Modes of Thought.

Abstract

Alfred North Whitehead, FRS (1861-1947), was a genius at mathematics at Cambridge, England, first as a student and later in a professorial chair. Then he retired in 1910 and turned his attention to philosophy. Bertrand Russell was one of his pupils who followed him in mathematics and later in that branch of knowledge which he called the Philosophy of Organism. Whitehead's new concepts necessitated the introduction of such neologisms as superject (the opposite of subject) and creativity (not yet in the<i>Shorter Oxford Dictionary</i>). After 1926 Whitehead lived in America, where true learning often meets with greater appreciation (and better pay) than in England. He died at Cambridge, Mass, at the age of 86. I had struggled once or twice to read<i>Process and Reality</i>(Harper Torchbooks, 1960), which for a nonexpert sometimes makes heavy reading, and I was pleased when in 1961 I happened to pick up a paperback