Michel Weber and William Desmond, Jr. (Eds.) Handbook of Whiteheadian Process Thought Volume 1 PROCESS THOUGHT Edited by Nicholas Rescher • Johanna Seibt • Michel Weber Advisory Board Mark Bickhard • Jaime Nubiola • Roberto Poli Volume 20 Michel Weber William Desmond, Jr. (Eds.) Handbook of Whiteheadian Process Thought Volume 1 Bibliographic information published by Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliographie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the Internet at http://dnb.ddb.de North and South America by Transaction Books Rutgers University Piscataway, NJ 08854-8042 trans@transactionpub.com United Kingdom, Eire, Iceland, Turkey, Malta, Portugal by Gazelle Books Services Limited White Cross Mills Hightown LANCASTER, LA1 4XS sales@gazellebooks.co.uk Livraison pour la France et la Belgique: Librairie Philosophique J.Vrin 6, place de la Sorbonne ; F-75005 PARIS Tel. +33 (0)1 43 54 03 47 ; Fax +33 (0)1 43 54 48 18 www.vrin.fr 2008 ontos verlag P.O. Box 15 41, D-63133 Heusenstamm www.ontosverlag.com ISBN 978-3-938793-92-3 2008 No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in retrieval systems or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use of the purchaser of the work Printed on acid-free paper ISO-Norm 970-6 FSC-certified (Forest Stewardship Council) This hardcover binding meets the International Library standard Printed in Germany by buch bücher dd ag Contents Abbreviations..............................................................................................................10 Preface — Jan Van der Veken ...................................................................................11 I. Introduction — Michel Weber ................................................................................15 Volume I—Thematic Entries II. Aesthetics...............................................................................................................41 George Allan Cosmological and Civilized Harmonies .......................................................................................41 III. Anthropology .......................................................................................................55 Donna Bowman Communities and Destinies ...........................................................................................................55 IV. Ecology.................................................................................................................69 Barbara Muraca Ecology Between Natural Science and Environmental Ethics....................................................69 Carol P. Christ Ecofeminism ...................................................................................................................................87 Works Cited and Further Readings..................................................................................................98 V. Economy ..............................................................................................................101 Carol F. Johnston Whitehead on Economics ............................................................................................................101 John B. Cobb, Jr. Further Commentary on the Work of Economist Herman Daly ...............................................115 Julie A. Nelson Contemporary Schools of Economic Thought ...........................................................................119 Mark R. Dibben Management and Organization Studies ......................................................................................127 Elias L. Khalil Action, Entrepreneurship and Evolution.....................................................................................145 Arran Gare Ecological Economics and Human Ecology...............................................................................161 Works Cited and Further Readings................................................................................................177 4 Contents VI. Education ...........................................................................................................185 Adam Scarfe and Howard Woodhouse Whitehead’s Philosophy of Education........................................................................................185 Mary Elizabeth Moore Education as Creative Power.......................................................................................................199 Works Cited and Further Readings................................................................................................210 VII. Ethics ................................................................................................................215 Brian G. Henning Process and Morality....................................................................................................................215 Daniel A. Dombrowski Nonhuman Animal Rights ...........................................................................................................225 Works Cited and Further Readings................................................................................................235 VIII. History .............................................................................................................237 George Allan Process Interpretations of History ...............................................................................................237 IX. Metaphysics ........................................................................................................255 Jorge Luis Nobo Metaphysics and Cosmology.......................................................................................................255 William Jay Garland The Mystery of Creativity ...........................................................................................................265 Judith Jones Intensity and Subjectivity ............................................................................................................279 Leemon McHenry Extension and the Theory of the Physical Universe ..................................................................291 Peter Simons Speculative Metaphysics with Applications...............................................................................303 Craig Eisendrath The Unifying Moment: Toward a Theory of Complexity.........................................................315 George Allan Pragmatism and Process ..............................................................................................................325 William S. Hamrick Phenomenology and Metaphysics...............................................................................................339 Gottfried Heinemann Whitehead’s Interpretation of Zeno ............................................................................................349 Works Cited and Further Readings................................................................................................356 Contents 5 X. Psychology and the Philosophy of Mind ..............................................................363 John H. Buchanan Process Metapsychology..............................................................................................................363 Max Velmans Consciousness and the Physical World.......................................................................................371 Pierfrancesco Basile Mind-Body Problem and Panpsychism ......................................................................................383 Michel Weber Hypnosis: Panpsychism in Action...............................................................................................395 Gudmund Smith The Experimental Examination of Process.................................................................................415 Maria Pachalska and Bruce Duncan MacQueen Process Neuropsychology, Microgenetic Theory and Brain Science .......................................423 Claude de Jonckheere Ethnopsychoanalysis ....................................................................................................................437 Works Cited and Further Readings................................................................................................452 XI. Public Policy and Natural Law...........................................................................459 Leslie A. Muray Political Theory ............................................................................................................................459 John Quiring Whiteheadian Public Policy.........................................................................................................471 Mark C. Modak-Truran Process Theory of Natural Law ...................................................................................................507 David Ray Griffin Saving Civilization.......................................................................................................................521 Works Cited and Further Readings................................................................................................533 XII. Sociology of Science..........................................................................................537 Juan Vicente Mayoral de Lucas Kuhn and Whitehead ....................................................................................................................537 XIII. Theology and Religion.....................................................................................549 Joseph A. Bracken, S.J. Whitehead’s Rethinking of the Problem of Evil ........................................................................549 Thomas E. Hosinski, C.S.C. The Implications of Order and Novelty ......................................................................................561 6 Contents Michel Weber Contact Made Vision ...................................................................................................................573 Mustafa Ruzgar Islam and Process Theology........................................................................................................601 Vincent Shen Whitehead and Chinese Philosophy............................................................................................613 Works Cited and Further Readings................................................................................................628 XIV. Theory of Knowledge .......................................................................................633 Murray Code Symbolism: The Organic Functioning of Reason......................................................................633 Guillaume Durand The Method of Extensive Abstraction ........................................................................................645 John W. Lango Time and Experience ...................................................................................................................653 Works Cited and Further Readings................................................................................................664 XV. Urbanism and Architecture ...............................................................................667 Joseph Grange Cosmological and Urban Spaces.................................................................................................667 Analytic Table of Contents .......................................................................................679 Volume II—Thematic Entries; Biographical Entries; Critical Apparatus XVI. Language ............................................................................................................ 7 Stephen T. Franklin Theory of Language ......................................................................................................................... 7 David G. Butt Whiteheadian and Functional Linguistics .................................................................................... 23 Michael Fortescue Pattern and Process ........................................................................................................................ 35 Patrick J. Coppock Pragmaticism and Semiotics.......................................................................................................... 43 Sylviane R. Schwer Whitehead's Construction of Time: A Linguistic Approach ....................................................... 57 Contents 7 XVII. Mathematics and Logic ....................................................................................69 Andrew Dawson Whitehead’s Universal Algebra ....................................................................................................69 Robert Valenza Vector Mathematics: Symbol versus Form ..................................................................................89 Ivor Grattan-Guinness Foundations of Mathematics and Logicism..................................................................................99 Luca Gaeta Order and Change: The Memoir “On Mathematical Concepts of the Material World”..........107 Giangiacomo Gerla and Annamaria Miranda Mathematical Features of Whitehead’s Point-free Geometry ...................................................121 Claus Michael Ringel Extension in PR Part IV...............................................................................................................133 XVIII. Sciences ........................................................................................................159 Biology Jonathan Delafield-Butt ...............................................................................................................159 Chemistry.........................................................................................................................................173 Ross L. Stein On Molecules and Their Chemical Transformation ..........................................................................173 Joseph E. Earley, Sr. Ontologically Significant Aggregation: Process Structural Realism ...............................................181 Computer Science Granville C. Henry and Robert J.Valenza ..................................................................................195 Quantum Mechanics .......................................................................................................................207 Michael Epperson, Quantum Theory and Process Metaphysics .........................................................207 Shan Gao, Quantum Mechanics and Panpsychism ..............................................................................225 Relativity Physics............................................................................................................................236 Ronny Desmet and Timothy E. Eastman, Physics and Relativity.......................................................236 Elie During, Relativistic Time in Whitehead and Bergson .................................................................261 XIX. Biographical entries.........................................................................................285 Whitehead’s Historico-Speculative Context .................................................................................285 Heraclitus of Ephesus (c. 540–c. 480 BCE)—Bruce G. Epperly........................................................285 Plato (427–347 BCE)—John W. Lango ...............................................................................................291 Leibniz (1646–1716)—Jean-Pascal Alcantara .....................................................................................299 David Hume (1711–1776)—Pierfrancesco Basile ...............................................................................307 Immanuel Kant (1724–1804)—Beth Lord ...........................................................................................315 Hegel (1770–1832)—Kipton E. Jensen ................................................................................................326 8 Contents Hamilton (1805–1865)—Volker Peckhaus ..........................................................................................334 Hermann Günther Grassmann (1809–1877)—Albert C. Lewis..........................................................341 Whitehead’s Contemporaries .........................................................................................................347 Samuel Alexander (1859–1938)—George Allan .................................................................................347 Niels Bohr (1885–1962)—Manuel Bächtold .......................................................................................355 Francis Herbert Bradley (1846–1924)—Pierfrancesco Basile ............................................................364 Franz Brentano (1838–1917)—Liliana Albertazzi ..............................................................................373 Rudolf Carnap (1891–1970)—Lieven Decock ....................................................................................379 Herbert Wildon Carr (1857–1931)—Pierfrancesco Basile..................................................................385 John Dewey (1859–1952)—William T. Myers....................................................................................390 Albert Einstein (1879–1955)—Robert J. Valenza ...............................................................................402 L. J. Henderson (1878–1942)—Rudolf Windeln .................................................................................411 William James (1842–1910)—Graham Bird........................................................................................418 John McTaggart Ellis McTaggart (1866–1925)—Richard Feist ........................................................429 George Herbert Mead (1863–1931)—Gary A. Cook ..........................................................................451 George Edward Moore (1873–1958)—Pierfrancesco Basile..............................................................459 Christiana Morgan (1897–1967)—Michel Weber ...............................................................................467 Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801–1890)—Thomas A. F. Kelly ..................................................471 Émile Meyerson (1859–1933)—F. Fruteau de Laclos.........................................................................475 Charles S. Peirce (1839–1914)—Jaime Nubiola..................................................................................483 Jean Piaget (1896–1980)—Dominic J. Balestra...................................................................................490 Willard Van Orman Quine (1908–2000)—Lieven Decock.................................................................500 Bertrand Russell (1872–1970)—Graham Bird.....................................................................................507 G. Santayana (1863–1952)—T. L. S. Sprigge......................................................................................519 Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)—Peter H. Hare .......................................................................................526 James Ward (1843–1925)—Pierfrancesco Basile................................................................................529 Hermann Weyl (1885–1955)—Norman Sieroka .................................................................................539 Whitehead’s Scholarly Legacy: American Pioneers ....................................................................549 Mili apek (1909–1997)—Berit Brogaard .........................................................................................549 Ernst Cassirer (1874–1945) & Suzanne K. Langer (1895–1985)—Randall E. Auxier.....................554 John B. Cobb, Jr. (1925–)—Paul Custodio Bube ................................................................................573 Frederic B. Fitch (1908–1987)—John W. Lango.................................................................................582 David Ray Griffin (1939–)—Bruce G. Epperly ...................................................................................585 Charles Hartshorne (1897–2000)—Donald Wayne Viney ..................................................................591 William Ernest Hocking (1873–1966)—Douglas R. Anderson..........................................................599 Bernard M. Loomer (1912–1985)—Bruce G. Epperly........................................................................606 Victor Augustus Lowe (1907–1988)—Leemon McHenry..................................................................611 Nicholas Rescher (1928–)—Johanna Seibt ..........................................................................................615 Paul Weiss (1901–2002)—Robert Castiglione ....................................................................................621 Whitehead’s Scholarly Legacy: European Pioneers.....................................................................629 Antonio Banfi (1886–1957)—Luca Vanzago ......................................................................................629 Contents 9 R. G. Collingwood (1889–1943)—James Connelly ............................................................................632 Jean Wahl (1888–1974)—Michel Weber .............................................................................................642 Philippe Devaux (1902–1979)—Paul Gochet ......................................................................................645 Gilles Deleuze (1925–1995)—James Williams ...................................................................................647 Dorothy M. Emmet (1904–2000)—Leemon McHenry .......................................................................651 Jean Ladrière (1921–2007)—Marc Maesschalck.................................................................................656 Wolfe Mays (1912–2005)—Mike Garfield ..........................................................................................666 Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908–1961)—Franck Robert.......................................................................669 Enzo Paci (1911–1976)—Alessandro Sardi .........................................................................................678 Alix Parmentier (1933–)—a Sister of Saint-John ................................................................................684 XX. Critical Apparatus .............................................................................................687 General Bibliography......................................................................................................................687 Index of Subjects.............................................................................................................................688 Index of Names ...............................................................................................................................705 Analytic Table of Contents of Volume II ......................................................................................716 Abbreviations AE The Aims of Education, 1929 (Free Press, 1967). AI Adventures of Ideas, 1933 (Free Press, 1967). CN The Concept of Nature, 1920 (Cambridge University Press, 1964). D Lucien Price, Dialogues, 1954 (Mentor Book, 1956). ESP Essays in Science and Philosophy, 1947. FR The Function of Reason, 1929 (Beacon Press, 1958). IM An Introduction to Mathematics, 1911. IS The Interpretation of Science, 1961. MCMW “On Mathematical Concepts of the Material World”, 1906. MT Modes of Thought, 1938 (Free Press, 1968). OT The Organisation of Thought, 1917. PM Principia Mathematica, 1910-1913 (Cambridge U. P., 1925-1927). PNK Principles of Natural Knowledge, 1919/1925 (Dover, 1982). PR Process and Reality, 1929 (Corrected edition, 1978). R The Principle of Relativity, 1922. RM Religion in the Making, 1926. S Symbolism, Its Meaning and Effect, 1927. SMW Science and the Modern World, 1925 (Free Press, 1967). TSM “Time, Space, and Material”, 1919. UA A Treatise on Universal Algebra, 1898. Preface Jan Van der Veken i This book is truly a tribute to the universal applicability of Whiteheadian thought. One of the criteria for accepting a philosopher as a spiritual guide is the fruitfulness of his insights to illuminate every aspect of our experience. Whitehead indeed tells us that a philosophical system should take into account every experience: Nothing can be omitted, experience drunk and experience sober, experience waking, experience drowsy and experience wide-awake, experience self-conscious and experience self-forgetful, experience intellectual and experience physical, experience religious and experience sceptical, experience anxious and experience care-free, experience anticipatory and experience retrospective, experience happy and experience grieving, experience dominated by emotion and experience under self-restraint, experience in the light and experience in the dark, experience normal and experience abnormal (AI 290-1). Many people discovered Whitehead because he “made sense” of what they were experiencing and studying, whether it was logic or mathematics, religion or philosophy of nature, politics or ecology. Whitehead’s conceptual scheme indeed helps us to interpret the world in which we live: Speculative Philosophy is the endeavour to frame a coherent, logical, necessary system of general ideas in terms of which every element of our experience can be interpreted. By this notion of ‘interpretation’ I mean that everything of which we are conscious, as enjoyed, perceived, willed, or thought, shall have the character of a particular instance of the general scheme (PR 3). The requirements of coherence and of logical structure are especially tackled in this Handbook in a section on Mathematics and Logic. These rather difficult questions are often overlooked in introductions to Whitehead's philosophy. The “empirical side” is expressed by the terms “applicable” and “adequate”. “Applicable” means that “the texture of observed experience, as illustrating the philosophic scheme, is such that all related experience must exhibit the same texture”. I think that “style” is another rendering of the same requirement. “Style” was an idea put forward by Merleau-Ponty, and as is made evident in two of the contributions, the relationship between Whitehead and the later Merleau-Ponty is worth studying. There is indeed a certain style to approach the different domains of our experience, and that “style” accounts for the deep unity of the Handbook that is offered to us. That “Whiteheadian style” is easily recognizable. Whitehead himself always puts a problem in a broader perspective: i President of the European Society for Process Thought 1978–1998; Emeritus professor at the Institute of Philosophy, Leuven; jan.vanderveken@hiw.kuleuven.ac.be. 12 Jan Van der Veken there is not something like an isolated discipline which has absolutely no connections with the overall scheme of things. In this sense there is a deeper unity of this Handbook, in spite of its obvious diversity: in any domain of human experience, we are confronted with an aspect which illumines the whole. Deep inside we surmise that everything is related to everything, and that everything somehow exists together, is related to the whole. Philosophy looks for that essence of the universe which ensures that nothing exists in isolation. Whitehead's conceptual scheme is a tool, not a doctrine. As a mathematician Whitehead does not shy away from the constructive part of the philosophical enterprise. He knows that a philosophical system does not pre-exist. It cannot be found “ready made,” waiting for its discovery. It is rather the result of the endeavour to grasp the general in the particular: a philosophical system has to be created, the best one can. Whitehead has the extraordinary gift of being at ease as much in logic and mathematics as in the world of civilisation, religion and art. He may not be a specialist in all these domains, and “real” experts will always be capable of finding objections about the details. The same applies when we situate Whitehead in the history of philosophy. He knew how to draw insights from his preferred authors, like Plato, Locke, Spinoza and also from scientists such as J.C. Maxwell and A. Einstein. But he was hardly interested in the exact phrasing or historically correct interpretations of their insights. He was reading and meditating on those authors, asking himself what he could do with them. The Biographical entries in this Handbook contain an impressive array of contemporary and historical figures. This section is quite illuminating for getting an inkling of the extraordinary scope of the Whiteheadian conceptuality. Do not expect an answer to the question whether Whitehead “had it right”. Rather, learn to capture the Whiteheadian “style.” This Handbook is a landmark in Whiteheadian scholarship. In the sixties and seventies of last century Whitehead has been introduced to a new generation of philosophy students by scholars such as Ivor Leclerc, John B. Cobb Jr. and Schubert Ogden. Not to forget Charles Hartshorne, who himself was the teacher of a whole generation. He was also a philosopher in his own right. He has done more than anyone else to introduce Whitehead's metaphysics. The collection of articles that Hartshorne wrote about Whitehead's Philosophy (Selected Essays, 1935–1970, published in 1972) are even today an introduction to Whitehead “without pain.” Yet, the fact that Hartshorne was teaching mainly philosophical theology accounts for the fact that the process movement caught fire above all at Theology Faculties (Chicago, Claremont). The extraordinary fruitfulness of the Whiteheadian conceptuality in elaborating a relational theology has somehow influenced the “reception” of Whitehead. Although Whitehead as such is not a professional theologian, his insights proved to be extremely helpful. Whitehead has offered a conceptual scheme which is at least congenial with a contemporary Christian incarnational understanding of God. The bibliography published by Barry Woodbridge gives an ideal idea of Whitehedian scholarship until 1977.1 The Claremont School of Theology, mainly due to the efforts of John B. Cobb Jr., has been during several decades “the den of the process lion.” An impressive number of conferences took place in Claremont and elsewhere. Remember the Silver Anniversary Conference in Claremont in 1998. Contacts with Buddhists and Chinese scholars made possible a conference in Beijing in 2001 entitled Whitehead, China and the New Millenium, which attracted 120 scholars. Much of Preface 13 the work done in process thought found its way to the journal Process Studies (with working bees such as Lewis Ford, B. Whitney, and many others). In the meantime the home journal Process Perspectives and the journal Creative Transformation (by the Process and Faith group) have informed the international community of the extreme usefulness of the Whiteheadian outlook on reality for tackling questions concerning the common Good, the sustainability of the planet, human rights issues, etc. In 1978, Charles Hartshorne was conferred an honorary degree at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven where he was also teaching a one-semester course in Philosophical Theology. At that occasion, there came together, for the first time in Europe, a number of process thinkers, including Norman Pittenger, H.G. Hubbeling, David Pailin, Michael Welker, Wim Welten, Jean-Marie Breuvart. A European Society for Process Thought was established. When the degree was conferred, a conference was organized around the theme of Whitehead's Legacy. Somehow “Whitehead” caught fire in Europe, and important conferences were organized in Köln, Bad Homburg, Sigriswil and other places. The focus was now on relating Whitehead to other philosophers, and important studies have been published in the volumes relating to those conferences.2 In 1998 the ESPT organized a conference in Lille-Kortrijk about The Future of Process Thought in Europe. Given the new possibilities offered by internet, we decided that from now on members of the ESPT should send their papers by e-mail. Helmut Maassen set up a web-site and, together with James Bradley, André Cloots and Michel Weber, launched a series European Studies in Process Thought and edited the first Volume In Memoriam. Dorothy Emmet (1904–2000), including Dorothy Emmet’s Notes on Whitehead’s Harvard Lectures, 1928–29 (see www.espt.de). At that moment it was completely unforeseeable what the third wave of Whiteheadian scholarship would be like. An International Process Network has been created to coordinate the many process initiatives all over the world (see www.processnetwork.org). A new generation of scholars, such as Michel Weber, Palmyre Oomen, Ronny Desmet, Pierfrancesco Basile e.o. came to the fore. Several doctoral dissertations were written in Leuven, Louvain-la-Neuve and the Netherlands, so much so that at one of these defences the Dean of the Faculty said “that Whitehead was becoming fashionable.” Isabelle Stengers became deeply interested in Whitehead and gathered around her a whole group of philosophy students. Isabelle Stengers has published an impressive book Penser avec Whitehead. Une libre et sauvage creation de concepts.3 She sees strong connections with Gilles Deleuze, and this theme has been the topic of a number of doctoral seminars with Keith Robinson and of a conference organized by André Cloots and Keith Robinson in Brussels.4 Mainly due to the inexhaustible energy and the publishing skills of Michel Weber, two whole series of books are being published by Ontos Verlag, under the title Chromatiques Whiteheadiennes and Process Thought (see www.chromatika.org and www.ontos-verlag.de). “Chromatiques” expresses well the broad scope of the topics under discussion, both at a weekly seminar at the Sorbonne and at the different Whitehead conferences. This Handbook serves as an apogee of this third wave of Whiteheadian scholarship. Never has the extraordinary scope of the Whiteheadian conceptuality been brought to the fore in a more impressive way. The clear structure of the book makes the wealth of material a little less 14 Jan Van der Veken bewildering. Everyone can easily find his/her field of expertise, and the bibliographies allow for easy in-depth study of the topics touched upon. As “emeritus” of the second wave, I can only wholeheartedly welcome this upsurge of creative dynamism. It was of course unexpected, but it is certainly a new step of the flight of the spirit of the Whiteheadian adventure. Notes 1 2 3 4 Alfred North Whitehead. A primary-secondary Bibliography, Barry A. Woodbridge, Editor. Jay McDaniel and Marjorie Suchocki, Associate Editors, Philosophy Documenation Center Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio 43403, U.S.A. Whitehead und der Prozessbegriff. Whitehead and the Idea of Process. Beiträge zur Philosophie Alfred North Whitehead-Symposium 1981. Proceedings of the First International WhiteheadSymposium 1981, Harald Holz and Ernest Wolf-Gazo, eds., Freiburg/München, Karl Alber 1984. Whiteheads Metaphysik der Kreativität, Friedrich Rapp and Reiner Wiehl, eds., Freiburg/München, Karl Alber 1986. Isabelle Stengers, Penser avec Whitehead. Une libre et sauvage création de concepts, Paris, Seuil 2002. Deleuze, Whitehead and the Transformation of Metaphysics, May 23-25 2005, André Cloots & Keith A. Robinson (eds.), Brussel, Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie van Belgiê voor wetenschappen en kunsten, 2005.