on the organic character of natural systems and his attempt to bring physics and biology closer together had a good deal in common with the Gestalt approach to mind and nature.

7. Some emergentists advocated the theory of levels according to which evolution proceeded by the method of creative synthesis and life and mind came of a certain kind of organization of non-living elements. These new qualities could not be inferred by merely adding together the qualities of elements taking part in the organization. At each new level of reality, new powers, new capacities and new qualities emerged. Life appeared at one of these levels. Along with it emerged a series of new qualities such as growth, assimilation, irritability, adaptability and reproduction. Mind was the result of still more highly complex organizations. This was called creative evolution or emergent evolution whose pioneers were Bergson, Alexander, Morgan and Ward.

8. Sri Aurobindo's evolution admitted both mechanism and emergence, determinism and freedom. The creator was the supermind and it was a power of Sachchidananda. Hence the process of evolution was free, self-imposed and self-determined by Sachchidananda. The world was not the result of blind chance but a self-manifestation of the ultimate. Nature's processes appeared to us to be mechanical merely because the purpose was under disguise. Nothing was created from outside.

9. Creativity constitutes the very basis or foundation of reality. It was the creative purpose which steered and guided cosmic evolution and natural evolution. Creativity in human civilization was the expression of creation, which was at the root of nature and reality.

10. Man's future is in the hands of two creative agencies, his biological evolution and his psychological evolution. Genetic and natural environmental forces continued to influence the development of man. Psychological control dominates the direction of human evolution. Man's personal potential is biological, but he is freely And creatively designed. His future depended upon his understanding and attitudes towards reality. Man would be creative and free in projecting his future only if he could at one and the same time realistically immerse himself in the history of his age and culture, discover trans-historical meaning and affirm divine communication. 

11. Bergson, Sri Aurobindo and Whitehead are quite close to each other as far as the process of creativity is concerned.

Science v. Religion (in the lead up to my dissertation) – Al Jazeera interviews Richard Dawkins, and Lawrence’s Krauss thinks he’s special from Footnotes to Plato by Matthew David Segall

Now that I've completed preparatory research essays on Schelling (The Re-Emergence of Schelling: Philosophy in a Time of Emergency) and Whitehead (Physics of the World-Soul: The Relevance of A.N. Whitehead’s Philosophy of Organism to Contemporary Scientific Cosmology), it’s finally time to start zeroing in on my dissertation thesis. The title I’m proposing for now is Imagination Between...

Sri Aurobindo, the hope of man - Page 309 - Keshavmurti - 1969 - In the beginning Sri Aurobindo did not concern himself much with the war though he knew that poor leadership in England and France was at least partly responsible for Hitler's truculent and bellicose ...

Collected Works: Words of the mother - Page 127 - Mother - 1980 - 1 April 1946 A Declaration Sri Aurobindo withdrew from politics; and, in his Ashram, a most important rule is that one must abstain from all politics — not because Sri Aurobindo did not concern himself with the happenings of the world, but because politics, as it is practised, is a low and ugly thing, wholly dominated by falsehood, deceit, injustice, misuse of power and violence; ...

The Political Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo - Page xv - V. P. Varma - 1990 - Preview - More editions Possibly such reconstruction of the political philosophy of Aurobindo might not appeal to some sections in our country who would regard it as an enterprise in the profanization of a sacred personality. But we must not forget that Aurobindo was ...

Quest - Volumes 93-98 - Page 16 - Indian Committee for Cultural Freedom - 1975 - Aurobindo might not have had the time or the inclination to enter into a proper study of the scientific picture of the world. Also, some of the great discoveries took place after his self-imposed seclusion. However, the theories of relativity and ... Sri Aurobindo Ghose - Page 581 - Verinder Grover - 1993

Sri Aurobindo's treatment of Hindu myth - Page 32 - Jan Feys - 1983 - But for these queries Aurobindo might not have spoken of it at all. His general approach to myth also holds good here. Thus, e.g., Radha under the spell of Krishna symbolises "the soul, the psychic, hearing the call of the Divine". Aurobindo's ...

Sri Aurobindo--the poet - Volume 2, Part 4 - Page 162 - Kaikhushru Dhunjibhoy Sethna - 1999 - Just as the merits of Savitri were appreciated to the utmost, whatever seemed a shortcoming no matter how slight and negligible in the midst of the abundant excellence was pointedly remarked upon so that Sri Aurobindo might not overlook... Sri Aurobindo: Savitri; a legend and a symbol - Page 733 - Aurobindo Ghose - 1970

The philosophy of Sri Aurobindo: his idea of evolution - Page 58 - Joseph Veliyathil - 1972 - So Aurobindo might not have felt the necessity of attributing immediacy to the acquisition of knowledge by the intellectual faculty. This made him limit the intellectual operation to discursive level only. Now if a comparison may be made ...

Sri Aurobindo--secularist? or nationalist? - Page 37 - Ke. Es Nārāyaṇācārya - 2006 - ... a detail Sri Aurobindo might not have known, as most savants of 'unity' took it for granted that Islam too was a 'religion' like any other, without realising its diabolic, predatory nature. Only recent researches are waking us up all over the world.

Letters on Savitri - Page 10 - Aurobindo Ghose, Sri Aurobindo, Kaikhushru Dhunjibhoy Sethna - 2000 - Just as the merits of Savitri were appreciated to the utmost, whatever seemed a shortcoming no matter how slight and negligible in the midst of the abundant excellence was pointedly remarked upon so that Sri Aurobindo might not overlook...

Swami Vivekananda and Indian Nationalism - Page 91 - Subodh Chandra Sen Gupta - 1984 - Although Aurobindo might not have known the 'tens of thousands of young men' beaming with patriotic fervour, he should not have failed to see that most of them could not have much to do with P. Mitra's Samiti, some associates and members ...

The Light at the Center: Context and Pretext of Modern Mysticism - Page 104 - Agehananda Bharati - 1976 - His writings are different indeed from those of the older Vivekananda and the younger Sivananda. Aurobindo might not have been a good poet, but he was a poet; he might not have been a thinker in any professional sense, but he expressed ...

The oneness/otherness mystery: the synthesis of science and mysticism - Page 508 - Sutapas Bhattacharya - 1999 - Preview ... of the material order is held by Aurobindo, Whitehead and others to be Nature's development of habits (stable patterns of behaviour emerging from repetition) rather than laws obeyed by Nature. Reality is fundamentally creative but patterns ...

Sri Aurobindo and Vedānta Philosophy - Page 71 - Sheojee Pandey - 1987 - Preview - More editions Here we have to say that Whitehead's Philosophy of evolution is more close and more similar to that of Sri Aurobindo's Philosophy of evolution. Like Whitehead Sri Aurobindo also believes that God is the ultimate principle and the evolution ...

Evolutionary, Spiritual Conceptions of Life - Sri Aurobindo, ... - Page 35 - Michael Leicht - 2008 - Preview Here Aurobindo gets quiet sociological. In the following I want to correct one misunderstanding of Madhusudan Reddy of Whitehead's theory: He assumes that Whitehead's philosophy has no final goal of evolution (Reddy, 2004: 156).

Aurobindo's Philosophy of Brahman - Page 3 - Stephen H. Phillips - 1986 - Preview - More editions I doubt that one could overstate the importance of Aurobindo's mysticism for his philosophy. How then is he a metaphysician? A.N. Whitehead gives a just characterization of the trade: "Speculative Philosophy," he says, "is the endeavor to...

The Eye of Spirit: An Integral Vision for a World Gone Slightly Mad - Page 356 - Ken Wilber - 2001 - Preview - More editions Notice that Shankara, Nagarjuna, Aurobindo, Plotinus (and Alexander and Wilber) can pass this test; Whitehead does not. This is not a secondary issue; it is at the precise heart of the matter, a heart that Whitehead lacks. Thus, the notion of ...

Cognitive models and spiritual maps: interdisciplinary ... - Volume 7, Issues 11-12 - Page 202 - Jensine Andresen, Robert K. C. Forman - 2001 - Preview What Whitehead doesn't have, something essential to Wilber, is the Great Nest or Chain of Being in addition to the Great Network of Being. For that, we would need to augment Whitehead with Aurobindo. I agree with Wilber that Whitehead's ...

The Essential Aurobindo: Writings of Sri Aurobindo - Page 23 - Aurobindo Ghose, Robert A. McDermott - 2001 - Preview - More editions In its philosophic comprehensiveness, Sri Aurobindo's philosophy finds its contemporary Western analogue among the systematic thinkers — Royce, Bergson, Whitehead, and Heidegger; in its spiritual and autobiographic quality, it more closely resembles Kierkegaard and Buber, and perhaps Heidegger and Wittgenstein.

Sri Aurobindo's Philosophy of Social Development - Page 40 - Preview This is what Sri Aurobindo has attempted in his metaphysics of evolution. And it is here that the theories of Darwin, Lamarck, Herbert Spencer, S. Alexander, Whitehead, Lloyd Morgan, Bergson, Hegel and Croce have stopped short of the ...

Integral Psychology - Page 84 - Ken Wilber - 2000 - Preview Maslow. Abraham Maslow (1908–1970) is well known enough that I will only make a few passing comments. Like all truly great integral thinkers— from Aurobindo to Gebser to Whitehead to Baldwin to Habermas—he was a developmentalist.

Faith possesses understanding: a suggestion for a new direction in ... - Page 220 - Jehangir Nasserwanji Chubb - 1983 - Preview - More editions It can be said of Sri Aurobindo what Eckhart said of God : 'In him there is no denial except the denial of all denials.' Upanishadic paradox, 216 Whitehead, A.N., 182 Upanishads, 16, 60, 210. See my article The Logic of the Infinite in the ...