Dewey, Whitehead, and Comparative Philosophy: An Interview with Roger Ames

Abstract

This interview with Professor Roger Ames of the University of Hawaii was part of my 2008 National Science Project concerning some aspects of the philosophy of John Dewey and Alfred North Whitehead and their relevance to Chinese philosophy. The interview was divided into two parts. The first part concerns Dewey vs. Whitehead with respect to process philosophy, their attitudes toward modern science and tradition, their ideas on religion, and their relevance to Chinese philosophy. The second part deals with comparative philosophy and the question of the status of Chinese philosophy, which includes our discussions on the legitimacy of Chinese philosophy, Leibniz's contribution to comparative philosophy, and Ames' views on the nature of Chinese philosophy and its possible contribution to the 21(superscript st) century. Through this interview, it seems to me that we may understand more why Ames preferred a pragmatic, humanistic, but pro-scientistic Dewey to a speculative, organismic, but pro-theistic Whitehead.