Replies

Jessica, welcome, indeed! I hope your various interest find confirmation in light of this course.

Cheers,

Dr. D

Olivia, great question! And Bill: fantastic and fascinating response, indeed!

Dr. D

Jeremy, Yes, excellent.

It’s a method that applies across disciplines–and certainly to artistic work and expression. Whitehead’s book Adventures of Ideas has some wonderful discussion of Art and its place in the universe. I think you would enjoy this book very much.

Best,

Dr. D

Hi Leon and Jeremy,

Leon: if revelation is an “ahistorial mode of knowing” how would we know this as historical begins? When looking at the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition, revelation is thoroughly historical, no? These tradition speak not only of “special revealtion” (which does bring along a sense of privilege), but also “general revelation” and, indeed (and most historical of all!), “progressive revelation.” Any thoughts on these distinctions?

Jeremy: Yes, evil certainly has a place in Whitehead and is nuanced, coming in various forms. We will come to this later, but for now, evil is baked into the process of the universe. There is an evil that is deeper than any specific instance of evil. It lies in the fact that “the past fades and time is a perpetual perishing.” This is the evil of loss which is inherent in existence. There is also the evil of degradation of goodness (e.g. one of Whitehead’s examples is the degrading of a man to a hog), or the replacement of higher value for lower value. Like all of us, Whitehead also struggled with evil as a problem in philosophical and theological discourse (theodicy). He lost his youngest son Eric in WWI. But evil never has the last word for Whitehead either: it finds it transformation in God. More on this later…

Cheers,

Dr. D

Friends,

Yes, the relationship between Whitehead and Hegel is interesting to be sure. See below an important text devoted to this relationship. Although Whitehead admits to struggling with Hegel, only reading a page or so, he read books on Hegel and does insist that “the universe is more Hegelian.” Matt Segall is a good friend and has done great work on Schelling and Whitehead and the German Idealists. See also his newer text below.

Best,

DR. D

Eric,

Excellent! This is a very effective way of entering some of Whitehead’s most essential concepts. There remains a need for resources of this kind for our youth, certainly. I like that you also embedded these concepts in a narrative form. I supports the notion that the world is not made of atoms, but stories (even for each event). These narrative stories are perhaps were we need to start with kids and adults alike.

Best,

Dr. D

Zhenbao, indeed! You’re making us hungry 🙂

Dr. Davis

Friends, a rich discussion here simulated initially by Chris. As with Bergson (over against Einstein), Whitehead insists that we live in duration not in instants. Time is deep and not merely psychological or flat (see a fantastic book bellow on the debate between Bergson and Einstein, of which Whitehead was also a part). Since Thompson’s work was mentioned, see also his new collaboration below which hits on a number of these themes in the context of Whitehead and others.

Best,

DR. D

Hi Tom,

Very glad to hear these chapters aided your understanding. As emphasized in class, it is important for us to “locate” Whitehead as a part of process-style current with deep and abiding historical roots. He himself despised doctrines of “independent existence” and critiqued them as one of the “chief misconceptions of philosophy.” His own philosophy, while certainly profound in process tradition, is not an exception to this. As he puts it: “There is no such thing as independent existence”–not even for God. We will instead see him combating “independent existence” with “interwoveness” or deep relatedness.

Best,

Dr. D

Bill, wow!

A fantastic post describing what I can only name as a kind deep (also mystical-in your opening sentences) transformation that this material affords for you. You write beautifully and your dream is a profound contextualization of these themes that you are (no doubt) considering–even in your sleep! You mention Jung. My colleague and friend Sheri Kling has written a profound book integrating Whitehead and Jung, including dream work, synchronicity etc. Definitely worth checking out (See below).

Best,

Dr. D