Download or read book Hegel and Whitehead written by George R. Lucas and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1986-01-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hegel and Whitehead presents a careful exploration of the similarities between these two formidable representatives of systematic philosophy. Some of the most distinguished scholars in European and American philosophy converge herein to explore the similarities in Hegel's and Whitehead's contemporary influence, as well as in the content of their respective systems and in their philosophical styles. This volume begins with important critical, comparative, and historical assessments of the contemporary problems in metaphysics, philosophy of science, philosophy of mind, ethics, social thought, and philosophy of religion, of history, and of culture against the background of the important contributions made to these discussions by both Hegel and Whitehead. The result is a collection of vigorous new essays in systematic philosophy that reflect the enduring contributions of these two philosophers to the contemporary philosophical climate on two continents.
Download or read book The Epochal Nature of Process in Whitehead s Metaphysics written by F. B. Wallack and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1980-06-30 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "While my book attempts to reflect the full range of scholarly debate, I have also attempted to make it useful to anyone interested in Whitehead. To this end, I have introduced the Whiteheadian terms one by one, explaining each in the light of my interpretation, and I have used examples wherever possible. I try to show that Whitehead intended his philosophy have a place in our lives by reshaping our common conceptions, and that he did not intend it to be relegated to purely abstract or esoteric application." — F. Bradford Wallack The twentieth century has seen the greatest innovations in philosophical cosmology since Newton and Descartes, and Alfred North Whitehead was the first and greatest of the philosophers to work out these innovations in systematic ways. In a book that will be controversial in the philosophical community, F. Bradford Wallack argues that interpretations widely accepted by Whiteheadians need revaluation because these interpretations are based on materialist and substantialist assumptions that Whitehead sought to replace. Specifically, she proposes a thorough revision of accepted interpretations of Whitehead's concept of the actual entity. Wallack then elucidates Whitehead's ideas in order of their increasing dependence upon other basic Whiteheadian terms to complete the study of Whiteheadian time and to clarify its purpose within the cosmology of Process and Reality. Whitehead's philosophy then emerges as more intelligible and cohesive than is generally believed.
Download or read book Whitehead s Metaphysics of Extension and Solidarity written by Jorge Luis Nobo and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1986-06-30 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the base of Whitehead's philosophy of organism is a vision of the solidarity of all final actualities. Each actuality is a discrete individual enjoying autonomous self-determination, yet each also requires all other actualities as essential components and partial determinants of its own nature. This vision of universal solidarity, Nobo demonstrates, is the fundamental metaphysical thesis whose truth the categories and principles of Whitehead's philosophy were expressly designed to elucidate. The received interpretations of Whitehead's thought, Nobo shows, have ignored the mutual relevance of the solidarity thesis and the organic categoreal scheme and, for that reason, have grossly misrepresented many of Whitehead's most important metaphysical doctrines. Contending that the difficult tasks of interpreting and developing Whitehead's metaphysics presuppose an understanding of the solidarity thesis, Nobo explores that thesis and the metaphysical categories and principles most relevant to its elucidation. In the process, he not only corrects many misinterpretations but also develops important metaphysical doctrines that Whitehead neglected to make sufficiently explicit in his published writings. It is precisely in terms of the neglected doctrine of eternal extensive continuity, Nobo demonstrates, that the more puzzling aspects of the solidarity thesis are satisfactorily explained. He then shows that the extensional solidarity of all final actualities is an essential ingredient of the generalized conception of experience on which Whitehead builds his ontology, cosmology, and epistemology.
Download or read book Whitehead s Pancreativism written by Michel Weber and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2013-05-02 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is one question that any potential reader who suspects that Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) might be important for past, contemporary, and future philosophy inevitably raises: how should I read Whitehead? How can I make sense of this incredibly dense tissue of imaginative systematizing, spread over decades of work in disciplines so different and specialized as algebra, geometry, logic, relativistic physics and philosophy of science? Accordingly, this monograph has two main complementary objectives. The first one is to propose a set of efficient hermeneutical tools to get the reader started. These straightforward tools provide answers that are highly coherent and probably the most applicable to Whitehead's entire corpus. The second objective is to illustrate how the several parts of Process and Reality are interconnected, something that all commentators have either failed to recognise or only incompletely acknowledged.
Download or read book The Emergence of Whitehead s Metaphysics 1925 1929 written by Lewis S. Ford and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1985-06-30 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A breathtaking detective story, this book charts the adventure of Whitehead's ideas in a remarkably detailed and careful reconstruction of his metaphysical views. Incorporating heretofore unpublished material from students' notes and correspondence, Professor Ford analyzes the order of composition of various portions of Whitehead's books, principally Science and the Modern World, Religion in the Making, and Process and Reality. Ford's reconstructive method is perfectly tailored to his subject, for Whitehead revised by inserting new material rather than altering or deleting the old. Thus Ford is able to date the sequence of the composition of many passages. In distinguishing these layers of articulation, he has pushed the techniques of "higher criticism" beyond anything the French structuralists and deconstructionists have dreamed of and chronicled an extraordinary intellectual biography.
Download or read book Physics and Whitehead written by Timothy E. Eastman and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Featuring discussions and dialogue by prominent scientists and philosophers, this book explores the rich interface of contemporary physics and Whitehead-inspired process thought. The contributors share the conviction that quantum physics not only corroborates many of Whitehead's philosophical theses, but is also illuminated by them. Thus, though differing in perspective or emphasis, the contributions by Geoffrey Chew, David Finkelstein, Henry Stapp and other scientists conceptually dovetail with those of Philip Clayton, Jorge Nobo, Yutaka Tanaka and other process philosophers.
Download or read book The Mind of Whitehead written by Roland Faber and published by James Clarke & Company. This book was released on 2024-05-30 with total page 745 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For Alfred North Whitehead, the fundamental basis of reality is connectivity; the possibility, interdependence and actualisation that defy our human desire for structure, categorisation and division. In this spirit, Professor Roland Faber combines the disparate interests of Whitehead's study - from Mathematics to Divinity, Political Philosophy to Cosmology - to trace the thematic similarities of this work, and establish their unity in the 'mind' of Whitehead. Focussing on the experience of reading Whitehead's rich text, Faber invites the reader not to search for fixed patterns but to explore the impermanence and diversity of Whitehead's ideas. The Mind of Whitehead offers the curious reader a creative exploration of a crucial twentieth-century philosopher, speaking to global concerns from a position of possibility and complexity.
Download or read book Quantum Mechanics and the Philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead written by Michael Epperson and published by Fordham Univ Press. This book was released on 2004-07-15 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is an extended analysis of the intricate relationships between relativity theory, quantum mechanics and Alfred North Whitehead's cosmology. Michael Epperson illuminates the intersection of science and philosophy in Whitehead's work.
Download or read book Whitehead s Religious Thought written by Daniel A. Dombrowski and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2016-11-23 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents the process theistic thought of Whitehead as a third alternative between classical theism and religious skepticism. This original interpretation of the religious thought of Alfred North Whitehead highlights Whiteheads moves from mechanism to organism, and from force to persuasion to offer a third alternative between classical theism and religious skepticism. Daniel A. Dombrowski argues that the move from force to persuasion, in particular, is not only fundamental to Whiteheads own thought and to process thought in general, but is a necessary condition for the continuing existence of civilized life. Following this line of analysis, Dombrowski demonstrates Whiteheads relevance to contemporary work in philosophy of mind, political philosophy, and environmental ethics by placing him in dialogue with six major thinkers: David Ray Griffin, Isabelle Stengers, John Rawls, Charles Hartshorne, Judith Butler, and William Wordsworth. This mature synthesis of the full range of central concerns that have played out across Dombrowskis long and extraordinarily productive career represents an important contribution to the contemporary literature of process thought. Moreover, because his work has always embraced influences from outside of the process community, this book will have the additional value of introducing many process-oriented readers to nonprocess perspectives, which Dombrowski presents with great care and accuracy. Derek Malone-France, author of Faith, Fallibility, and the Virtue of Anxiety: An Essay in Religion and Political Liberalism
Download or read book Whitehead s Philosophy written by Janusz A. Polanowski and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume explores the range of Alfred North Whitehead's philosophy and his relevance to contemporary philosophical traditions. While philosophers and theologians with only a passing acquaintance with Whitehead might think that his philosophy is unconnected to our Western philosophical tradition, the contributors prove that nothing could be further from the truth. The most respected scholars in the field—George Allan, Lisa Bellantoni, John B. Cobb Jr., Frederick Ferré, David L. Hall, William S. Hamrick, Robert Cummings Neville, Janusz A. Polanowski, Patrick Shade, and Donald W. Sherburne—illustrate points of connection between Whitehead's ideas to the following: Descartes, the so-called "Father of Modern Philosophy"; classical American thought; several contemporary American thinkers, including Richard Rorty and Alasdair MacIntyre; aspects of European philosophy; and current reflections upon the environment and technology.
Download or read book Schleiermacher and Whitehead written by Christine Helmer and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2012-10-24 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays stages a dialogue between Friedrich Schleiermacher and Alfred North Whitehead on significant features of 'open' system. The volume offers new options for rehabilitating system for future theological and philosophical thinking by opening system to a flexible relation with changing reality. Key ingredients for system are discussed in three areas of contact between Schleiermacher and Whitehead. One such ingredient concerns historical precedents figuring crucially in Western systematic philosophy. Another feature is the systematic categorization of experience that relates epistemology, metaphysics, and the empirical sciences. System is also brought to bear on pressing contemporary issues, such as ethics and religious pluralism.
Download or read book Perspective in Whitehead s Metaphysics written by Stephen David Ross and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1983-01-01 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stephen David Ross presents an extensive, detailed, and critical interpretation of Whiteheads mature thought, emphasizing the fundamental role of perspective in Whiteheads cosmology, and tracing the conflicts and difficulties therein to tensions involving perspective in relation to other central features of Whiteheads thought. Ross isolates four principles as having a fundamental role in whiteheads metaphysics: perspective, cosmology, experience, and mechanical analysis. He argues that many of Whiteheads difficulties can be eliminated by raising the principle of perspective to prominence and by revising the other central features of Whiteheads theory accordingly. This book addresses key Whiteheadian texts and secondary interpretations of Whitehead. The discussion ranges over most of Whiteheads theory in Process and Reality, and offers a number of significant and, in some cases, novel views on different aspects of Whiteheads theory: perception, prehension, causation, objective immortality, self-causation, the extensive continuum, natural order, possiblity, concreteness, and God. Rosss concluding suggestions for modifying Whiteheads system promise to occasion much debate among process philosophers, theologians, and anyone concerned with Whiteheads thought.
Download or read book New Perspectives on Mathematical Practices written by Bart van Kerkhove and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2009 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume focuses on the importance of historical enquiry for the appreciation of philosophical problems concerning mathematics. It contains a well-balanced mixture of contributions by internationally established experts, such as Jeremy Gray and Jens Hoyrup; upcoming scholars, such as Erich Reck and Dirk Schlimm; and young, promising researchers at the beginning of their careers. The book is situated within a relatively new and broadly naturalistic tradition in the philosophy of mathematics. In this alternative philosophical current, which has been dramatically growing in importance in the last few decades, unlike in the traditional schools, proper attention is paid to scientific practices as informing for philosophical accounts.
Download or read book Intensity written by Judith A. Jones and published by Vanderbilt University Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A challenging, iconoclastic study that makes clear the underlying unity of Whitehead's vision of the world. This important and provocative book on the work of Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) explores how his avowed atomism is consistent with his equally essential commitment to a view of reality as a thoroughly interconnected sphere of relations. Judith Jones challenges Whitehead's readers to reconsider certain prevailing interpretations of his organic philosophy. To Jones, a rereading of Whitehead's overall philosophic project is essential to evaluating his contributions to metaphysics and ontology. SinceWhitehead's basic worldview is holistic, a return to viewing Whitehead's work as a whole helps clarify his ontological intentions and contributions to metaphysics. For this purpose, the concept of "intensity," which Jones defines as the quality and form of feeling involved in subjective experience, is basic to Whitehead's thinking about process at all naturalistic levels and is therefore particularly useful as a lens through which to view his entire system. "Intensity" is at once Whitehead's most basic metaphysical idea and a notion useful in deciphering the overall unity of purpose in his writings. A central aim of this book is to develop an aesthetically sensitive sense of being that demonstrates the profound and original contributions of process philosophy to realism. Jones shows that a thorough understanding of the concept of intensity yields modes of thought that help overcome knotty problems in conceiving Whitehead's distinction between the private experience of individuals and the public relations those individuals experience in relationship to other entities. Drawing frequently on poetic allusions to aid her interpretations, she focuses specifically on the status of intensity in intellectual and moral experience and develops an ethics of "attention" as an elaboration of Whitehead's aesthetic metaphysics. The result is a book that should be enthusiastically greeted and debated by scholars of Whitehead and by all who are interested in the field of process thought, including students of theology, literature, and feminist studies. Jones's unorthodox conclusions, backed up with scrupulous attention to both the Whitehead canon and related secondary literature, present challenges to accepted interpretations that cannot be ignored.
Download or read book Whitehead s View of Reality written by W. Creighton Peden and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2010-03-08 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whitehead’s View of Reality developed from conversations between the authors about the need for a work that would be of assistance to students ready to undertake a study of Alfred North Whitehead’s Process and Reality. The volume begins with a biographical sketch of Whitehead’s life, in order that one can understand the various stages in his professional development as well as the radically changing times in which his thought progressed. It is hoped that the Whiteheads’ encounter with Gertrude Stein will provide the student with a stronger feeling of Whitehead as a person. Charles Hartshorne undertook the task of placing Whitehead within a historical context. The context in which Whitehead is presented is that of being one of the few great philosophers in Western culture who engaged in speculative or metaphysical philosophy. The influence of Plato and Leibniz is noted, as well as Hartshorne’s personal preference for Peirce and Bergson in relation to Whitehead’s speculative philosophy. Whitehead agreed with all these great metaphysicians that the explanation of matter was to be sought in mind, not that of mind in matter. Hume, Kant, Russell and William James are noted as major non-speculative thinkers whose thought received careful consideration by Whitehead. Hume, the Buddhists, and Whitehead agreed that, strictly speaking, a so-called substance is a new concrete reality each moment. It is Hartshorne’s judgment that Whitehead does the best job of retaining aspects of truth in our commonsense notions of individual things and persons. Hartshorne also discusses the paradoxes that arise as we search for our self-identity. He contends that we can escape from these paradoxes if we accept Whitehead’s contention that concrete actualities are not in the last analysis enduring, changing substances but successive momentary stages of what are called substances or individuals. This should lead us to understand that we have an asymmetrical identity with the successive momentary stages of our relations. Hartshorne also notes that the basic concepts developed by Whitehead are based on his understanding that actual entities are the real subjects that experience, perceive, remember, and think. Thus, the basic form of experience is perception. Hartshorne further suggests that perhaps Whitehead is the first philosopher to view perception, which includes memory, as experience of the past rather than of the present. In discussing Whitehead’s philosophical theology, Hartshorne indicats that his view of God was an alternative to the standard metaphysical conception of deity which had prevailed since Aristotle. The problem of divine knowledge had been at the core of the problems with classical theism. The issue was whether everything I do is decided at my coming to exist. If so, then we are nothing but a clog in the cosmic machinery. Hartshorne suggests that the first theologian to view this issue sharply was Fausto Socinus who took the idea of human decision-making seriously and rejected the notion that divine omnipotence determines human decisions. He suggested among others had something in common with the Socinians. Hartshorne concluds his remarks focusing on unresolved problems in Whitehead’s theism. Creighton Peden’s responsibility is to present an exposition of Whitehead’s philosophy, with primary attention at first given to his basic terms, as well as to the foundation principles and structure of his method. Analysis is then given his metaphysical scheme from the perspective of his method. The focus of attention then shifts to Whitehead’s doctrine of God and his view of religion. Peden concludes with a comparative evaluation of Whitehead’s position with traditional Christian thought. Consideration is given to three general problems raised by traditional Christians. The first point of contention is that Whitehead’s God is not the infinite and eternal God of the Universe but is rather a limited God within the Universe. In the second case, traditional Christian theology would assert that Whitehead’s God does not actually save because he does not save the individual. The third problem would hold that Whitehead’s God is not the or a personal God.
Download or read book Ordering of Time written by Lucas George Lucas and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-25 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is the history of philosophy? What exactly is this the history of and how is that history to be understood in relationship to philosophy itself? Can philosophy's history, on any of a number of diverse descriptions, ever be said in its own right to constitute a unique and genuine source of philosophical wisdom or insight? George Lucas sweeps aside the constraints of traditional methodological and cultural boundaries to reflect broadly on a variety of answers to these questions, as posed by many of the major philosophical figures of the past century. Inviting a re-consideration of the work of scholars as diverse as Alasdair MacIntyre, Leo Strauss, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Richard Rorty, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Bertrand Russell, Arthur Danto, Martha Nussbaum, Paul Ricoeur, Charles Taylor, Keith Lehrer and Jerome Schneewind, Lucas ranges widely over the history of philosophy itself in search of original, probing answers to these profound and perennial issues.
Download or read book Understanding Organization as Process written by Tor Hernes and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007-09-27 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Organization takes place in a tangled world, intermeshed by changing markets, products, standards, technologies, institutions and social groups. Coming to grips with the complexity and fluidity of organization and management is a persistent problem for scholars and practitioners alike, which is why process issues have received renewed interest in r
