Whitehead's Philosophy Research Articles

The Objectivity of Whitehead's Propositions: An Explication of the Truth-Relation

Abstract In this article, I argue, contrary to a noticeable trend in Whitehead scholarship, that in Whitehead's system propositions and their truth-values are objective in the sense that their own identities are independent of any particular subjects feeling or knowing them. This stance reinforces a core value of Whitehead's philosophy: his realism. As part of this argument, I examine Whitehead's analysis of an actual entity's determination and provide a more precise definition of what it means for a proposition to be true or false.

Theoretical Basis and Realization Path of Early Childhood Ecological Education

In today's ecological crisis, raising ecological awareness and shaping ecological civilization should be started from childhood, and the ecological education in early childhood stage focuses on enlightening young children to establish the ecological consciousness of harmonious coexistence between human and nature. The physical and mental development of young children's characteristics determine the ecological education of young children should follow the principle of organic whole, Whitehead's philosophy of organism also presents the ecological implications of organic whole, that is, the ecological implications of the harmonious coexistence of man and nature, as well as a kind of organic educational ideas, that is, pay attention to the process of education, organic, holistic. This is inherently compatible with the ecological education of young children, and brings value inspiration to the ecological education of young children. To realize an organic ecological education for young children, it is necessary to establish an organic ecological concept of harmonious symbiosis; to construct an organic ecological education content for young children that puts equal emphasis on knowledge, emotion, intention and action; to form an educational process that focuses on young children's life and practice; and to integrate the resources of kindergartens, families and the society to improve the synergistic mechanism of ecological education for young children.

Whitehead의 유기체 철학에 근거한 유기체적 교육의 방향

Objectives The purpose of this study is to explore and present the direction of organic education that overcomes the real problems of Korean education, which is biased toward entrance examination and competition and culti-vates the wisdom of a vital and harmonious life by examining the basic characteristics of Whitehead's organism philosophy and education.
 Methods To this end Whitehead's nuclear power plant and related literature were studied to understand the basic concepts and core theories of organism philosophy, and based on this, the purpose, content, and method of or-ganic education were considered.
 Results Since all parts of organism philosophy are interrelated and connected as a whole, it was confirmed that education based on this should be a direction in which learning content and learner's lives are organically con-nected and life wisdom should be constructed around the relationship and interaction between educators, learning materials and fellow learners surrounding learners.
 Conclusions In organic education, educational content should be organically connected for the purpose of applica-tion to learners' lives, intellectual thinking and aesthetic sense are harmonized, generality and professionalism are harmonized, learners' voluntary and free intellectual search and precise and verified knowledge are harmonized, and people, objects, and nature around learners should cultivate personality that pursues symbiosis, harmony, and cooperation.

Whitehead’s Resistance to Scepticism in Relation to Santayana

Without ever becoming central, the refutation of scepticism constitutes one of the pervading themes of Whitehead's philosophy of perception. His way of resisting scepticism about the external world was the doctrine of the two pure modes of perception, presentational immediacy and causal efficacy, and of the mixt mode of symbolic reference. In the present study, I try to evaluate Whitehead's theory of perception as a rampart against scepticism. First, I expose, in relevant outline, Whitehead’s theory of perception as it first appears in S, with the necessary refinements adduced in PR, and I find it wanting. Next, I show that Whitehead’s doctrine of subjective forms works as a patch for the theory, and allows it to counter some varieties of scepticism.

The Essence of Religious Conversion in the Perspective of Alfred North Whitehead's Philosophy of Processes

This study aims to understand the essence of religious conversion from the perspective of Alfred North Whitehead's process philosophy. This type of research is library research. Data sources come from books and journal articles. The collected data is then analyzed by the method of philosophical hermeneutics with elements of personal description and reflection. The study found the following: (1) Religious conversion in the holistic model is a religious change that takes place over time and not a single event. Conversions are influenced by various interrelated variables. (2) In the meaning system model, religious conversion is understood as a change in the meaning system resulting from strong pressure from input factors and weak system elements to resist pressure. (3) Conversion career aproach sees religious conversion as a radical change in individual religion influenced by social, institutional, individual and contingency factors. Religious conversion is one form of an individual's religious participation during this phase of life. Based on the three explanations of religious conversion according to the three paradigms above, this study concludes that the essence of religious conversion from the perspective of process philosophy is the formation of human self-religiosity. The formation of self-religiosity through religious conversion involves two things, namely, datum and subjective aim. Datum is the whole variable selected through the process of prehence, while the subjective aim is the self-image desired by the individual who is forming himself. Religious conversion is a result of human nature as a being that continues to "be." the implication of this finding is the importance of formulating conversion ethics so that the phenomenon of religious conversion does not lead to social disharmony.

Standing Firm in the Flux: On Whitehead's Eternal Objects

Abstract Alfred North Whitehead's first book as a professor of philosophy at Harvard University, Science and the Modern World, is not only a historical treatment of the rise and fall of scientific materialism. It also marks his turn to metaphysics in search of an alternative cosmological scheme that would replace matter in motion with organic process as that which is generic in Nature. Among the metaphysical innovations introduced in this book are the somewhat enigmatic “eternal objects.” The publication of the first and second volumes of Whitehead's Harvard Lectures on the philosophical presuppositions (HL1) and general metaphysical problems (HL2) of science provides students of his corpus with an opportunity to catch the thinker in the act of creating his concepts. In searching through student notes for glimpses of what Whitehead really meant, I have kept in mind his admonition that “no thinker thinks twice” (PR 29). Whitehead never ceased philosophizing, and surely he intended for us to continue thinking with but beyond the letter of his ideas. In this spirit and in light of HL1 and HL2, this article seeks to elucidate the role of eternal objects as a category of existence in Whitehead's Philosophy of Organism, with the goal not simply of textual exegesis, but of showing how the meaning of the fifth category of existence (as he refers to eternal objects in PR) is exemplified in the gradual ingression of the idea in Whitehead's imagination. My aim is to sustain the effort at constructive thought he began, making his speculative hypothesis as explicit as possible so as to better prepare it for critical improvement (PR xiv).

Introduction

Introduction

Whitehead and the Lisbon School of Quantum Physics

In the controversy on the philosophical foundations of quantum mechanics Whitehead's philosophy of organism has an essential place. But its realistic position invalidates any attempt to relate it to the School of Copenhagen's “orthodox interpretation”. Unlike, the Eurhythmic Physics developed by the Lisbon School has notable theoretical tunings with Whitehead's philosophy. In both, the notion of passive matter disappears; entities are understood as ecstatic process of becoming arising from a continuum of potentialities; and they achieve physical persistence grace to a set of synergistic interactions among their own regimes of rhythmical activity. The principle of Eurhythmy proposed by Prof. Croca then appears as the hypothesis, in contemporary theoretical physics, corresponding to the organicist vision of a universe in a developmental process of realization of the abstract potentiality of all possible worlds: a universe that, as a living organism, should be described as guided by an immanent teleological principle.

Untying the Gordian Knot: Process, Reality, and Context

Untying the Gordian Knot: Process, Reality, and Context

Researching Experience in Journalism: Theory, Method, and Creative Practice

ABSTRACT Investigating experience is becoming a greater concern in Journalism Studies. However, while “experience” is often mentioned, it is either never fully discussed or it is approached in terms of mere sensory or emotional response. Experience, instead, involves additionally (and simultaneously) situatedness, embodiment, and continuous re-processing over time, most of which lies beyond consciousness and is not easily articulated by words. Drawing on Whitehead's processual philosophy and Gendlin's philosophy of the implicit, this article addresses the calls in the field for “taking experience seriously.” Theoretically, it tackles the ontological leap required to be able to conceive experience. Methodologically and empirically it demonstrates the potential for applying creative techniques to retrieve and express the knowledge beyond words that is not captured by established methods. It does so by sharing the author's reflection matured through long-term experimentation with creative practices in research and the creation of an embroidered collage inspired by the project “Being a foreigner at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic: The impact of news consumption on the everyday life of migrants in Norway.” The article takes the form, in itself, of a collage and invites the reader to join into an experiential taster of its arguments.

Exploring the Notion of Literacy Within Physical Literacy: A Discussion Paper.

The concept of physical literacy is continuing to gain traction internationally. This increasing interest has also given rise to concerns about the use, interpretation and meaning of the term “literacy” within the context of physical literacy. This paper explores the development of the terms literate, illiterate, literacy, and illiteracy identifying their historical origin and contemporary meaning. This provides the backdrop to explore the use of the term literacy within the context of physical literacy. In the final part of this introductory section the recent popularity of the literacies movement is explored. Our discussion identifies key intersections and areas of tension associated with the use, interpretation and meaning of literacy in the context of physical literacy. We adopt Whitehead's philosophy of physical literacy and discussion is informed further by Derrida's notion of differance, and Barad's challenge to singular representations of concepts. Once harnessing these concepts, we reach a juncture of an in-between space; entry points of nonidentity (sameness) and points where multiple effects of difference are created. Key discussion topics include: discourse, language and interpretations of literacy; in/tangibility of literacy; capturing literacy; literacy as a process or a product; connotations of the terms literate and illiterate; neoliberalism and literacy and finally literacy as learning. We believe that when understood as the productive and meaningful interaction with/in/through the world, literacy is still the appropriate term within the context of physical literacy. Our discussion leads us to conclude that as embodied individuals, physical literacy is often the literacy through which other literacies have to pass. Through physical activity individuals can not only nurture their own physical literacy but also contribute toward a global or holistic literacy that helps us navigate, connect and make sense of ourselves, others and the world around us. However, the paper acknowledges that this meaning is not always grasped with the historical understanding of literacy as well as it's translations into other languages presenting challenges in articulating the intended use, meaning and connotations of the contemporary understanding of physical literacy.

ПЕР. СТ.: РИФФЕР Ф. СОЗНАНИЕ: ТОЧКА ЗРЕНИЯ ФИЛОСОФИИ ПРОЦЕССА И ГЕНЕТИЧЕСКОГО СТРУКТУРАЛИЗМА - КРИТИЧЕСКОЕ СРАВНЕНИЕ И НЕКОТОРЫЕ ПОСЛЕДСТВИЯ

A selective translation of the article by the Austrian philosopher, theologian, psychologist and teacher from the Department of Pedagogical Sciences of the University of Salzburg F. Riffer seems appropriate, since it highlights the modern philosophical debates about the phenomenon of consciousness based on D. Chalmers' distinction between its easy and difficult problems. A.N. Whitehead's philosophy of the process provides a promising basis for solving a difficult problem in connection with the rootedness of the concept of consciousness in metaphysical theory. Whitehead's reflection is compared with the results of empirical studies of the phenomena of consciousness of J. Piaget. If they partially coincide, the position of the former seems to be more reasonable. This corresponds to W.E. Seeger's suggestion to pay more attention to processalism or the concept of a philosophical process. Whitehead's point of view on learning, consciousness and artificial intelligence is considered.

Konsep Tuhan dan Agama Menurut Alfred North Whitehead

This article discusses the concept of God and religion according to Alfred North Whitehead's process philosophy. The main issue is how to describe Whitehead's concept of God and its implications for religious life. Whitehead's critique of scientific materialism is an entry point to understand the characteristics of his thought. This criticism leads to Whitehead's cosmology in which each actual entity is in the process of becoming. God is not excluded from this cosmological scheme. In this way of thinking, God is the source of eternal objects or values. God experiences every actual event that occurs in the temporal world. Thus, God can be understood from two perspectives: the former refers to a cosmological frame, while the latter refers to religious experience. In Whitehead's language, God has two distinct natures, a primordial nature, and a consequent nature. From the perspective of religious life, Whitehead's concept of God seems to put more emphasis on divine immanence.

Whitehead and the Pittsburgh School: Preempting the Problem of Intentionality

Whitehead and the Pittsburgh School: Preempting the Problem of Intentionality

Where does Whitehead's philosophy and Buddhism diverge?-The differences of philosophical categorization between Whitehead's philosophy and Buddhism

Where does Whitehead's philosophy and Buddhism diverge?-The differences of philosophical categorization between Whitehead's philosophy and Buddhism

Panpsychism: A Response to the Anthropocene Age

Abstract Panpsychism, the view that the material elements of the universe have mental properties, has until quite recently remained in the periphery of the philosophical mainstream due to its blatant contradiction of normative Cartesian dualities, which divided the world into mental properties (that inhere in human beings alone) and material properties, that are devoid of value and sentience. The recent geological shift to the Anthropocene Age, in which human culture can be found in pesticide resistant mosquitoes and the ozone heavens, has undermined the foundations of Cartesian dualism, making panpsychism a credible alternative. Yet some panpsychists go too far by conflating all distinctions between living and nonliving, human and nonhuman, evolved and made entities. Using Whitehead's process philosophy, this article will defend panpsychism and develop the philosophical criteria of causation, relationality, unity and intentionality to differentiate between natural living forms, natural nonliving forms, and human artifacts.

When the Part Mirrors the Whole: Interactions Beyond "Simple Location".

Reductionism relies on expectations that it is possible to make sense of the whole by studying its parts, whereas emergentism considers that program to be unattainable, partly due to the existence of emergent properties. The emergentist holistic stance is particularly relevant in biology and cognitive neuroscience, where interactions amongst system components and environment are key. Here we consider Alfred North Whitehead's philosophy as providing important insights to metaphysics of science in general, and to the reductionism vs. emergentism debate in particular. An appraisal of Whitehead's perspective reveals a difficulty shared by both approaches, referred to him as “simple location”: the commitment to the idea that the nature of things is exhausted by their intrinsic or internal properties, and does not take into account relations or dynamic interactions denoting “togetherness.” In a word, that things are simply where they are. Whitehead criticizes this externalist ontological perspective in which each interacting element exists, and can be thought, without essential reference to other elements. The aim of this work is to uncover such a stance, particularly in the context of dynamical systems, and to show its shortcomings. We propose an alternative relational approach based on Whitehead's notion of “internal relations,” which we explicate and illustrate with several examples. Our work aims to criticize the notion of simple location, even in the framework of emergentist accounts, so as to contribute to a “relational turn” that will conceive “inter-identities” as “intra-identities” in which interactants are not enduring substances, but internally related processes. In sum, we argue that the notion of internal relations has a strong theoretical power to overcome some fundamental difficulties in the study of life and mind.

Virginia Woolf's "Ontoethics" in Her Late Oeuvre from the Perspective of Alfred North Whitehead's Philosophy of Organism

In "A Sketch of the Past," Virginia Woolf introduces her personal philosophy, her own ontology, based on the idea that all human and nonhuman beings are interconnected in a single work of art. This idea is foregrounded in her novels The Waves, Between the Acts, and the pacifist manifesto Three Guineas, where Woolf fully develops her "ontoethics," which consists in ontological interconnection of human beings and recognition of value of every human and nonhuman being. This article discusses this universal relationality via Alfred North Whitehead's philosophy of organism, which emphasizes the interrelatedness of all constituents of reality and solidarity that springs from this ontological bond.

Can Chinese Harmonism Help Reconcile the Clash of Civilizations?

This short article discusses the Chinese concept of harmonism as developed in a book by Zhihe Wang titled Process and Pluralism: Chinese Thought on the Harmony of Diversity. This book develops themes in Whitehead's philosophy as they illuminate the concept of harmonism and constructive postmodernism.

The Concepts of ‘Subjectivity’ and ‘God’ as Related to Religious Experience in Alfred North Whitehead’s Process Metaphysics

In this paper, I will present some important ideas about the relation between religious experience and metaphysics in Alfred North Whitehead's philosophy. This endeavor is significant for the topic from two points of view: firstly, Whitehead's thinking is among the most comprehensive and widely extended from the 20th Century, the applications of his ˜speculative scheme™ covering issues from ecology, physics and the foundations of mathematics, to art and religion; secondly, the concept of ˜God™, with a meaning ascribed to it by Whitehead in relation both with the history of philosophy and with his own ideas, plays a key-role in Process and Reality, his most important treatise. For Whitehead, religion is linked, broadly speaking, to the most intimate inner evolution of a human person. Although this assertion may seem trivial, in the context of his thinking, which defines terms such as ˜process™, ˜value™ or ˜satisfaction™ as essentially bounded with the evolution of any actual being, to associate a kind of experience, the religious one, to the fact itself of inner becoming conveys to this experience a fundamentally profound and inalienable metaphysical character. It is this character and ˜definiteness™ which I will describe and analyze. Keywords: experience, actual entity, subjectivity, process, God, value, creativity, vision of ideals, everlastingness, life.