The Value of Adventures

——One Understanding of Whitehead

 

HAN Zhen*

 

Abstract: According to Whitehead, human civilization is a creative process with most abundant potentiality. Both individual growth and social development require creativity and change, which are essentially adventures. So, adventure is inherent in human life and civilization. Change means altering the previously familiar forms, while innovation means venturing into the unknown field whose future can't be predicated. The most adventurous people tend to achieve much more than others. Where there are constant adventures and innovations, there are vigorous societies.

 

Key words: Whiteheadian thought; spirit of adventure; emancipation of mind; development of civilization

 

 

According to A. N. Whitehead (1861—1974), the universe is an infinite, open, dynamic and becoming process, full of diversity, creativity and life. This is particularly so in the case of human society. In essence, human civilization is a creative process with most abundant potentiality.

1.      Is Adventurousness Necessary or not?

To this question, Whitehead's answer is in the affirmative. Both individual growth and social development require creativity and change, which are essentially adventures. So, adventure is inherent in human life and civilization.

As to individuals, “each individual embodies an adventure of existence. The art of life is the guidance of this adventure. ”[1] Everyone inevitably experiences some valuable adventures in his life. It is these adventures that accelerate his growth. The most adventurous people tend to achieve much more than others. With respect to the whole human society, the development of civilization necessitates diversity and constant changes of its forms. Change and innovation are of first importance to the culture. Change means altering the previously familiar forms, while innovation means venturing into the unknown field whose future can't be predicated. On this account, in his famous Adventures of Ideas, Whitehead writes, “adventure belongs to the essence of civilization.”[2] Whitehead has exactly grasped the character of human civilization, i.e., without healthy adventure, there would be no human evolution and social progress.

A living civilization requires learning, but it lies beyond it. Inheritance is necessary, but not sufficient for the civilization. Only after human beings ventured into the plain from the woods could they produce a completely new civilization. Human beings venturing to move about from one land to another may account for the diversity of culture. We can say that all the achievements in the past can be largely attributed to the adventurousness. To a large extent, history was created by those adventurous people.

Without adventures, there would be no happening; without happening, there would be no future; without future, there would be no new things. The value of adventures lies in its leading to happening, while the value of happening lies in its possibility of opening the future and of stimulating creativity. For Whitehead, the historical progress is embodied in new models being introduced into conceptual experiences to get a different transcendental perspective. Only after we gain a new perspective transcending reality can we enable ourselves to merge into the creative historical process. Hence, in our life, we shouldn't blindly imitate, but give free rein to our imagination and creativity, constantly stepping into the unknown field. Physical wandering is still important, but greater still is the power of man's spiritual adventures. New adventures as in thought, fresh experiences as in emotion and diversification as in the aesthetic experiences can arouse one's enthusiasm and creativity.

Nowadays, everyone will agree that science and technology is the first productive force. In essence, science and technology are just spiritual adventures. Whitehead writes:

Modern science has imposed on humanity the necessity for wandering. Its progressive thought and its progressive technology make the transition through time, from generation to generation, a true migration into uncharted seas of adventure. The very benefit of wandering is that it is dangerous and needs skills to avert evils. We must expect, therefore, that future will disclose dangers. It is the business of the future to be dangerous; and it is among the merits of science that it equips the future for its duties.[3]

Science and technology themselves are adventures, because they seek to probe the secrets of the universe and change the framework of the objective world. Science is liable to produce dangers which human beings have to face. It is science and technology that lead us to a situation where there are so many dangers that we must always keep vigilant.

Education also requires adventurousness. Just as Whitehead says, “education is discipline for the adventure of life; research is intellectual adventure.” The successful education should aim at making the youth experience fun in adventure and exploration. The key task of all kinds of education is to vitalize the knowledge. So, schools, especially “universities should be homes of adventure shared in common by young and old.”[4] Today, education is exceedingly important because education, in which “adventure of action met the adventure of thought”,[5] can greatly promote the social prosperity and progress.

Metaphysics is a spiritual adventure as well. “Apart from metaphysical presupposition there can be no civilization.”[6] Metaphysical understanding can guide one's imagination and provide basis for one's thought and action. Metaphysics is a kind of spiritual innovation. Every time metaphysics ventures, it ends the past discoveries and calls the future adventures. According to Whitehead, one shouldn't be fettered by his ideal. Ideals, like flowing water, keep moving on and on without even momentary stop, though it is usually taken for granted that ideals are timeless. We must constantly promote our ideals. An ideal is actually a wish to innovate, while innovation means adventure. From the historical point of view, all the great innovations exclusively begin with the metaphysical adventures. Only through spiritual adventures can we fully develop our imagination and see into the more valuable goal and future.

2. How to Maintain the Adventurousness

Since adventurousness is the source of civilization, it is evidently important to maintain it. Now, how to retain the impulses to venture instead of being conservative?

To keep adventurous, first of all, one shouldn't be steeped in the past success. In other words, real success requires innovation. Even if an innovation fails, it is still much better than following the old routine.

In the natural world, evolution is incarnated in the rupture and transformation of the order. The essence of life is embodied in the failure of the present order. The evolution of life is an adventure, in which the forms of life unceasingly change. It is by means of adventure that life gains the possibility of developing in the future.

In the human society, change and innovation are even more important and necessary. Anything, including so-called perfect thing, can't bear the dull repetition, which will turn everything magnificent into lifeless customs. Following the beaten track will blunt the function of systems. Submitting to the convention will erode one's creativity. If adventurousness is suppressed by the conventional rules and orthodox views, imagination and creativity may be forfeited, and thereby society loses vigor. With regard to the literature, Whitehead writes, “in its day, the literature of the past was an adventure,”[7] because it needs to break through the original norms. Dull imitation will greatly decrease the attraction of an art work. As to love, it is necessary for the lovers to frequently add fresh content to keep love alive. Even the morals require unceasing; otherwise they will degenerate into mechanical and boring regulations. To state it in Whiteheadian words, “moral consists in the aim at the ideal …stagnation is the deadly foe of morality.”[8] Stagnant morals may hinder or even disintegrate a civilization.

If there is no adventurousness or impulse to innovate, the civilization will lose its vigor. In a society lacking in creativity, as Whitehead writes, “there remains the show of civilization, without any of its realities.”[9] A society deficient in adventurousness, like a corpse without soul, will lack intelligence of a sound civilization, though it has the appearance of the civilization.

In order to keep the civilization alive, we should venture into as many fields as possible instead of seeking safety in closed castles. The tortoise has lost motive to evolve because of its hard shells; in some areas, deer have become weak after the wolves were annihilated. In ancient China, for another example, the Great Wall had been built to resist the northern tribes, but it proved wrong to get security in this way. The nomadic tribes had constantly swarmed into the inland across the Great Wall.

It was the great ideal to pursue perfection that had roused and pushed forward the Hellene, who created distinctive and perfect way of life, form of art and mode of thought. However, after the Hellene achieved the perfections, their inspirations started to wither away. Exploration and creativity were displaced by conservation and repetition. As a result, they finally lost their leading role in the world history. Just as Whitehead expresses such phenomenon, “without adventure civilization is in full decay.”[10]

In Science and Modern World, Whitehead mentioned the situation in the 19^th century: the dull atmosphere of middle class dominated the whole society, and people “placed an excessive value upon placidity of existence. They refused to face the necessities for intellectual reform imposed by the new industrial system, and they are now refusing to face the necessities for intellectual reform imposed by new knowledge.”[11] This situation was far from a prosperous civilization, but a stagnant one. Eventually, the placidity was broken by the First World War. In Whiteheadian opinion, though “there is a degree of instability which is inconsistent with civilization. But, on the whole, the great ages have been unstable ages. ”[12] The key point here is that the civilization will by no means led by the uncontrollable destructive power, but by sound adventures.

Secondly, in order to retain adventurousness, we ought to tolerate or even create diversification. We shouldn't persistently aim for purity and unity, which are as dull as ditch water and will lead to standstill. In fact, only in diversification can a person keep his thought active.

Diversity can cause curiosity, which in turn rouses thought. As Whitehead says, “A diversification among human communities is essential for the provision of incentive and material for the Odyssey of the human spirit.”[13] The multiplicity of culture is not the obstacle of civilization, but the prerequisite of its development.

For the sake of keeping diversification, we must learn to admit imperfections. Any perfection is comparatively relative. In this sense, Whitehead writes:

There are in fact higher and lower perfections, and an imperfection aiming at a higher type stands above lower perfections. …Progress is founded upon the experience of discordant feelings. The social value of liberty lies in its production of discords. There are perfections beyond perfections. All realization is finite, and there is no perfection which is the infinitude of all perfections. …Thus the value of Discord is a tribute to the merits of Imperfection.[14]

Discords and imperfections will arouse desires to improve, which will stimulate the drives to venture and innovate, which open the possibilities of developing.

   Indeed, in discords and imperfections, there is always a sense of frustration. “But even Discord may be preferable to a feeling of slow relapse into general anaesthesia, or into tameness which is its prelude. Perfection at a low level ranks below Imperfection with higher aim.”[15] There are discords and imperfections in the universe just because of the diversity of beauty and perfection. So, the pursuit of perfections tends to cause discords, which will bestir impulses to venture and innovate.

   Finally, to maintain adventurousness, we must cherish drives to innovate, which requires high ideals. Once a person possesses lofty ideals, he gains impetus to advance unceasingly. Without ideals, one is prone to be self-complacent and conservative. Without ideals, one is also liable to be fettered by some trivialities and become too overcautious to do anything great.

3. What sort of Adventurousness do we need?

In Adventurousness of Ideas, Whitehead writes:

Sometimes adventure is acting within limits. It can then calculate its end, and reach it. Such adventures are the ripples of change within one type of civilization, by which an epoch of given type preserves its freshness. But, given the vigor of adventure, sooner or later the leap of imagination reaches beyond the safe limits of the epoch, and beyond the safe limits of learned rules of taste.[16]

Adventurousness is not foolhardiness, but a union of zest and peace. Only zest will lead to rashness and panic, while peace alone will cause people to lose creativity. Thus, Whitehead writes:

The unity of Adventure includes the Eros which is the living urge towards all possibilities, claiming the goodness of their realization. …At the heart of the nature of things, there are always the dream of youth and the harvest of tragedy. The Adventure of the universe starts with the dream and reaps tragic Beauty. This is the secret of the union of Zest and Peace—That the suffering attains its end in a Harmony of Harmonies.[17]

According to my understanding, “tragic Beauty” here indicates a state of dauntless spirit, which is usually gained after one possesses lofty or high goal of life. Once a person establishes such a goal, he will have “a sense of the worth of life,”[18] and he won't be worried about trivialities and the unpredictable future. As Whitehead puts it, “apart from some transcendent aim the civilized life either wallows in pleasure or relapses slowly into a barren repetition with waning intensities of feeling.”[19]

Adventure shouldn't be destructive. The main purpose of adventure is to create the future, while the creation of the future includes both deconstruction and construction. Today's deconstruction should aim at tomorrow's construction. Today, the university has become more and more important and necessary just because it can provide various possibilities of creating the future. The university is a special community that is abundant in adventurousness and that can constantly invent new modes of thought, discover new laws of nature, explore new technological means and guide novel ways of life. The university should be an experimental ground for creating the future more than archives for keeping old experiences. In this sense, the university is the motive power of social progress.

Adventure is not a thing to be accomplished in one move, but a process of constant impetuses to innovate. The innovation in action comes from the adventures in ideas, while the latter is essentially the emancipation of the mind, namely, an open state of mind ready to accept the new things.

To revitalize our civilization, we ought to reconsider our educational ideas and methods. We should endeavor to forge a new educational system, whose purpose is by no means to train the youth as knowledge receivers, but to stimulate their interest in creating new ideas, but to provoke their desires to venture. In the epoch of knowledge economy, innovation is the prerequisite of social development. So it is urgent for us to advocate a constructive adventurousness.