Series:
Essay 8c:
Synopsis:
Self
Essence
An essence is an active pattern that exists within a thing and that unites the parts into a whole
This is part 3 of 4 in Real-to-Real.
I ended the last essay, Making Sense, by showing that every living being makes sense of things- he sees their essence (essence for him, from his perspective). Are essences real? Yes. Evolution requires that we make sense of reality, and if these essences that we see don’t correspond to reality, if they’re mere illusion, then we’d be dead. Essences are real. They’re in the structure of things and we see them.
But what's an essence? In Principles of Psychology, William James said that “The essence of a thing is that one of its properties which is so important for my interests that in comparison with it I may neglect the rest.” For Mr. James, the essence of a thing is that which is most important about it, to me, from my perspective.
OK, but what is it? Essence is a pattern. Here’s my thesis: an essence is an active pattern that exists within a thing and that unites the parts into a whole. Every whole has an essential pattern, a stable and organized pattern of relation among its parts. And because there’s a lot of wholes in the world (some lesser, some greater, some moving within others like wheels within wheels), there’s lots of patterns. The pattern that I see depends on the whole that I’m looking at.
Next, a living being comes along and he perceives the pattern, and in seeing it, he sees the whole. He sees the whole, as relevant to him, from his perspective. Say I arrange six rocks in a circle. The circle is the relationship among the rocks that makes them into a whole. The circle is the whole of the six rocks, and it’s a pattern that really exists in the world, as proven by the fact that you can see it. Mr. Amoeba, though, he can’t see the circle because he’s too small, but he sees other wholes that I can’t see because I’m too big.
To sum up, an essence is a moving pattern within a thing that relates the parts into a whole, such that, when I see the pattern, I see the whole. Seeing an essence is a revelation! I learn a new pattern then I see it over here, over there, everywhere, and I know all of them as partaking of one essence. Like when I committed to a particular footwork as the base movement in my boxing: I began to see that footwork in football, then Fred Astaire. Before, the footwork got lost in the clutter of feet, but once I learned its essential nature (by doing it, a lot), I saw it everywhere, and I saw it everywhere because, as a foundational movement, it is everywhere.
Or consider body language in dogs. Anyone who lives with dogs will, without thinking, understand the pattern in their bodily movements, and they understand ours: my dogs read me like a book. We read each other’s movements and we move in response.
Essence is a pattern of movement. It’s an Aristotelian form within the movement of its underlying matter, like footwork is in feet and body language in bodies. It’s a pattern that exists within the movement of matter, and I know it’s real because my whole being, embodied soul, interacts with it. Footwork in boxing leads to good or bad outcomes as measured in units of violence; body-language leads to good or bad relations as measured in degrees of companionship. I can learn these forms unconsciously, or by conscious, directed effort, and once I know them, I see them naturally without ratiocination or articulation. I just do it: I see and interact in one movement. At higher levels, I make an Aristotelian form a part of who I am; witness a boy’s acquisition of the virtue of courage.
I shall conclude. When I make sense of something, I see its essential pattern (as relevant to me), and that essential pattern is real. It’s real just like a circle, a technique in footwork, body language and the virtue of courage are real. But reality is big and I only see pieces. Aquinas said that I don’t see with God’s eyes so I can’t know the total essence of anything, rather, I see partial essences. Yes. Maybe a great artist is the person who shows maximum essence to us. He finds the central pattern that makes a whole. William James spoke of Mozart this way:
“Mozart describes thus his manner of composing: First bits and crumbs of the piece come and gradually join together in his mind; then the soul getting warmed to the work, the thing grows more and more (now James quotes Mozart): ‘and I spread it out broader and clearer, and at last it gets almost finished in my head, even when it is a long piece, so that I can see the whole of it at a single glance in my mind, as if it were a beautiful painting or a handsome human being; in which way I do not hear it in my imagination at all as a succession -- the way it must come later -- but all at once, as it were. It is a rare feast! All the inventing and making goes on in me as in a beautiful strong dream. But the best of all is the hearing of it all at once’ ” (From The Stream of Thought, ft.18).
To see essence, to see the whole in a glance-- how wonderful! Next: conclusion of Real-to-Real.
Essays in this Series, Self:
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Real-to-Real (4 essays)
*Into the Buzz
*Making Sense
*Essence --Here
*Real-to-Real