1421. Parallel

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There is evidently a parallel between Whitehead's statement that "there are two senses of the one—namely, the sense of the one which is all, and the sense of the one among the many" (Modes of Thought: 150) and Hartshorne's statement that "[t]he necessarily existent abstraction 'something' divides a priori into two correlative abstractions, divine or unsurpassable something and non-divine or surpassable something" (Creative Synthesis and Philosophic Method: 250 f.).

Evidently, to be one in the sense of "the one which is all" is also to be something in the sense of "divine or unsurpassable something," just as to be one in the sense of "the one among the many" is to be something in the sense of "non-divine or surpassable something."

22 January 2001