The Organicism of Whitehead and the Haldane Brothers

Abstract

Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) called his philosophy the ‘philosophy of organism.’ How come this mathematical physicist became a proponent of organicism instead of mechanicism? The main reason is that, early on, Whitehead clearly saw that with the advent of Maxwell’s theory of electric and magnetic fields, Einstein’s theories of relativity, and Bohr’s theory of the atom, even physics was no longer the mechanical discipline most philosophers held it for. But there was more. Whitehead knew many biologists of the first generation of organicists, and he was influenced by their organicist view. In this context, some Whitehead scholars have already pointed at physiologist of respiration John Scott Haldane (1860-1936) as a possible organicist influence on Whitehead, without however exploring this influence in depth. The aim of this paper is to remedy this shortcoming. It explores both the direct and the indirect influence of John Scott Haldane on Whitehead. The indirect influence involves a dear friend of Whitehead – John Scott’s brother, Richard Burdon Haldane (1856-1928). Hence the title of this paper: ‘The organicism of Whitehead and the Haldane brothers.’