William James: The pluralistic Universe (Copy)

 Wiliam James is upending foundational precepts such as those that promote an absolute objective reality as in science or those found in religious ontologies. He is offering a perspective on reality that levels the playing field by eliminating the hierarchy that places human experience as a more valid truth than the perspective of other experiencing beings on the planet.

James recognizes myriad contributions to the “continuity of experience”.  Experience is felt as “pulses of perception”. He uses phrases such as run into one another and a continuous procession when referring to these pulses of perception. There is no momentary pause to catch an inhalation of breath or close a fist in the contraction of the heart muscle when describing experience. When I read his writings, I feel as though I am lagging behind.

He calls into question the existence of such a thing as the singularly of a 'passing' moment, qualifying a moment both as past and present in one field of feeling (p63).  “All real units of experience overlap”.  If the yearning inside of me to experience the hypothetical relief in arriving at a clear destination or to feel contented in reaching a moment of piercing truth, I would not find shelter in James’s pluralistic universe. He writes,

“We realize this life as something always off its balance, something in transition, something that shoots out of a darkness through a dawn into a brightness that we feel to be the dawn fulfilled. In the very midst of the continuity our experience comes as an alteration”. (ibid)

As soon as one may feel the satisfaction of interpreting an instance of experience and fainting grasping a whiff of the construction of a subjective reality, the ricochet of a new pulse of perception infinitely arises again and thwarts any such reprieve.

I find myself contemplating my own somewhat futile search for truth.  Applying process thinking to defining something as obscure as truth I lament that truth is not a static destination to arrive at nor is it something to chisel out of marble into a finished sculpture. He is inviting us to embrace a more process oriented collaborative ontology. One that is iconoclastic to any sense of safety I may feel in self-righteously congratulating myself on subscribing to a particular political affiliation. My version of defining truth is no more real or valid than another’s truth.  James recognizes the perspectival truth each being possesses.  Where my mind travels towards next on my personal quest to find purpose and meaning is contemplating how to incite interest in preserving the sustainable future of the Earth and all the beings who inhabit the planet and the crises we face ahead.

James, William. A Pluralistic Universe. 1909.