Encountering Whitehead’s Magnum Opus for First-Timers
Designed for beginners, this learning circle will involve a close reading of Whitehead’s seminal work, discussing passages together in-depth as we work our way through the text.
Alfred North Whitehead’s Process & Reality is a central source text for the traditions of process-relational philosophy and theology and an important work in the canon of 20th century Western philosophy. The text, however, is notoriously difficult and requires a close reading in order to grasp many of the key concepts. This learning circle seeks to provide the opportunity for this kind of careful and critical reading, allowing for in-depth discussion as we slowly work through Whitehead’s most influential work.
This reading group is geared towards first-time readers of Process & Reality who are seeking the opportunity for a careful engagement with the text in a community of like-minded learners. Some familiarity with Western philosophy will be helpful, but it isn't necessary, and the group will seek to collaborate to fill in the gaps in each other’s knowledge as we work through the text.
“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.”
–Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality, 3
About the Facilitators
Kazi Adi Shakti is an artist and theorist whose theoretical work primarily consists in the study and creative synthesis of Process thought, Madhyamaka Buddhism, Western Marxism and Eco-feminist ethics, all united under the totalizing and libertarian principle of "holopoiesis," a neologism coined in order to encapsulate a view of co-creativity in which a cosmic plurality of empty yet dependently originated "holons" or occasions of embodied experience — entangled in networks of reciprocally determined and mutually coordinating intra-activity — are compelled to work together towards the consummate actualization of the maximum potential of each and every occasion in an indivisible continuum of self-exceeding experience. A soteriological concept at heart, the empty yet dependently originated arrival of holopoiesis on the world stage is based on the motivation to aid in the urgent practical task of planetary harmonization, which is the principle function it is designed to fulfill. Kazi blogs regularly on her eponymous site, www.holo-poiesis.com.
Kazi graduated with a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art where she majored in Interdisciplinary Sculpture with a focus on computer modeling, 3D scanning and digital fabrication. She currently works as a scanning specialist and digital artist in the 3D digitization industry, working with museums and cultural institutions in the preservation and virtual documentation of historical artifacts, assisting other artists in the design and creation of their novel works, as well as providing asset-creation services to VFX studios in the movie industry.
Jared Morningstar is a writer and educator with academic interests in philosophy of religion, Islamic studies, comparative religion, metamodern spirituality, and interfaith dialogue whose work in these areas seeks to offer robust responses to issues of inter-religious conflict, contemporary nihilism, and the "meaning crisis" among other things. Jared works for the Center for Process Studies and the Cobb Institute where he supports these organizations promote a process-relational worldview and flourish in a digital world through aiding in a variety of marketing and communications tasks. Jared holds BAs in Religion and Scandinavian Studies from Gustavus Adolphus College, where he graduated in the spring of 2018.
Registration for this learning circle is now closed.