The subjective aim is the lure toward a particular form of definiteness that guides an actual occasion’s process of concrescence. It is what makes each occasion a self-constituting process rather than a passive reception of data: the occasion does not merely inherit its past but aims at a specific way of integrating that inheritance into a novel unity.
In Alfred North Whitehead’s system, the initial phase of the subjective aim is derived from what he calls God’s primordial nature — the ordering of eternal objects (possibilities) that provides each nascent occasion with a relevant ideal for its situation. This theological element can be understood more broadly as the principle that possibilities are not indifferently available but are structured by relevance: given its actual situation, an occasion faces a ranked field of what it might become. The subjective aim is the occasion’s orientation within that field.
As concrescence proceeds, the subjective aim may be modified. The occasion is not bound to its initial aim; through its integration of prehensions, it may depart from the initial lure and achieve a form of definiteness that differs from what was initially aimed at. This capacity for departure from the given aim is, for Whitehead, the basis of freedom and novelty in the universe. Even at the level of simple occasions, there is some degree of self-determination in how the aim is realized.
The subjective aim gives process metaphysics its teleological dimension without requiring external purpose. Each occasion has its own internal aim — not imposed from outside but arising from the relevant possibilities that its situation makes available. Purpose is distributed throughout reality rather than concentrated in a designer.
Related terms
- Concrescence — the process guided by the subjective aim
- Actual occasion — the entity that has a subjective aim
- Eternal object — the possibilities among which the aim selects
- Satisfaction — the achieved definiteness at which the aim is directed
- Prehension — provides the data that the aim integrates