Process and Reality

In this way, the primary requirement—that there must be some significant application—is ensured. We test the success of an imaginative experiment by how well its results apply beyond the specific area where they first began.

If a generalization starts in physics, for example, but cannot be applied elsewhere, it remains nothing more than an alternative way of describing concepts already used in physics. However, a successful philosophical generalization derived from physics will find applications in areas of experience far beyond physics. It will shed light on observations in those distant fields. This allows us to see general principles at work that would otherwise be hidden because they are so constantly and persistently present.

Therefore, the first requirement is to use the method of generalization to ensure there is some application. The test of success is whether it applies beyond its immediate origin. In other words, a synoptic vision synoptic visionA "synoptic vision" refers to a comprehensive view of the whole, where different parts of knowledge are seen together in a single, unified perspective. has been achieved.

In this description of philosophical method, the term "philosophical generalization" refers to taking specific ideas that apply to a limited group of facts and using them to discover the general concepts that apply to all facts.

In its use of this method, natural science has shown a strange mixture of rationalism and irrationalism. Within its own borders, its way of thinking has been intensely rational. However, beyond those borders, it has been dogmatically irrational. In practice, this attitude tends to become a dogmatic denial that the world contains any factors that cannot be fully explained by science's own basic concepts. Such a denial is a "self-denial" of thought—it is the mind refusing to think beyond its own self-imposed limits.

The second condition for a successful imaginative construction is the relentless pursuit of two rationalist ideals: coherence and logical perfection.

Logical perfection does not require a detailed...