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Process philosophy (or Ontology of Becoming) identifies metaphysical reality with change and dynamism. Metaphysics is the branch of Philosophy investigating principles of reality transcending those of any particular science Reality, in everyday usage means "the state of things as they actually exist" Since the time of Plato and Aristotle, philosophers have posited true reality as "timeless", based on permanent substances, whilst processes are denied or subordinated to timeless substances. Biography Early life Birth and family Plato was born in Athens Greece Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. Substance theory, or substance attribute theory, is an ontological theory about objecthood, positing that a substance is distinct from its If Socrates changes, becoming sick, Socrates is still the same (the substance of Socrates being the same), and change (his sickness) only glides over his substance: change is accidental, whereas the substance is essential. SOCRATES is the European Community action programme in the field of Education. Therefore, classic ontology denies any full reality to change, which is conceived as only accidental and not essential. In Philosophy, ontology (from the Greek, genitive: of being (part This classical ontology is what made knowledge and a theory of knowledge possible, as it was thought that a science of something in becoming was an impossible feat to achieve [1]. Epistemology (from Greek επιστήμη - episteme, "knowledge" + λόγος, " Logos " or theory of knowledge

At the contrary, Process philosophy, or an ontology of the becoming, does not characterize change as illusory or as purely accidental to the substance, as in Aristotle's thought, but as the cornerstone of reality, or Being (thought as Becoming). Modern process philosophers include Henri Bergson, Charles Peirce, John Dewey, Alfred North Whitehead, Charles Hartshorne, Martin Heidegger, Friedrich Nietzsche, Nicholas Rescher, and Gilles Deleuze, a list to which some add Arthur Schopenhauer, Hegel, and even Spinoza. Charles Sanders Peirce (pronounced purse) (September 10 1839 &ndash April 19 1914 was an American Logician mathematician, philosopher John Dewey (October 20 1859 &ndash June 1 1952 was an American Philosopher, Psychologist, and educational reformer, whose thoughts and ideas have Alfred North Whitehead, OM ( February 15 1861, Ramsgate, Kent, England &ndash December 30 1947, Charles Hartshorne ( June 5, 1897 &ndash October 9, 2000) was a prominent American philosopher who concentrated primarily on the Philosophy Martin Heidegger ( September 26, 1889 &ndash May 26, 1976) (ˈmaɐ̯tiːn ˈhaɪ̯dɛgɐ was an influential German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15 1844 August 25 1900 ( was a nineteenth-century German philosopher and classical philologist Nicholas Rescher (born July 15, 1928 in Hagen, Germany) is an American philosopher, affiliated for many years with the Gilles Deleuze ( (January 18 1925 &ndash November 4 1995 was a French philosopher of the late 20th century Baruch or Benedict de Spinoza (ברוך שפינוזה Bento de Espinosa Benedictus de Spinoza ( November 24, 1632 – February 21,

Contents

History

In Ancient Greek thought

The formal development of this theory begins with Heraclitus's fragments in which he posits the nous, the ground of Becoming, as agon or "strife of opposites" as the underlying basis of all reality defined by change. Heraclitus of Ephesus ( Ancient Greek: &mdash grc-Latn ''Hērákleitos ho Ephésios'' English Heraclitus the Ephesian) (ca Nous (ˈnuːs Greek: or) is a philosophical term for Mind or Intellect. That balance and conflict were the foundations of change and stability in the flux of existence.

Twentieth century

In the early twentieth century, a philosophy of mathematics was developing that favoured some specific foundations of mathematics that could be specified completely as a set of axioms. The philosophy of mathematics is the branch of Philosophy that studies the philosophical assumptions foundations and implications of Mathematics. Foundations of mathematics is a term sometimes used for certain fields of Mathematics, such as Mathematical logic, Axiomatic set theory, Proof theory In traditional Logic, an axiom or postulate is a proposition that is not proved or demonstrated but considered to be either self-evident, or subject This positivist program could not be completed, although it remained for Russell and Whitehead to prove that so in 1913 - after which Whitehead elaborated what had been learned from attempts to escape process as the basis of ontology. This resulted in the most famous work of process philosophy — Alfred North Whitehead's Process and Reality - a work which continues that begun by Hegel but describing a more complex and fluid dynamic ontology. Alfred North Whitehead, OM ( February 15 1861, Ramsgate, Kent, England &ndash December 30 1947, In Philosophy, especially Metaphysics, the book Process and Reality, by Alfred North Whitehead, sets out its author's Philosophy of organism While process thought does describe truth as "movement" in and through determinates (Hegelian truth), and not these determinates as fixed concepts or "things" (Aristotelian truth), process thought since Whitehead is distinguished from Hegel in describing complexes of occasions of experience that arise or coalesce in becoming, rather than being simply dialectically determined from prior posited determinates. It is also distinguished in being not necessarily conflictual or oppositional in operation. Process may be integrative, destructive or both together, allowing for aspects of interdependence, influence, and confluence, and addressing coherence in universal as as well as particular developments, which aspects are not condign to Hegel's system. Additionally, instances of determinate occasions of experience, while always ephemeral, are nonetheless seen as important to define the type and continuity of those occasions of experience that flow from or relate to them.

Whitehead's Process and Reality

Whitehead's background was an unusual one for a speculative metaphysician. Educated as a mathematician, he became, through his coauthorship and 1913 publication of Principia Mathematica' with Bertrand Russell, a major logician. The Principia Mathematica is a 3-volume work on the Foundations of mathematics, written by Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970 was a British Philosopher, Historian Later he wrote extensively on physics and its philosophy, proposing a theory of relativity rivaling Einstein's. Albert Einstein ( German: ˈalbɐt ˈaɪ̯nʃtaɪ̯n; English: ˈælbɝt ˈaɪnstaɪn (14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955 was a German -born theoretical He was conversant with the quantum mechanics that emerged in the 1920s. Quantum mechanics is the study of mechanical systems whose dimensions are close to the Atomic scale such as Molecules Atoms Electrons Whitehead did not begin teaching and writing on process and metaphysics until he joined Harvard at 63 years of age.

The process metaphysics elaborated in Process and Reality proposes that the fundamental elements of the universe are occasions of experience. According to this notion, what people commonly think of as concrete objects are actually successions of occasions of experience. For other uses of Object see Object. In Philosophy, an object is a thing an Entity, or a Being. Occasions of experience can be collected into groupings; something complex such as a human being is thus a grouping of many smaller occasions of experience. According to Whitehead, everything in the universe is characterized by experience (which is not to be confused with consciousness); there is no mind-body duality under this system, because "mind" is simply seen as a very developed kind of experiencing. Consciousness has been defined loosely as a constellation of attributes of Mind such as Subjectivity, Self-awareness, Sentience, and the However, Whitehead is not an idealist in the strict sense. In Western civilization, Idealism is the philosophy which maintains that the Ultimate nature of reality is ideal or based upon ideas values essences The so-called Whitehead's ideas were a significant development of the idea of panpsychism (also known as panexperientialism, because of Whitehead’s emphasis on experience). Panpsychism, in Philosophy, is either the view that all parts of matter involve mind or the more holistic view that the whole universe is an organism that possesses

Whitehead's philosophy resembles in some respects the monads of Leibniz. However, unlike Leibniz's monads, Whitehead's occasions of experience are interrelated with every other occasion of experience that precedes it in time. Inherent to Whitehead's conception is the notion of time; all experiences are influenced by prior experiences, and will influence all future experiences. This process of influencing is never deterministic; an occasion of experience consists of a process of prehending other experiences, and then a reaction to it. This is the process in process philosophy. Because no process is ever deterministic, free will is essential and inherent to the universe. The question of free will

Process philosophy, for some, gives God a special place in the universe of occasions of experience. God is the principal or sole Deity in Religions and other belief systems that worship one deity. God encompasses all the other occasions of experience but also transcends them; thus Whitehead embraces panentheism. Panentheism (from Greek (pân "all" (en "in" and (Theós "God" "all-in-God" is a belief system Since, it is argued, free will is inherent to the nature of the universe, God is not omnipotent in Whitehead's metaphysics. God's role is to offer enhanced occasions of experience. God participates in the evolution of the universe by offering possibilities, which may be accepted or rejected. Whitehead's thinking here has given rise to process theology, whose prominent advocates include Charles Hartshorne, John B. Cobb, Jr., and Hans Jonas, who was also influenced by the non-theological philosopher Martin Heidegger. Process theology is a school of thought influenced by the metaphysical Process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947 Charles Hartshorne ( June 5, 1897 &ndash October 9, 2000) was a prominent American philosopher who concentrated primarily on the Philosophy John B Cobb Jr (born February 9, 1925) is an American United Methodist theologian who played a crucial role in the development Hans Jonas ( May 10 1903 - February 5 1993) was a German -born philosopher who was from 1955 to 1976 Alvin Johnson Professor of Philosophy Martin Heidegger ( September 26, 1889 &ndash May 26, 1976) (ˈmaɐ̯tiːn ˈhaɪ̯dɛgɐ was an influential German philosopher However, other process philosophers have questioned Whitehead's theology, seeing it as a regressive Platonism. Platonism is the Philosophy of Plato or the name of other philosophical systems considered closely derived from it

Whitehead enumerated three essential natures of God. The primordial nature of God consists of all potentialities of existence for actual occasions, which Whitehead dubbed eternal objects. God can offer possibilities by ordering the relevance of eternal objects. The consequent nature of God prehends everything that happens in reality. As such, God experiences all of reality in a sentient manner. The last nature is the superjective. This is the way in which God’s synthesis becomes a sense-datum for other actual entities. In some sense, God is prehended by existing actual entities.

Whitehead's influences were not restricted to philosophers or physicists or mathematicians. He was influenced by the French philosopher Henri-Louis Bergson (1859-1941), who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1927. The Nobel Prize in Literature (Nobelpriset i litteratur is awarded annually since 1901 to an author from any country who has in the words from the will of Alfred Process philosophy is also believed to have influenced some 20th century modernists, such as D. H. Lawrence, William Faulkner and Charles Olson. Modernism describes an array of Cultural movements rooted in the changes in Western society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century David Herbert Richards Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930 was an English writer of the 20th century whose prolific and diverse output included Novels short William Faulkner (born William Cuthbert Falkner) ( September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American Author Charles Olson ( 27 December 1910 &ndash 10 January 1970) was an important 2nd generation American modernist poet

Process philosophy since Whitehead

Several fields of science and especially medicine seem to make liberal use of ideas in process philosophy, notably the theory of pain and healing of the late 20th century. Medicine is the art and science of healing It encompasses a range of Health care practices evolved to maintain and restore Human Health by the Pain, in the sense of physical pain, is a typical sensory experience that may be described as the unpleasant awareness of a noxious stimulus or bodily harm Healing, assessed physically is the process by which the cells in the Body regenerate and repair to reduce the size of a damaged or necrotic area The philosophy of medicine began to deviate somewhat from scientific method and an emphasis on repeatable results very late 20th century by embracing population thinking, and a more pragmatic approach to issues in public health, environmental health and especially mental health. Scientific method refers to bodies of Techniques for investigating phenomena Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease prolonging life and promoting health through the organised efforts and informed choices of society organisations Environmental health is the branch of Public health that is concerned with all aspects of the natural and Built environment that may affect human Health Mental health is a term used to describe either a level of cognitive or Emotional wellbeing or an absence of a Mental disorder. In this latter field, R. D. Laing, Thomas Szasz and Michel Foucault were instrumental in moving medicine away from emphasis on "cures" and towards concepts of individuals in balance with their society, both of which are changing, and against which no benchmarks or finished "cures" were very likely to be measurable. Ronald David Laing ( 7 October 1927 – 23 August 1989 was a Scottish Psychiatrist who wrote extensively on Mental illness Thomas Stephen Szasz (pronounced /sas/ born April 15, 1920 in Budapest, Hungary) is a Psychiatrist and Academic. Michel Foucault ( (15 October 1926 – 25 June 1984 was a French philosopher, Historian, Intellectual, Critic and Sociologist.

In psychology the subject of imagination was again explored more extensively since Whitehead, and the question of feasibility or "eternal objects" of thought became central to the impaired theory of mind explorations that framed postmodern cognitive science. Psychology (from Greek grc ψῡχή psȳkhē, "breath life soul" and grc -λογία -logia) is an Academic and Cognitive science may be broadly defined as the multidisciplinary study of mind and behavior A biological understanding of the most eternal object, that being the emerging of similar but independent cognitive apparatus, led to an obsession with the process "embodiment", that being, the emergence of these cognitions. Cognition is a concept used in different ways by different disciplines but is generally accepted to mean the process of awareness or thought Like Whitehead's God, especially as elaborated in J. J. Gibson's perceptual psychology emphasizing affordances, by ordering the relevance of eternal objects (especially the cognitions of other such actors), the world becomes. James Jerome Gibson ( January 27 1904 – December 11 1979) was an American Psychologist who received his Ph Perceptual psychology is a subfield of Cognitive psychology that is concerned specifically with the pre-conscious innate aspects of the human cognitive system Perception An affordance is a quality of an object or an environment that allows an individual to perform an action Or, it becomes simple enough for human beings to begin to make choices, and to prehend what happens as a result. These experiences may be summed in some sense but can only approximately be shared, even among very similar cognitions with identical DNA. An early explorer of this view was Alan Turing who sought to prove the limits of expressive complexity of human genes in the late 1940s, to put bounds on the complexity of human intelligence and so assess the feasibility of artificial intelligence emerging. Alan Mathison Turing, OBE, FRS (ˈt(jʊ(ərɪŋ (23 June 1912 &ndash 7 June 1954 was an English Mathematician Intelligence (also called intellect) is an Umbrella term used to describe a property of the Mind that encompasses many related abilities such as the capacities

In the philosophy of mathematics, some of Whitehead's ideas re-emerged in combination with cognitivism as the cognitive science of mathematics and embodied mind theses. The philosophy of mathematics is the branch of Philosophy that studies the philosophical assumptions foundations and implications of Mathematics. The cognitive science of mathematics is the study of mathematical ideas (concepts using the techniques of Cognitive science. Embodiment Philosophers cognitive scientists and artificial intelligence researchers who study embodied cognition and the embodied mind argue

Somewhat earlier, exploration of mathematical practice and quasi-empiricism in mathematics from the 1950s to 1980s had sought alternatives to metamathematics in social behaviours around mathematics itself: for instance, Paul Erdos' simultaneous belief in Platonism and a single "big book" in which all proofs existed, combined with his personal obsessive need or decision to collaborate with the widest possible number of other mathematicians. Mathematical practice is used to distinguish the working practices of professional mathematicians ( e Quasi-empiricism in Mathematics is the attempt in the Philosophy of mathematics to direct philosophers' attention to Mathematical practice, in In general metamathematics or meta-mathematics is a scientific reflection and Knowledge about mathematics seen as an entity/ object in Human Mathematics is the body of Knowledge and Academic discipline that studies such concepts as Quantity, Structure, Space and Paul Erdős ( Hungarian: Erdős Pál, in English occasionally Paul Erdos or Paul Erdös, March 26, 1913 &ndash Platonism is the Philosophy of Plato or the name of other philosophical systems considered closely derived from it The process, rather than the outcomes, seemed to drive his explicit behaviour and odd use of language, e. g. he called God the "Supreme Fascist", echoing the role Whitehead assigned, as if the synthesis of Erdos and collaborators in seeking proofs, creating sense-datum for other mathematicians, was itself the expression of a divine will. Certainly, Erdos behaved as if nothing else in the world mattered, including money or love, as emphasized in his biography The Man Who Loved Only Numbers. The Man Who Loved Only Numbers {ISBN 1-85702-829-5} is a biography of the famous mathematician Paul Erdős written by Paul Hoffman.

See also

References

  1. ^ Anne Fagot-Largeau, 7 December 2006 course at the College of France, first part of a serie of courses on the "Ontology of Becoming"

External links

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP is a freely-accessible Online encyclopedia of Philosophy maintained by Stanford University.
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