![]() Whitehead’s metaphysics is especially constructed with reference to the emerging objective scientific worldview, but not to the neglect of subjective human experience. Thus the philosophical scheme should be coherent, logical, and in respect to its interpretation, applicable and adequate…( Process and Reality, 3)Īn adequate metaphysics, then, must apply in general terms to the whole of reality, including all human subjective experiences. 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. The endeavor to frame a coherent, logical, necessary system of general ideas in terms of which every element of our experience can be interpreted. Whitehead refers to this project as “speculative philosophy,” which he defines as, Once these points are established, it is then possible to seek a partial solution to these problems by synthesizing Whitehead’s thought with that of his successors.Īlfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) created a comprehensive metaphysical system for understanding science, society, and self. However, I will argue that Whitehead’s process metaphysics tends to 1) depersonalize God to the extent of rendering theism irrelevant and 2) naturalize moral evil in the service of evolution. ![]() The key to Whitehead’s lasting consequence is that his process relational metaphysics solves many philosophical problems in understanding and interpreting contemporary science. Indeed, Whitehead’s signature can even be traced in the very name of Metanexus Institute. One sees this, for instance, in the reliance on Whitehead’s thought by many of the luminaries in the field of religion and science including Ian Barbour, Holmes Rolston, and John Haught. Today, Whitehead’s influence has not abated. His talks were published two years later as Process and Reality, the book that introduced Whitehead’s process philosophy to the world and secured him a place in the canon of Western metaphysics. In 1927, British mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead was asked to give the prestigious Gifford Lectures on Natural Theology at the University of Edinburgh. ![]()
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