His Difficult Metaphysics

[lupinesque]

> Tabouli cogitated,
> 
> > Essentially, what Pullman does in HDM is distill
> > self-awareness into subatomic particles

Aberforth's Goat stepped into the street, blowing his whistle (can 
goats do that?), and demanded:

> Stop right there!
> 
> Amy - you out there?? That actually sounds and awful lot like 
Whitehead's
> metaphysics - serious philosophy, btw. Otherwise known as process
> philosophy. Though I'm pretty desperately ignorant of this all, I 
think
> Amy's something of an expert.

<looks flattered while also spluttering peppermint tea onto keyboard>

Process, I know pretty well, thanks to Whitehead's intellectual 
descendants who have put it into comparatively clear philosophy of 
religion.  Whitehead himself . . . well, if there's anyone out there 
who understands a blessed word the man wrote, I take my hat off 
to 'em.  I supposedly read Process and Reality in a course entirely 
devoted to Whitehead but am no more clueful than the day I began.  
There may be a parallel between Whiteheadian and Pullmanian <g> 
metaphysics, though the "occasions of experience" that form the basic 
particles of existence in Whitehead aren't only physical . . . uh, I 
*think*.  Hm, maybe Pullman's aren't either.  I'm consulting my 
philosophy notes, but they appear to turn into doodles right about 
here.

What does come across very strongly to me is that whether or not PP 
ascribes knowingly to process theology, the trilogy fits in with 
those parts of it I do understand (i.e. *not* the metaphysics) very 
well.  E.g. process puts a strong emphasis on the idea that creation 
is unfinished--never finished, in fact--and that we co-create the 
universe along with God; that jells with the human responsibility to 
help create the Republic of Heaven, and with the way Dust is 
increased, or decreased, by human choices.  

There's also a lot of support in p.t. for a non-anthropomorphic kind 
of God, and once PP disposes of the Authority's claim to the throne, 
saying that he is a mere pretender to the title of God of the 
Universe, he leaves the question of whether there is a real God and 
what he/she/it might look like tantalizingly unanswered.

Amy Z