Whitehead in French Perspective: A Review Article

Abstract

WHITEHEAD IN FRENCH PERSPECTIVE: A REVIEW ARTICLE T HERE ARE now a good many books in English on Whitehead's philosophy. All but one of these were written by authors now living in the U. S. A. But important non-English studies are scarce. Indeed the new French work is the only one I know.1 By the timing of her interpretation Dr. Parmentier had the advantage o£ access to many others. Johnson, Lowe, Hammerschmidt, Shahan, Palter, Christian, Leclerc, Mays, Sherburne, Cobb, and several others form a substantial appreciative and critical literature. Alix Parmentier has diligently and judiciously combed this literature (perhaps making too little use o£ Cobb, whose book became available rather late in her inquiry), besides going through all of Whitehead's writings. Some French and nonFrench continental studies are also taken into account. If, in addition, she has paid special attention to my own comments on Whitehead, I do not find that this prejudices me against her! And I feel honored indeed to stand between Aristotle and Plato as the most often-cited authors. Dr. Parmentier has a deep interest in metaphysics and philosophy of religion and shows intensive knowledge of their history. She is less iconoclastic than Whitehead, sees more wisdom in the great traditions of Western philosophy of religion than he did (or than I do) , but this has some advantage in a writer so subtly appreciative of the genius of the man she is studying. It gives her more detachment and objectivity toward the system she is explaining than might otherwise be possible. But she is determined to give the Anglo-American thinker every chance to make his way with French readers. It is exhilarating and encouraging to read her very numerous and extensive translations and to see how readily Whitehead 1 Alix Parmentier, La Philosophie de Whitehead et le probleme de Dieu. Beauchesne, Paris, 1968. 573 574 CHARLES HARTSHORNE translates into lucid French. Other non-French authors cited are also always (with one odd exception) translated. The title is appropriate enough. True, the book deals only with Whitehead's metaphysical system (and not-she tells us this at the beginning--with his views on history, politics, and the like) and treats above all the conception of God in which the system culminates. The discussion of this conception is preceded by over fWO pages on the basic categories, prefaced by a rather extensive sketch-less technical than Lowe's masterly one-of Whitehead's intellectual Odyssey, his development from mathematician to logician to theoretical physicist to metaphysician. The presuppositions, the background, for his thought about God are thus adequately given. The exposition of the systematic philosophy is rather largely through translation of passages from all the later works and is on the whole one of the best we have in any language. A French philosopher who wants to understand Whitehead but does not read English readily now needs only patience and some capacity for metaphysical speculation to reach the goal. Whitehead is now available in French, as he was not hitherto in any European language. The linguistic barrier is to that extent removed. This is a welcome change, which I hope will have considerable influence upon the future of European philosophy . The great skill and immense effort which alone made this book possible should not be allowed to go in vain. But those at home in English should also take this book into account. It is mature, deeply meditated, scholarly. There is an index of names and a valuable bibliography, the most complete now in print. The 100 pages given to the early writings and those of the middle years help to dispose of some absurd views about the changes in Whitehead's thinking, such as that he became a metaphysician and philosopher of religion because his son was killed, or that there is grotesque discontinuity between the nonmetaphysical and the metaphysical works. Whitehead was always aware of philosophical issues. But the chronological account also sheds positive light upon the basic intuitions. WHITEHEAD IN FRENCH PERSPECTIVE 57l'i Concerning the "philosophy of organism" I have at least one apparent disagreement with the author. Like most students, she seems to construe the " perishing " of actual...