Alfred north whitehead dates12/16/2023 They were not interested in the inevitably uncertain speculations that played a large role in the discussion in which Whitehead took part. These philosophers disagreed with Kant’s talk of another kind of reflection-one about practical affairs. The entities of which the world is composed are not the sorts of things that could make choices. That is, it assumes that ultimately everything that happens can be explained by what has happened in the past. This can give us only a phenomenal world of appearances, and it is purely deterministic. Some followed Kant in assuming that “knowledge” is limited to what is empirically known. This conversation seemed relevant to much of the university community, but it had its home in philosophy.Īlready there were other philosophers who wanted to redefine their task. Whitehead directly addressed all of these issues in original ways. Immanuel Kant offered an epistemological dualism to replace Rene Descartes’, but many Americans were not satisfied. Cartesian dualism, which arose in the seventeenth century under the hallmark of separating mind from body-humans from the natural world-was disrupted by evolutionary theory of the nineteenth century, which emphasized the continuity of things. In different ways these developments raised questions about the relation of human beings to the rest of the world and the place of values and of religious ideas, including the reality of God. Among the most important such issues were those stimulated by developments in biology and physics. When Whitehead flourished, universities understood themselves to be places for intellectual reflection and conversation about the issues of concern in the wider culture. The change has been in the nature of philosophy and of the university as a whole. If that were the case, the small ghetto of which I wrote would not exist. I think I can say without fear of contradiction that the change did not result from the refutation of Whitehead or by improvement on his work. The Roles and Fortunes of Whitehead’s Thought Those of us who appraise Whitehead as one of the great philosophers of all time constitute a tiny ghetto with few participants in major academic centers. Today there is no interest in his thought at Harvard or, indeed, at the great majority of American universities. His role in the United States extended beyond the university to a segment of the general public. During that period and for some years thereafter he was regarded as one of the leading philosophers in the United States-a good many people would have listed him as the most important. But fewer may be familiar with Whitehead’s place in the history of ideas and the community that has developed in response.Īlfred North Whitehead was a revered teacher at Harvard University from 1924-37. Many who are familiar with Pando Populus know of its intellectual roots in the process thought of Alfred North Whitehead.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |