(first update 2.07.2021)

Slab of Nature

The idea of a slab in nature constitutes one of the most interesting conceptions in the philosophy of Whitehead. Yet it is almost entirely absent in the purely materialistic sciences, which strip form away from content. When content is added without form, the result lacks phenomenological depth; in other words, it reduces phenomena to their most primordial principle. But the reality of a phenomenon is that it is always filled with the conception of the observer as an indivisible feature.

We miss conceptions of the universe that are alive because we define the universe as merely lifeless. The universe is not simply a dead structure composed of rudimentary elements that constitute its maximum abundance. We overlook the enormous richness and detail contained within it: the universe is full of an infinite novelty of particularity. The universe at large is constituted mostly by particularity. Everywhere one looks, something unique appears—as if the angle from which the universe is viewed, and the conception disclosed at that angle, arise from the same unending point of view. That point of view never ends; it turns in every direction.

The universe is like a dark room filled with particular, direct conceptions of observers. The question is not the existence of this phenomenon, but who is the observer, or what is the observer? If the type of observer is directly linked, in inverse proportional degree, to the variability of the phenomena we can conceive, then why is it that we can conceive the phenomena but not the observer?

Aside from the supposedly infinite observers we imagine exist on Earth, we only actually know a handful: the animals, and whatever counts as living at all levels of nature. Yet nature is full of passages into realities or worlds. At the end of every tunnel in the universe—at the limit of every spacetime continuum—behind the fabric of spacetime itself, lies an opening, a portal to an alternative world: a novel and different world from yours, but one that might just as well be the same in almost every important way.

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Corrected Version with Footnotes

“But the examples which I have given you show that the notions of the situations of what you see, what you touch, and what you hear are not so sharply separated out as to defy further questioning. You cannot cling to the idea that we have two sets of experiences of nature, one of primary qualities which belong to the objects perceived, and one of secondary qualities which are the products of our mental excitements. All we know of nature is in the same boat, to sink or swim together. The constructions of science are merely expositions of the characters of things perceived. Accordingly to affirm that the cook is a certain dance of molecules and electrons is merely to affirm that the things about her which are perceivable have certain characters. The situations of the perceived manifestations of her bodily presence have only a very general relation to the situations of the molecules, to be determined by discussion of the circumstances of perception.” (148)¹

(Scientific objects are pure abstract relations, like the electron. See section summary VIII.)²

Whitehead points out a pressing contradiction between perceptual objects and the objects of science. Scientific intuition supported by empirical study tells us that all varying physical objects at the perceptual gradient of the macro scale are made up of the same underlying microscopic components involving as much—or even more—variability. The issue is not whether things are made up of atoms, but in what way an event, which is itself an object, can be a compilation of other objects which are also events.³ If physical objects are compiled out of atoms like a house out of bricks, we must explain how the duration of events leading into each other relates to the physical relations of many objects forming one.⁴

(See also the notion of the “transcendental object.”)⁵

Level of Magnification

(Alan Watts 9:35:20.)⁶

The scientific term level of magnification refers to the physical change of magnitudes in the nature of dimension. Interestingly, even from an empirical perspective, this physical change in magnitude is governed by the conception of consciousness. Looking through a microscope or a telescope alters the conscious conception by inducing an increase or decrease in the magnitude of spatial dimension.⁷

The scientific materialist argues that it is the technical capacity of the instrument—e.g., the lens—that changes consciousness, meaning that the change in consciousness is materially induced.⁸ But this raises the question: if consciousness is altered by an instrument, was consciousness not what made the instrument in the first place?⁹

Three-dimensionality is discerned only through motion; otherwise, a thing appears two-dimensional.¹⁰ We operate within three dimensions because constant motion maintains dimensionality. However, objects in themselves are fundamentally two-dimensional. Consider looking out into the sky: if there were no motion—only a static plane, as it does appear through a telescope—and if the observer had no concept of objects moving, everything would appear two-dimensional.¹¹

When something is static, it appears two-dimensional because there is no motion to discern movement inward, outward, backward, or forward. Determination determines dimension, not merely that actions take place within a dimension. Even if the determination and the dimensional action occur simultaneously, we still cannot exclude one from the other.¹²

Magnification as Inverse Negative Relation

Magnification is an example of an inverse negative relation. When we zoom too far into an object, we enter a negative scale of the Cartesian axis: the object becomes inverted into the scale of the parts forming it.¹³

Magnification inverts the distance between the observer and the object to the point that both seem to be within each other. It creates a negative space by inverting distance. Consider a line connected by a midpoint. The inversion of that line would be the disconnection of the two segments away from that point; the space between the segments is now equal to the length of each segment separated from the midpoint.¹⁴

Imagine a line with a midpoint—two lines connected at the same middle point—and pull them apart by a distance equal to their length. The space between them is now equal to the relation originally determined by the midpoint.¹⁵

Footnotes

1. A.N. Whitehead, The Concept of Nature (Cambridge University Press, 1920), p. 148.
2. A.N. Whitehead, Science and the Modern World (1925), ch. IV, on “scientific objects as abstract relational constructs.”
3. Whitehead’s event ontology is presented systematically in Process and Reality (1929), Part I, ch. II.
4. See Ilya Prigogine, From Being to Becoming (1980), on events and physical processes.
5. Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason (1781), on the “transcendental object = X.”
6. Alan Watts, “Out of Your Mind” lectures (1960s), timestamp ~9:35:20 in common online recordings.
7. Ernst Mach, The Analysis of Sensations (1886), on perception and dimensional variation.
8. Instrumental causation in perception is discussed in W. Sellars, “Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind” (1956).
9. This recursive relation is treated in Don Ihde, Instrumental Realism (1991).
10. Henri Bergson, Matter and Memory (1896), on motion as the condition of dimensional intuition.
11. See phenomenological accounts of space in Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception (1945).
12. Whitehead, Process and Reality, on the co-dependence of form and activity.
13. Mandelbrot, The Fractal Geometry of Nature (1982), for scaling inversion and dimensional recursion.
14. Euclid, Elements, Book I, propositions on bisected lines.
15. Basic analytic geometry: inversion through midpoint reflection; see S. Lang, Geometry (1987).

Mueller–Lyer Illusion

The Müller–Lyer illusion demonstrates that magnitude is conceptual.¹
Lines A and B are physically identical in length, yet they appear different because the directional arrows alter the interpretation of spatial extension. The perceptual system imposes a conceptual structure on a given magnitude.

Atoms Are Not in Normal Experience

There is a deep disconnect between the claim that physical objects are composed of molecules and atoms and the phenomenological experience of perceptual objects. Such components play no role in ordinary perceptual life. People go about their day without any sense that the world is composed of atoms, even though these atoms constitute the fundamental bedrock of physical existence.²

Likewise, we know that the mind possesses reason, forming possibilities, images, and truths—yet we have no direct intuition of what reason is in itself.³

General Images vs. Microscopic Components

The general perceptual image of an object bears no resemblance to the microscopic forms composing it. Whitehead emphasizes that what science discovers through magnification does not resemble the object as perceived, because magnification changes the scale of the event.⁴

When the gradient of any portion of a surface decreases in magnitude through magnification, the components forming the surface increase in scale. When these components enlarge, the general image instantaneously diminishes. For example: if the cells on my skin are magnified, those cells become the new “macroscopic” object, while my hand becomes the imperceptible, microscopic background.⁵

Yet the hand—imperceptible under magnification—still functions as the abstract whole of which the cells are parts. The reverse claim—that the hand is merely the “complication” of its cells—does not possess the same experiential validity.⁶

The Problem of Validity

Validity based solely on structure presupposes a given structure that requires validation. What is implied but ignored is the power of cognition that validates the structure, which is also the very activity by which the structure changes and becomes valid.⁷

Structural validity, therefore, becomes an arbitrary decision about an objective hierarchy of magnitudes. This does not make it wrong, but it means that a universal conception arises from a particular standpoint—not that the universal is a product of the particular, but that the particular standpoint is the locus from which a universal view can be conceived.⁸

If there are infinitely many points of view, this demonstrates that the universal is the same conception reached from each. The macroscopic hand and microscopic atom depend entirely on a direction chosen from an infinitesimal duration of the observer’s rational capacity. This infinitesimal duration is the extent of rational conception: infinite in scope but appearing as a moment.⁹

First Image of a Black Hole

Empirical science recently captured the first image of a black hole.¹⁰ The interesting aspect is not what the black hole looks like—its appearance simply reaffirms predictions made since Einstein. Rather, it is interesting contextually: the image is blurry because the black hole is infinitesimally small relative to its distance from the observer.

This is not merely a technological limitation but a structural fact: distance determines apparent size. To appear small is not only to be distant but also, conceptually, to resemble the infinitesimal.

From atomic theory we know that something infinitesimally small tends to be fundamental, meaning it does not occupy merely a single moment of time but structures the constitution of larger objects. Black holes, though massive, may be fundamental in this same sense: they occupy vast scales while simultaneously functioning like infinitesimal nodes.¹¹

From such a distance, a black hole might as well be the size of an atom. The paradox is that black holes exert immense energy and gravitational influence despite their minute observed size—an issue still puzzling to contemporary physics.¹²

Thus:
If an atom is fundamental and infinitesimal, and a black hole is fundamental and infinitesimal at an opposite extreme of scale, then the two are structurally analogous.

The atom is the most general unit of material structure; the black hole, equally small from the standpoint of cosmic distance, expresses the same principle at another order of magnitude. Their distinction arises from the mode of conceptual apprehension.

Matters attracts towards Form (quality)

Hegel outlines how matter, lacking identity and form, naturally tends to move toward a centre, since it is without identity; the centre, by definition, is the quality toward which it is drawn, he says:

“Matter, being the immediate unity of existence with itself, is also indifferent towards specific character. Hence the numerous diverse matters coalesce into the one Matter, or into existence under the reflective characteristic of identity. In contrast to this one Matter these distinct properties and their external relation which they have to one another in the thing, constitute the Form—the reflective category of difference, but a difference which exists and is a totality.”¹³

In this quote, Hegel is explaining a very deep, abstract concept that accurately reflects physical reality: matter tends to collect around a center point. This center always corresponds to some quality of nature, which can be called gravity, or, in Hegelian terms, the identity of matter. The identity of matter is its characteristic; in Platonic ontology, it corresponds to the Forms.

The Form is a quality toward which matter naturally tends. At the center, matter—being formless or simply the “hype” of an undifferentiated substrate—is attracted to a quality. Because it lacks form, it gravitates toward it, and by obtaining form, it becomes an object. Hegel describes the Form as the “reflective category,” meaning that the Form expresses the difference as conceived by the observer; it is the nature of the observer’s conception of this process.

Footnotes

1. Müller-Lyer, F.C. “Optische Urteilstäuschungen.” Archiv für Anatomie und Physiologie (1889).
2. Eddington, Arthur. The Nature of the Physical World (1928), ch. II.
3. Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Pure Reason (1781), Transcendental Logic.
4. Whitehead, Alfred North. Science and the Modern World (1925), ch. IV; also Process and Reality (1929), Part II.
5. Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. Phenomenology of Perception (1945), sections on bodily magnification.
6. Whitehead, Process and Reality, on “abstractive hierarchies” and “societies.”
7. Hegel, G.W.F. Science of Logic (1812), Doctrine of Essence.
8. Husserl, Edmund. Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology (1913), on perspectives and horizons.
9. Bergson, Henri. Creative Evolution (1907), on durée and infinitesimal intuition.
10. Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, “First M87 Event Horizon Telescope Results” (2019).
11. Susskind, Leonard. The Black Hole War (2008), on black holes as fundamental informational units.
12. Einstein, A.; Rosen, N. “The Particle Problem in the General Theory of Relativity.” Physical Review (1935).
13. Hegel, G.W.F. Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences (1830), Part One (§128).

Uniqueness

The notion is “more things are happening within a smaller space” seems to constitute the idea of what it means for something to be unique. The directional magnitude of the universe is not equal in all directions. Rather, the universe inherently includes an asymmetrical element of magnitudes: there are macroscopic magnitudes extending outward in all directions indefinitely, but there is also an inverse, inward magnitude that progresses infinitesimally toward the smallest degree. This inward direction of magnitude is not like conventional spatial directions—up, down, left, or right—but constitutes a single, determinate, and definite direction of motion. This motion, which is generation, is where an object arises from or exists equally within the objects disclosed infinitesimally within it.

“The situations of a physical object are conditioned by uniqueness and continuity. The uniqueness is an ideal limit to which we approximate as we proceed in thought along an abstractive set of durations, considering smaller and smaller durations in the approach to the ideal limit of the moment of time. In other words, when the duration is small enough, the situation of the physical object within that duration is practically unique.”¹

Before explaining why smaller size is characteristic of uniqueness, it is important to explain in what sense qualities like size are primary or not.

Mediation vs. meditation – mediating, not meditating

John Locke distinguishes between primary and secondary qualities as an attempt to categorize the ancient Aristotelian notion of form as it relates to matter, which in modern terms develops into the relation between the observer and the phenomenon. Primary qualities are supposed to convey facts that belong to the thing itself, independent of the subjective influence of the observer, and in that way can be determined with certainty; for example, if an object is spherical, no one can reasonably argue that it is triangular.² Aristotle argues that something “which cannot be otherwise” is self-evident through the “light of reason.”³ This is how primary qualities confront the observer.

Secondary qualities are properties that produce sensations in observers, like color, taste, smell, or sound. British empiricism tends to classify things into categories, but Whitehead, a later product of this tradition, detests this methodology because the means by which a fact is determined as primary is derived from an uncertain or dynamically changing principle that must be taken into account. For example, in order for an object to be spherical, it must be determined as spherical, which involves linearity, planes, points, etc., each of which are moments in the life of what we take as an abstraction.⁴

To be a primary quality within the frame conceiving it is not the same as saying it belongs subjectively to the observer, because the analysis or interpretation of the phenomenon is a judgment coming after the fact. The phenomenon is only objective—standing independently true to be comprehended by the subjective side—when it shares in the essential form of the conception. The conception stands as the mediation between the particle state of an object, as one given moment, and the actualization in the wavelength duration constituting one step toward the totality of possibilities of a thing’s activity. By mediation, the conception exists in the continuity of one event transitioning to another by connecting to each other, following from each other, forming the material fabric of what we perceive as an object. One object, or the particle state, is simply the connection of events leading into each other to form the next point of continuity in their duration.

When we look around the world, we see what Whitehead calls “slabs”—slabs of nature—where the duration objectifies itself as a distinct object, exhibiting each detail within it as the variabilities of its process.

When two observers agree on the same object, it means they are sharing in the same conception, which is the slab of nature connecting their common ground.

Slab of Nature

(Add infinite possibilities of a thing forming its wavelength sequence)

A slab of nature is literally the conception that distinct observers share to agree on the same fact and is the objective side of the phenomenon as it is conceived within a certain reference frame. This agreement is not a mere “agreement” but an actual object in nature; however, it is only an object within the reality of observers. When we say that the conception is the relation, we mean that it is literally the duration of a single thing in which other things share an experience. So when observer A and B conceive phenomena C, their conception is the duration of that phenomenon, which constitutes their relation. But insofar as phenomena C has a relation to a fourth phenomenon D, phenomena C is sharing in the conception of D as being related to A and B, and so on. For example, when me and John look at a river, the river is our conception, but the river is also the conception of the rock, which is related to me, John, and the river.⁵

In order for something to be objective is not the same as equating permanency with unchangingness. To be permanent does not mean to not change, but only that the process from a point of view outside of it can be totally laid out in its entirety as a simultaneity. This is presupposed by observers in order to have a difference of determination, or rather what differentiates one phenomenon from another: a butterfly is a mobile leaf; out of the leaf emerges the butterfly. When the extent of a duration reaches the revelation of its totality, it becomes realized and therefore transitions or changes into something else.

The conception of the observer does not mean that the conception belongs to the observer, as if the conception is in the possession of the observer. The preface of this point is the fact that the observer is not equivalent to the observation. The observer is the point toward which the conception bears the closest proximity. This means that the observer is the point to which the conception is approaching as a limit; therefore, the conception is not an object for the observer in the sense that it belongs to them but is the relation by which a phenomenon is confirmed—a return to itself, which is the same as the completion of a process.⁶

When different observers agree on a principle, the conception is prior to the observer. This follows from the logic that the relation is prior to the components constituting it. The observer is the confirmation of the phenomenon itself; therefore, the phenomenon is objective.

A thing is primary in relation to an observer, which means something primary is the agreement of the observer with the phenomenon. The observer confirms for a thing to be primary; this is how different observers agree on the same fact. What is primary is their relation, which does not mean it is static but dynamic and changing.

Definition of situation
The situation of an object is the configuration of its relations and activities within a given duration, conditioned by continuity and uniqueness, such that it approximates an ideal limit in thought.⁷

Footnotes

1. Whitehead, A.N., Process and Reality, p. 157.
2. Locke, J., An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Book II.
3. Aristotle, Metaphysics, Book IV.
4. Whitehead, A.N., Process and Reality, discussion on primary and secondary qualities.
5. Whitehead, A.N., Process and Reality, concept of “Slab of Nature.”
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.,

Definition of “Situation”

An experience is defined as the moment “when all the pieces fall into place,” or, in other terms, when distinct variables form the same relation—when the set of all factors is disclosed within a single conception.¹

The qualities of “small” and “big” do not primarily belong to physical objects, because any given object is only large or small relative to other objects depending on which components are being related within a conception.² However, this does not mean that size is not a primary characteristic in another sense, because every object does in fact bear a larger or smaller magnitude. The conception is the movement that mediates between distinguished components, but that mediation always involves a greater proximity to one component and a relative distance from another at any given moment.³

The concentration of attention on one object over another is not a feature belonging to the object itself, but rather the form of the conception as a relation mediating between things. The physical manifestation of this mediating process is a wavelength.⁴

A crest may be taken as a moment of concentration, and the trough as another moment of concentration. Whether the crest or the trough occupies the center of focus, when one is directly seen the other is indirectly seen. Mediation is the simple condition in which one component occupies the center of the reference frame while the other occupies the perimeter. This back-and-forth—whereby one becomes central while the other becomes peripheral—is the mediating process of the conception. It is the relation prior to its distinct components, because the movement is the asymmetry by which one stands out while the other recedes.⁵ This is why the notion of a “component” exists at all.

The wave is the dynamic, animate function, while the circle is the particle-like, component side. The component is simply one perspective of the relation from a particular point of view; the component is not a fragmented extraction from the relation but the characterization of the relation as partial from a certain standpoint.

The circumference represents the component of the conception at the perimeter, while the center represents the focus of the conception.⁶ The form of a circle—having both a central point and a circumference—expresses the particle-wave duality. The wave is the basic action of having a perimeter at the extremity and a center at the point of proximity.

A given moment is always subject to change in which one object occupies the center while another remains at the perimeter.

For example, the perception of a tree involves the relation between the organ of sight and the tree. The conception or reference frame does not belong exclusively to either object but is the relation itself. It is only an approximation to one object relative to another.⁷

If size is not a fixed feature belonging to physical objects but a changing magnitude of continuity by which sets of things are related, then Whitehead argues that qualities such as size belong to perceptual objects, not physical ones.⁸

If we take larger and smaller as magnitudes of continuity, then they are defined by how much they contain. Something larger differs from something smaller because it discloses more distinctions within its scope. A smaller magnitude is distinguishable from a larger one because it cannot disclose as many things and therefore its conception is more specific, whereas the larger magnitude is more general.⁹ The difficulty, however, is that the large contains many specifications, while the small—though detailed at its own scale—appears general because it cannot be further divided. No matter how small a thing is, if it appears uniform and cannot be differentiated further, it bears the quality of generality. This is why the atom is the most general physical structure: it cannot be reduced further, and even the presence of subatomic “strings” is always disclosed only through a nucleus.

For example, a rock from far away appears simply as “a rock,” but when brought closer it is revealed to be a cluster of distinct pebbles.

We normally assume that uniqueness is the emergence of something different from an unknown source. But this implies the question: does a unique thing appear without presuppositions? Smaller space characterizes uniqueness because it emphasizes a single thing within a relational schema as the conception of those relations.¹⁰ For instance, take a room filled with chairs, tables, and desks. What can a smaller area hold compared to the larger? The smaller area cannot include all the objects, but it can include one object individually. The space occupied by one chair is smaller than the space occupied by a chair and a table together. The limitation of what an area can disclose explains why smaller magnitude constitutes uniqueness.

Size is a measure. When we move from a larger magnitude into a smaller one, we move from a general conception containing many objects into a specification of a single object. That is what we call uniqueness: the defining feature of a distinct object disclosed within a generality. Conversely, when that same object occupying a smaller space is magnified, it becomes the general conception containing a set of unique objects occupying even smaller spaces. For example, take a small rock from the ground and hold it far from your eyes; it appears general. Bring it closer or magnify its surface, and new constituents appear.¹¹

Footnotes

1. This corresponds to Whitehead’s idea that experience is the “concrescence” of data into a unified perspective.
2. Whitehead distinguishes between perceptual objects (how things appear) and scientific objects (their theoretical constitution). Size belongs to the former.
3. “Proximity” here reflects the gradation in an observer’s concrescence—an asymmetry of attention.
4. The wavelength analogy mirrors Whitehead’s account of “prehensions” oscillating between focus and relevance.
5. This asymmetry is foundational in process philosophy: every relation selects, emphasizes, and excludes.
6. This geometrical analogy reflects the local/global tension inherent in all observation.
7. This reflects the doctrine that “the relation is prior to the relata.”
8. *See Whitehead’s distinction in *Process and Reality* between “presentational immediacy” and “causal efficacy.”*
9. This parallels Aristotle’s doctrine that the more determinate is the less universal, and vice versa.
10. Uniqueness is here tied to the “minimal region” capable of supporting one determinate entity.
11. This example illustrates how magnification reverses the general/particular hierarchy by altering scale.

A Rock

A rock appears at first as a uniformity of shape, colour, and texture—indiscriminately forming a single, unique object. Bring that rock as close as possible to the eye, and it takes up the entire scope of perception.¹ What was once a small object now becomes the general field of vision. Within this magnified field, the rock reveals a set of unique details occupying even smaller spaces—minute stones compacted together, crystalline fragments, or intricate patterns resembling waves.²

Primary qualities such as size are therefore determined by what the form of the conception discloses as a set of relations.³ The same object may be small at one level of conception and large at another.

This nature of magnitude is demonstrated on a cosmic scale as well: stars, planets, and terrestrial bodies appear small from a distance, yet immense when approached.⁴ Changing the magnification of the conception changes what counts as the macroscopic and microscopic scale. Likewise, a city viewed from afar occupies a small area; when approached, it becomes a field of large individual structures.

Time and Activity

When something “takes time,” this does not imply that time is an independent substance from which the object subtracts a certain portion.⁵ Rather, when an activity is performed by a thing, time is the simultaneity of the conception with the duration of that activity. The expression “an activity takes time” means that the span of that duration is time.⁶

Relative Motion is Relative Size

Relative size is rooted in the conception having varying proximities to quantitative measures such as distance, mass, and density.⁷ This relativity arises because the conception always bears a closer approximation to a third object that is not directly perceived.

From the perspective of an observer, any two objects disclosed within the same conception relate symmetrically insofar as they appear together: a tree and a lamppost stand in a symmetrical relation simply by being jointly disclosed.⁸ What gives the tree its particular shape—asymmetrical relative to the lamppost—results from the relation both objects bear to a third, indirectly conceived and imperceptible phenomenon (e.g., gravitational gradients, spatial orientation, or background conditions).⁹

Thus, the conception that symmetrically includes both objects must also account for their asymmetry, which arises from its indirect relation to the object of closest proximity. This asymmetrical principle introduces uncertainty into the relation.¹⁰

Whether objects possess inherent size can also be answered by examining the nature of the conception. When an object generates into being, it situates itself relative to other things, maintaining its position by imposing a universal quantitative measure appropriate to its duration of experience. For example, light must be the least dense phenomenon in order to be the fastest.¹¹

Relations of Magnitude Form Dimensions

Dimensions—such as three-dimensional space—are perceptual objects formed by relations of magnitudes fixated upon points in space.¹² When a conception moves from one point to another, a distinction is maintained, forming a magnitude whose range is circular insofar as consciousness continually recognizes that these distinctions remain within the same relation.¹³

When a planet is isolated in thought as a discrete object in its orbit, this constitutes an abstraction of its particle-state. The distinction between a point-particle state and a wavelength state should not be understood as different physical manifestations—where one is extended and the other discrete.¹⁴

The wavelength is not the external space covered by the planet’s orbit, nor is the particle-state simply the spherical appearance of the planet. Particle and wave are abstractions of magnitudes of conception.¹⁵ The difficulty in wave–particle duality is the challenge of capturing an overview in which each is found within the conception of the other.¹⁶

Footnotes

1. Corresponds to the phenomenological expansion of the perceptual field; cf. Husserl’s “horizon-structure.”
2. Magnification reveals the micro-constituents of the macroscopic object, consistent with Whitehead’s doctrine of “abstractive hierarchies.”
3. Locke’s distinction between primary and secondary qualities is reframed here in a Whiteheadian process context.
4. A classic demonstration of scale relativity; cf. Whitehead’s “extensive continuum.”
5. Rejecting Newton’s absolute time in favour of process-relational accounts (Bergson, Whitehead).
6. Time as the “duration” of an event rather than a container for events.
7. Because perception always takes place from a standpoint, magnitudes are relational and not intrinsic.
8. Symmetry here refers to simultaneous disclosure within a single frame of reference.
9. This “third object” parallels Whitehead’s concept of the “lure” or background conditions not explicitly attended to.
10. Comparable to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle in its structure, though not strictly physical.
11. The speed of light is tied to its invariant relation to spacetime; conceptualized here as minimal density for maximal propagation.
12. Dimensions as perceptual constructs echo Kant’s doctrine of space as a form of intuition.
13. “Circularity” refers to Whitehead’s continuity of experience and the recognition of persistent relations.
14. This rejects naive physical interpretations of wave–particle duality in favour of conceptual abstraction.
15. The “wave” is the relational field; the “particle” is a moment of concentration within that field.
16. The synthesis resembles Whitehead’s “actual occasion” where both aspects coexist as phases of process.

Zooming Far Out is Zooming Far In

The dialectic between the universal and the particular is the fundamental ontological principle that supplements the physical concept of the spacetime manifold.¹ In this dynamic, each possibility is applicable to the other, forming a more complete picture of the whole motion—or rather, the way the intricate network of particular relations behaves as a unified conception. The scientific question is therefore not merely what being is, but how being behaves: the fundamental manner in which being moves.² For in the first question, being is presupposed simultaneously as not-being, and therefore its proposition for existence is negated by the fact that it is also construed as nonexistent.³ In this way, being and nothing are given the same quality of substantiality; although they belong to the same relational field, they play different roles in the object’s development. Being characterizes the disclosure of time, because time is the simplest dimension wherein the activity of a possible duration is taken up into the conception of an observer.⁴

Here is your passage fully corrected, with grammar, clarity, and coherence improved while preserving your philosophical meaning:

So that when you zoom out of something—or move away from something—you go farther from it in one direction, but you are also simultaneously moving closer to something else on the opposite end of the magnitude spectrum. The dimension of spacetime is therefore somewhat loopy, or rather “trippy,” because it is as much a dimension of mind as it is a dimension of matter. In other words, it is a conceptual dimension just as much as it is a physical one.

The Doppler effect, where the intensity of a wavelength changes as it approaches an observer’s sense-organ, is analogous to what we are describing here regarding spatio-temporal extension: as an object comes closer to the observer, it simultaneously magnifies the reality within the observer’s contextual framework. Yet at the same time, this very approach also means the object is moving further away from the observer in space—relative to other reference points. In this way, approaching and distancing occur simultaneously depending on which magnitude or frame of reference is being considered.

The Universal–Particular Problem in Spacetime

The difficulty in aligning the universal and the particular within the spacetime manifold is as follows: which of the two should be associated with the other, when both are already premises in the same proposition, while the proposition itself—acting as conclusion—is not a component of either premise?⁵ The proposition explains something that is not itself one of the components it relates.

For example, should the universal be applied to space or to time? Both are universal in being permanent and incorruptible principles of nature, yet both also adopt particular forms of determination—precisely the forms that allow the universal to be distinguished from the particular magnitude.⁶

This difficulty arises because neither space nor time is a physical object. Space and time are not sense-perceptible in the way that concrete objects are, which can be picked out, distinguished, and maintained as separate while still being related. Whitehead observes that space and time are more abstract than the sensible objects we perceive, for they disclose the internal relations that compose the physical and geometric structure of any object.⁷ Space and time are therefore basic principles of the power of conception.

Time as the Reference Point of the Observer

Time, in this context, is the reference point of the observer.⁸ The observer is somewhere in this process. This somewhere is the center of the inverse magnitudes of the universe. The observer’s position is the point at which one magnitude extends outward as far as possible, while another extends inward as far as possible. These two extensions meet at the limit of each: the outermost reach of distance is the condensation of all things within a single reference frame; the inward reach is the smallest indivisible unit of matter.⁹

When you go as far outward as possible, that very outer limit becomes the smallest conceivable point; and when you go as far inward as possible, that point is identical with the outer limit viewed from a different magnitude.¹⁰ This is the observer’s astronomical unit conceived from the first-person standpoint.¹¹

Light is the consciousness of the observer reaching the limit of its capacity to conceive infinity.¹²

Meditation as the Mediation of Universal and Particular

Meditation is consciousness mediating between these two states: the infinitely outward and the infinitely inward.¹³ On one level, the world is already given as a particular place for consciousness—one finds oneself in very specific circumstances: viewing a particular object, occupying a particular body and identity, existing at a particular time and place. Yet behind this particularity, consciousness is at every moment conceiving universally.¹⁴ It thinks beyond its immediate circumstance into the various possibilities that may arise within the moment, and it also contemplates universally eternal principles—such as love and beauty—which remain true across all situations, while manifesting differently at each moment in time.¹⁵

Footnotes

1. This reflects Hegel’s dialectic of universal–particular–individual applied to cosmology and spacetime.
2. Heidegger and Whitehead both emphasize movement or process as prior to static being.
3. See Hegel’s Science of Logic: the transition from Being to Nothing.
4. Whitehead’s concept of “duration” as the temporal mode of an actual occasion.
5. This is the classic problem of the “meta-level” in logic: the proposition is not reducible to its premises.
6. Aristotelian universals vs. particulars; also Kant’s forms of intuition (space/time).
7. From Process and Reality: space and time as relational structures generated by events.
8. Kant: time as the inner sense; Whitehead: the standpoint of the percipient event.
9. Echoes the cosmological principle and quantum granularity.
10. This parallels the projective symmetry between infrared and ultraviolet scales in modern physics (AdS/CFT intuition).
11. Not the standard AU, but the metaphysical AU: the observer-centered manifold.
12. Light as the limit of causal structure; in relativity, the boundary of possible experience.
13. In Hegelian terms, mediation is the essence of rational activity.
14. Whitehead: the “given” vs. the “lure for feeling.”
15. Platonic Forms as eternal yet variably instantiated within temporal conditions.

Spatio-temporal

Whitehead writes:

“The character of the spatio-temporal structure of events can be fully expressed in terms of relations between these more abstract event-particles. The advantage of dealing with event-particles is that though they are abstract and complex in respect to the finite events which we directly observe, they are simpler than finite events in respect to their mutual relations.”¹

Ordinary understanding presents nature as a rigid spatial manifold scattered with distinct, instantaneous forms. These appear to maintain separation for the sense-faculties, yet in fact they intermingle and interfere with one another, filling the disclosure of a definite region of space while operating against each other within a homogeneous duration of time.

However, as we move farther and farther away from this immediate conception—literally by traveling outward and away from a specific slab of nature²—we see that the internal space at one scale expands dramatically, separating clusters of relations into discrete bodies. At the macroscale of observable physical phenomena, the spatial extension is highly condensed with overlapping mutual relations forming layered dimensions of temporal order.

What astronomy commonly calls “space” is merely the vast three-dimensional region beginning where the Earth’s atmosphere ends.³ But the space beyond Earth’s atmosphere is not empty; it is a dimensional field layered with multitudes of physical relations. When we remove a particular locus of mutual relations—by increasing the distance between ourselves and the cluster—we magnify the space that those relations disclose. This allows us to see interrelated groups of physical processes clustered at specific points in space, each moving relative to one another according to their own timeframes.

At the scale of solar systems and galaxies, we encounter the magnitude of space shared by the most expansive and most intensive forms of relation. At this stage, the space in which galaxies are disclosed becomes analogous to the space in which subatomic particles are disclosed, because both extremes require the mediation of light. Both extremes, macro and micro, require penetration by the same universal constant.⁴

Granted, the fact that space is shared across such extremes does not imply that the phenomena themselves are identical. Yet if space is a fundamental principle shared by what appear to be vastly different magnitudes, it is reasonable to view space as an internal dimension connecting phenomena across those extremes. Space is not merely an external plane in which objects relate; it is also internal to each object, constituting the infinitesimal magnitudes revealed at every scale of analysis.⁵

The internal mutual relations—distinctly separated by space, and even by the histories of their temporal development—reappear at the astronomical scale captured by the Hubble telescope. At that magnitude, we find the very same relational structures that constitute microscopic subatomic processes, only now arranged as components within a more complex system.⁶

When you zoom in, you encounter one side of the dimensional continuum; when you zoom out, you encounter the other. To assume that these are “two sides” is already to presuppose a boundary—a medium whose nature is rounded by inverse magnitudes.

Examples and Extensions

The rock example

When a rock approaches your field of vision, it takes up more of the perceptual frame and appears more particular. When you zoom in further, the rock becomes a world of micro-structures. When you zoom out, the rock becomes a mere point within a larger generality. This illustrates how the internal dimension of space is disclosed as time—the time it takes the conception to penetrate deeper magnitudes.⁷

Wave–Particle Relation as Magnitude

A planet viewed from a distance appears discrete, as if in a particle-state. Its “wavelength” is not merely the external space it covers in its orbital motion, nor the light reflected from it, but the inward continuity of its infinitesimal structure. To zoom into any particle is to discover that its wave-function consists of inward continuity revealing multiple potential micro-structures.⁸

A change in the inward magnitude changes the discrete particle-state, yet both remain expressions of the same underlying wavelength. Solidity itself is a perceptual object.⁹ A solid object can always be penetrated conceptually, for implicit in its structure is an infinitesimal magnitude of continuity. This is the metaphysical basis for point-zero energy and quantum penetrability.

Thus, in order for a particle-state to be altered or to transform, it must be structured internally as a wave. Discrete measures are expressions of more general infinitesimal magnitudes.

Singularity and Change

The singularity of a thing is not a dead-end but the potential form for its change.¹⁰
A singularity is the distinction where the unique and the general coincide: where the universal particularity of a thing appears as its limit.

For example, Vantablack, which absorbs up to 99.96% of visible light, demonstrates how internal dimensionality defines the perceptual magnitude of an object.¹¹

Strings as Internal Dimensional Structures

In string theory, strings are one-dimensional extended objects whose vibrational states appear as different particles.¹²
Open strings have endpoints; closed strings form loops. All string theories contain closed strings.

What matters here is that:

• On larger scales, strings behave like particles.
• On smaller scales, particles behave like vibrating extended structures.

This mirrors the metaphysical point: the tunnel (wave) and the point (particle) are simultaneous abstractions of the same magnitude.

Quantum Tunnelling as Expression of Universal Form

The familiar analogy for quantum tunneling—a ball rolling through a hill it cannot climb—shows that particles bypass barriers because their wave-functions extend inwardly through potential energy structures.¹³

The rectangular potential barrier in quantum mechanics demonstrates that while classical particles would be reflected, quantum “particles” behave as waves and can pass through the barrier. The transmission coefficient gives the probability of passing; the reflection coefficient gives the probability of being reflected.¹⁴

This is not an accidental feature but an expression of the universal relational structure of nature.

Geometry and Potential Barriers

The relation between a plane and a cylinder illustrates how dimensional intersections determine potential changes at particular angles within a coordinate system.¹⁵

A singularity, here, is the point where internal and external determinations meet:

• the discrete measure (particle)
• the inward continuity (wave)

Footnotes

¹ Whitehead, Process and Reality.
² Whitehead’s notion of a “slab of nature.”
³ Standard astronomical definition of space.
⁴ Einstein’s constant speed of light; observational constraints.
⁵ Whitehead’s doctrine of internal relations.
⁶ Hubble observations and cosmological large-scale structure.
⁷ Example illustrating perceptual magnitudes and scale.
⁸ Wave–particle duality: internal vs. external magnitude.
⁹ Whitehead: perceptual vs. physical objects.
¹⁰ Hegelian and process-philosophical singularity.
¹¹ Surrey NanoSystems, absorption data for Vantablack.
¹² Standard formulation of string theory.
¹³ Quantum tunnelling analogy.
¹⁴ Schrödinger equation for rectangular potential barrier.
¹⁵ Example of geometric intersection used for potential surfaces.

Conclusion

Whitehead says spatio-temporal:

“The character of the spatio-temporal structure of events can be fully expressed in terms of relations between these more abstract event-particles. The advantage of dealing with event-particles is that though they are abstract and complex in respect to the finite events which we directly observe, they are simpler than finite events in respect to their mutual relations.”¹

The rigidity in nature presented to ordinary understanding is a plain space manifold littered with distinctions of instantaneous abstract forms. These forms maintain separation from each other for the sense-faculties, but are in fact muddled together, interfering with each other’s form, filling up the disclosure of a definite kind of space, and operating against each other in a homogeneous duration of time.²

But as we move out further and further away from this conception—by physically flying out and away from a specific slab of nature—we see that the internal space at one scale increases drastically, separating clusters of relations into bodies. At the macro-scale of observable physical phenomena, the concentration of spatial extension is more condensed, being cluttered with mutual relations overlapping each other and forming layers and layers of varying dimensions of temporal order.³

What the study of astronomy ordinarily refers to as “space” is the vast three-dimensional region that begins where the Earth’s atmosphere ends.⁴ The space that begins beyond the Earth’s atmosphere is a dimension of space layered by a multitude of physical phenomena.

If we remove the locus of mutual relations at a certain point of space by magnifying the space disclosed by them—which is done by increasing the distance away from the mutual relations forming a cluster and the space which breaches beyond that—we then see groups of physical relations clustered together at certain points in space, moving in relation to each other at a certain rate of time. At the level where we see the relations formed by solar systems and galaxies, we reach a magnitude of space shared by the most expansive and intensive forms of relations.⁵

In other words, at a certain degree of magnitude, the space that discloses galaxies and the space that discloses subatomic relations becomes the same because both require the speed of light; both magnitudes require to be penetrated by light.⁶ It is granted that just because the space itself is shared among expansive multi-dimensions of phenomena, that is not equal to saying that the phenomena themselves are the same in that space.

However, if we take space as a fundamental principle shared by what appear to be varying extremes of magnitude, then it is not far off to presuppose space as an internal dimension bridging together phenomena at different extremes of extension. Space is not just an external plain whereby a set of objects relate with each other; it is also internal within each object, constituting its infinitesimal magnitudes at every scale of analysis.⁷

Internal mutual relations, which are distinctly separated by space—and even the time by which one group of relations operates while sharing the same space as another group of relations—have different histories. At this magnitude of scale, which is the same magnitude of space captured by the Hubble telescope, we find the very same internal relations that constitute the microscopic subatomic relations of each individual object, forming a mere component in a complex system of interrelations.⁸

(zooming in vs. zooming out)

When you zoom in, you are seeing one side of the dimension; when you zoom out, you are seeing the other side. To presuppose distinct “sides” already assumes that the relation between micro and macro scales forms a boundary, a medium rounded by inverse dimensions.⁹

(rock coming closer example)

A rock coming closer fills the perceptual frame, revealing different magnitudes of relations depending on the scale of disclosure.¹⁰

(first vs. second dimension)

From a one-dimensional conception of spacetime, the object appears internal; from a second-dimensional conception, the object appears external.¹¹

Zooming in enough produces an infinite regress, which becomes the point for determining the opposite form of determination: coming in and going out infinitely. These limits of conception constitute the form of the conception they are disclosed within, such that the conception is its own outer extreme limit, which determines the movement back toward the inward minute direction.¹²

Zooming Earth

The internal dimension of space is time.¹³

(made-up-of-spacetime tesseract)

Space and time together form a multidimensional continuum, which can be conceived analogously to a tesseract: a higher-order form expressing the continuity of extension and duration.¹⁴

Wave–Particle Dual Magnitude

The wavelength of a planet is not the external extension—where it goes or the position it takes in space—but is the internal substructure of the planet’s entire microscopic magnitude: how far it can express an infinitesimal microstructure. The wavelength property of a planet is its infinitesimal inwardness, and the particle-state is the discrete measure of this disclosure.¹⁵

A planet from a certain distance appears to exhibit the discrete measure of a particle-like state. Its wavelength state is not merely the ground it covers due to orbital motion, nor merely the light reflected from it. Instead, the most basic wavelength property in the discrete measure of a particle-state is its infinitesimal inward continuity—meaning you can enter it and find another ground of generative foundation.¹⁶

When you zoom into a particle from a certain distance, its wave-function is the infinitesimal inward continuity of all its possible structures.¹⁷

The change in the magnitude of continuity constitutes a change in the discrete measures of the particle-states, all forming the same wavelength. The quality of solidity is a perceptual object. This means that when mass is taken as a predicate of solidity—i.e., any density measured as a mass taking up volume in space—any solid object with mass is infinitesimally penetrable by the conception, altering the particle-like state.¹⁸

Solidity is a perceptual object because implicit in the structure of the object is an infinitesimal magnitude of continuity. Thus, a single solid object is infinitesimally penetrable dimensionally.¹⁹ The images above show that the structure of a thing is its dimensions.

Likewise, a particle-like state, in order to be altered and to change into another—or equally, to be penetrated by infinitesimal magnitude—is internally structured as a wavelength. The discrete measure of a particle-state is itself a measure of the infinitesimal factors of a wavelength magnitude.²⁰

The discrete measure of an infinitesimal wavelength is not of ordinary extension, where continuity is linear and two points are separated further from each other. Rather, it is of a relation forming connections, and for this reason it is internal. Thus, there are structures and forms underlying the apprehension of a complete product.²¹

Singularity and Universal Particularity

The form of the singularity is the distinction between the unique conception and the general. The distinction of a particular from a universal is derived from the universal particularity within it.²²

The Vantablack “blackest black,” developed by Surrey NanoSystems, absorbs up to 99.96% of visible light (at 663 nm when perpendicular).²³ This dimensional property, which allows for infinitesimal magnitude, is explained by the singularity-property in the thing.²⁴

Closed and Open Strings

Unlike elementary particles—which are zero-dimensional or point-like by definition—strings are one-dimensional extended objects. They may be open (a segment with two endpoints) or closed (a loop).²⁵ Strings are very tiny objects, much smaller than can be observed in current particle accelerators. Therefore, at large scales, such objects appear to be zero-dimensional point particles.²⁶

Strings vibrate as harmonic oscillators, and different vibrational states of the same string appear as different types of particles.²⁷ Not all string theories contain open strings, but every theory contains closed strings, since interactions between open strings can always produce closed strings.²⁸

This connects to the way tunneling is a wave phenomenon simultaneous with point-like discreteness.²⁹

The singularity is not a dead-end of the object but its potential energy for change.³⁰

Quantum Tunneling

The common analogy for quantum tunneling is a ball rolling over a hill: ordinarily it needs enough energy to climb over, otherwise it is stuck. But in quantum physics, there is a chance the ball can appear on the other side of the hill, because a subatomic particle can pass through a barrier it cannot classically surmount.³¹ This is well-documented in radioactive decay.

The reason for quantum tunneling is that the singularity has a potential form in the object that is more fundamental and general than the object’s formed state. The point-like particle quality and the wavelength property are not features of the object, since they were abstracted from it; they are universal passages of nature.³²

The rectangular potential barrier is a standard one-dimensional problem demonstrating quantum tunneling, solved through the time-independent Schrödinger equation.³³ Although classically a point-mass particle would be reflected, a particle behaving as a matter-wave has a non-zero probability of penetrating the barrier. In classical wave physics, this is called evanescent wave coupling.³⁴

The transmission coefficient gives the probability of passing; the reflection coefficient gives the probability of being reflected.³⁵

Plane–Cylinder Intersection

(You may add the geometric interpretation showing how dimensional intersections explain potential barriers.)³⁶

Footnotes

¹ Whitehead, Process and Reality.
²–⁴ Classical space-conception references.
⁵–³⁶ Conceptual, scientific, and philosophical placeholders.