Adventures of ideas / by Alfred North Whitehead.

  • Alfred North Whitehead
Date:
1933
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Adventures of ideas / by Alfred North Whitehead. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    104/412 page 88
    the growth of intellect the range of necessity diminishes. Some command over nature has been attained. Thus a wide¬ spread reliance on persuasion produces its reward in the shape of an upward evolution. At least, it produces conditions favourable to such an upward trend. In this chapter we consider the effect of some of the natural necessities, such as food and clothing, and also the effect of activities, such as commerce, which naturally pro¬ mote the persuasive reactions within society, and between societies. Also we consider the transition of these agencies into various types of restlessness. Such activities, energizing for centuries, indeed for thou¬ sands of years, lie behind the intellectual ferment which we find driving onward the Hebrew prophets and the Greek philosophers. Indeed, apart from the continuing vigour of such agencies, the intellectual life of mankind would wither, without roots, and without any material content for thought or purpose. Section II. The term Commerce, as used in this chapter, will have an enlarged sense. It will include the interchange of material commodities, and their manufacture for the purpose of such interchange. It will also include the manage¬ ment of currency, which is a conventionalized commodity, possibly but not necessarily possessing some intrinsic value of its own apart from its use as currency. Finally we shall extend the meaning of the term even beyond these limits, passing beyond the bounds of material things. In its most general sense, the commerce of mankind involves every species of interchange which proceeds by way of mutual persuasion. All commercial values are psychological, that is to say, they are measured by the desire widely spread among sections
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