Editing Process philosophy (section)

==== Whitehead's abstractions ====
Whitehead's ''abstractions'' are conceptual entities that are abstracted from or derived from and founded upon his actual entities. Abstractions are themselves not actual entities. They are the only entities that can be real but are not actual entities. This statement is one form of Whitehead's 'ontological principle'.

An abstraction is a conceptual entity that refers to more than one single actual entity. Whitehead's ontology refers to importantly structured collections of actual entities as nexuses of actual entities. Collection of actual entities into a ''nexus'' emphasizes some aspect of those entities, and that emphasis is an abstraction, because it means that some aspects of the actual entities are emphasized or dragged away from their actuality, while other aspects are de-emphasized or left out or left behind.

'Eternal object' is a term coined by Whitehead. It is an abstraction, a possibility, or pure potential. It can be ingredient into some actual entity.<ref name="Audi (ed.)"/> It is a principle that can give a particular form to an actual entity.<ref name="Cobb" /><ref>Cf. [[Michel Weber]] (ed.), ''[https://www.academia.edu/279952/After_Whitehead_Rescher_on_Process_Metaphysics After Whitehead: Rescher on Process Metaphysics]'', Frankfurt / Paris / Lancaster, Ontos Verlag, 2004 ({{ISBN|3-937202-49-8}}).</ref>

Whitehead admitted indefinitely many eternal objects. An example of an ''eternal object'' is a number, such as the number 'two'. Whitehead held that eternal objects are abstractions of a very high degree of abstraction. Many abstractions, including eternal objects, are potential ingredients of processes.