Our ancestors of the ‘pre-philosophical' era – much too often called Ionian thinkers – engaged themselves in an admirable quest to make sense of everything that struck their awe. As a consequence, the concept of deity, as well as the supernatural forces attributed to nearly all types of earthly phenomena (i.e., be it terrifying disasters or monochromic cycle of nature) represented their primitive attempts to explain, and thus understand the affairs of human existence and nature.
[...] At the very least, making sense entails seeing reality in an integrated manner. But bereft of memory, any attempt to make sense fatally collapses. Everything will simply fall apart if humankind had no way to grasp experience and reality in a holistic manner. Hartshorne rightfully contends: “history” belongs to the “cognitive paradigm” of humankind. Since memory serves as our bridge connecting us to our past, and history is how we interpret ourselves to be related to the past, then it is not without good reasons to suppose that it is only through our memory that we can achieve a successful construction of history. [...]
[...] Simply put, a cause is that which impresses an influence upon its effect; conversely, an effect is that which exists on account of a cause, or causes, which brings about its present state. Generally, the principle of causality assumes that everything that happens, happens by virtue of identifiable causes. Causality is our roadmap for integration. Through it, we are given with an “integrated” sense of reality; i.e., we are able to grasp what has been, what is, and what shall be, into a single overarching principle of connections. [...]
[...] It is therefore not without good reasons to suppose that our ancestors once barked on a wrong tree. Surely though, they were not chiefly at fault. The gradual evolution of the human mind had to start somewhere. What stood out to be more important though were not so much the answers they proffered as the questions they raised. This is for the plain reason that the first groups of men who asked things are what they are were the certainly responsible for the start of the unending pursuit of truth; a quest that would last for thousands of years, stretching, as it were, right onto the contemporary epoch. [...]
[...] For while my decision to visit a friend constitutes a single act, it can nevertheless point to a myriad of possible causes that may help explain why such an act and not the other was in the very first place ever met. Effects are thus cases of integration. They are, as Hartshorne intelligently conceives it, “essentially cumulative”, inasmuch as later events in a manner figurative, that is their antecedent causes within its own composite reality. Memory as Experiential Causality Charles Hartshorne's model of causality can surely provide us with a significant framework so as to appreciate how memory is pretty essential in our attempt to understand reality. [...]
APA Style reference
For your bibliographyOnline reading
with our online readerContent validated
by our reading committee
