Process and Reality by Alfred North Whitehead

Second, the essential character of reality is “becoming” or “flow” rather than “existence” or “stasis.” Creativity requires that before something can be, it must undergo a process of self-creation and, thus, becoming has temporal, but not ontological, priority over being. This contrasts with the view that reality is determined by random events or change through locomotion (cause and effect determination resulting from substances in motion and controlled by the laws of motion). There are several elements of this philosophy that are of particular importance.įirst, reality in all of its dimensions is creative. The framework of ideas he developed has become known as “process philosophy” and also “the philosophy of organism.” It has been called a neo-classical metaphysics because it undertakes to frame a general metaphysical system in the manner of classical metaphysics, but does this in a new way. In his most important work, Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology, he described his task as that of “speculative philosophy,” which he defined as “the endeavor to frame a coherent logical necessary system of general ideas in terms of which every element of our experience can be interpreted.” He sought not to understand a grand narrative, but to understand the nature of reality and to explain in categorical terms how everything comes to be. Whitehead came at his reflection through the world of mathematics and physics as they developed in the first part of the 20 th century, and also his knowledge of Western philosophy and theology. Each also brought to his thought a wealth of knowledge of human cultures, and of philosophy and theology. Their reflections were based on the cosmological, geological and biological story as it has become known in modern science. Thomas Berry and Teilhard de Chardin, who greatly influenced Berry, have been impressed by the story of the universe as narrative, and from this narrative have drawn conclusions about the nature of the universe.

ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD’S PROCESS PHILOSOPHY IN RELATION TO DE CHARDIN, BERRY AND SWIMME

Process and Reality by Alfred North Whitehead