University of Edinburgh
Spring 2009
Honours Option
Whitehead’s Metaphysics
Leemon McHenry
Course Description
Alfred North Whitehead’s metaphysics is the most advanced and sophisticated version of process philosophy, an ontology that takes events rather than enduring substances as the basic units of reality. The mature expression of this theory was delivered as the Gifford Lectures at the University of Edinburgh in 1928 and published as Process and Reality. This course examines the emergence of Whitehead’s event ontology from his early concerns with Einstein’s theory of relativity to the comprehensive system of Process and Reality. This theory will be critically evaluated from the point of view of traditional substance theorists such as Aristotle and Peter Strawson. Whitehead’s event theory will also be compared with that of Bertrand Russell, W. V. Quine and Donald Davidson.
Topics
Week 1: Overview of Whitehead’s Philosophy
Week 2: Philosophy of Physics: Events
Week 3: Philosophy of Physics: Extension
Week 4: Philosophy of Physics: Objects
Week 5: Metaphysics of Process: Actual Occasions
Week 6: Metaphysics of Process: Relations
Week 7: Metaphysics of Process: Eternal Objects
Week 8: Metaphysics of Process: Extension
Week 9: Natural Theology
Week 10: Critical Evaluation
Week 11: Critical Evaluation
Outline
Week 1: Overview of Whitehead’s Philosophy
Reading:
Leemon McHenry, "Alfred North Whitehead," British Philosophers, 1800-2000
William James, “The Stream of Thought” and “The Perception of Time,” in The
Principles of Psychology
Further Reading:
Timothy Sprigge, "The Distinctiveness of American Philosophy"
Leemon McHenry, Whitehead and Bradley, Ch. 1.
Week 2: Philosophy of Physics: Events
Reading:
A. N. Whitehead, Concept of Nature, Chs 1-3
Further Reading:
Leemon McHenry, "Pan-Physics: Whitehead's Philosophy of Natural Science," of
Victor Lowe's Alfred North Whitehead: The Man and His Work, Volume II: 1910-1947, Ch. VI.
Leemon McHenry, “Maxwell’s Field and Whitehead’s Events: The Adventure of
a Revolutionary Idea,”
Bertrand Russell, The Analysis of Matter, Ch. XXVII.
Week 3: Philosophy of Physics: Extension
Reading:
A. N. Whitehead, Concept of Nature, Chs. 4-5
Further Reading:
Bertrand Russell, Our Knowledge of the External World, Ch. IV.
Bertrand Russell, The Analysis of Matter, Chs. XXVIII-XXIX.
Week 4: Philosophy of Physics: Objects
Reading:
A. N. Whitehead, Concept of Nature, Ch. VII.
Further Reading:
Leemon McHenry, "Pan-Physics: Whitehead's Philosophy of Natural Science," of
Victor Lowe's Alfred North Whitehead: The Man and His Work, Volume II: 1910-1947, Ch. VI
Week 5: Metaphysics of Process: Actual Occasions
Reading:
Donald Sherburne, A Key to Whitehead’s Process and Reality, Appendix and Ch.1.
Further Reading:
Leemon McHenry, Whitehead's Panpsychism as the Subjectivity of Prehension,"
Week 6: Metaphysics of Process: Relations
Reading:
Donald Sherburne, A Key to Whitehead’s Process and Reality, Ch. 3.
Further Reading:
Leemon McHenry, "Bradley, James and Whitehead on Relations”
Charles Johnson, "On Prehending the Past"
Week 7: Metaphysics of Process: Eternal Objects
Reading:
Donald Sherburne, A Key to Whitehead’s Process and Reality, Ch. 2.
Further Reading:
Leemon McHenry, Whitehead and Bradley, Ch. 4. 4.
Lewis Ford, The Emergence of Whitehead’s Metaphysics, Ch. 4.
Week 8: Metaphysics of Process: Extension
Reading:
Donald Sherburne, A Key to Whitehead’s Process and Reality, Ch. 4.
Further Reading:
Leemon McHenry, "Extension and the Theory of the Physical Universe”
Leemon McHenry, Whitehead and Bradley, Chs. 5-6.
Leemon McHenry, “Cosmic Epochs and Cosmic Bubbles: Whitehead and Contemporary Cosmology” (Powerpoint Presentation)
Week 9: Natural Theology
Reading:
Donald Sherburne, A Key to Whitehead’s Process and Reality, Ch. 7.
Further Reading:
Charles Hartshorne, The Logic of Perfection, Chs 9-10.
Leemon McHenry, Whitehead and Bradley, Ch. 7.
Week 10: Critical Evaluation
Reading:
Aristotle, The Categories and The Metaphysics Z.
Peter Strawson, Individuals, Ch. 1.
Further Reading:
Leemon McHenry, “Descriptive and Revisionary Theories of Events”
Susan Haack, "Descriptive and Revisionary Metaphysics”
Week 11: Critical Evaluation
Reading:
W. V. Quine, "Whither Physical Objects?"
Donald Davidson, Essays on Actions and Events, Chs. 8-9.
Further Reading:
Leemon McHenry, "Quine and Whitehead: Ontology and Methodology”
W. V. Quine, “Response to Leemon McHenry”
Essay Topics
Content from various parts of the course are relevant to each of these essay questions. The suggested readings constitute only a focal point for your thinking on these issues.
What is the difference between a naturalized and pure metaphysics?
What is an event ontology? How does it differ from a substance ontology?
Why does Whitehead think that events are the basic particulars?
How is Whitehead’s event theory modified in Process and Reality?
Explain the two approaches—descriptive and revisionary metaphysics.
Can Whitehead’s event ontology be defended against the objections of the descriptive metaphysicians?
What are the affinities and contrasts between Whitehead’s event ontology and the theories of Quine and Davidson?
Key Texts
Aristotle. The Categories and The Metaphysics in Richard McKeon (ed), The Basic
Works of Aristotle. (New York: Random House, 1941).
Davidson, Donald. Essays on Actions and Events. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980).
McHenry, Leemon. Whitehead and Bradley: A Comparative Analysis (Albany: State
University of New York Press, 1992)
Quine, W. V. "Whither Physical Objects?" Boston Studies in the Philosophy of
Science. R. S. Cohen et al. (eds.) (Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1976), pp. 497-504.
Sherburne, Donald. (ed) A Key to Whitehead’s Process and Reality (Chicago: Chicago
University Press, 1981)
Strawson, Peter. Individuals: An Essay on Descriptive Metaphysics (London:
Methuen, 1959)
Whitehead, Alfred North. Concept of Nature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1920)
Additional General Bibliography
Journals. The main academic journal of process philosophy is Process Studies. Others that have that have published process philosophy include: The Review of Metaphysics and The Journal of Speculative Philosophy.
Basile, Pierfrancesco. “Mind-Body Problem and Panpsychism,” Handbook of
Whiteheadian Process Thought, Volume I, Michel Weber and William Desmond
(eds) (Frankfurt: Ontos Verlag, 2008), pp. 383-394.
_________________. “Whitehead’s Ontology and Davidson’s Anomalous Monism,” Process Studies, 34.1, 2005, pp. 3-9.
Cahill, Reginald. Process Physics: From Information Theory to Quantum Space and
Matter (Hauppauge: Nova Science Publishers, 2006).
Capek, Milic. "Particles or Events?" Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 82,
1984, pp. 1-28; reprinted in The New Aspects of Time: Its Continuity and Novelties (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1991)
Christian, William. An Interpretation of Whitehead's Metaphysics (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1959)
Davidson, Donald. (1985), "Reply to Quine on Events." in LePore, E., and McLaughlin,
B. (eds.), Actions and Events: Perspectives on the Philosophy of Donald Davidson. (Oxford: Blackwell), 172-176.
Emmet, Dorothy. The Effectiveness of Causes (London: Macmillan, 1985)
_____________. Whitehead," Cambridge Philosophers Series, Philosophy, 71, 1996, pp.
101-115.
_____________.""Whitehead, Alfred North," The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Volume
8 (New York: Collier Macmillan, 1967), pp. 290-296.
______________. Whitehead's Philosophy of Organism (London: Macmillan, 1932)
Ford, Lewis. The Emergence of Whitehead's Metaphysics (Albany: State University of
New York Press, 1984).
___________. and Kline, George. (eds) Explorations in Whitehead's Philosophy (Bronx:
Fordham University Press, 1983).
___________. (ed) Two Process Philosophers (Tallahasse: American Academy of
Religion, 1973)
Haack, Susan. "Descriptive and Revisionary Metaphysics." Philosophical Studies
35, 1979, pp. 361-371.
Hartshorne, Charles. Creative Synthesis and Philosophic Method, La Salle: Open Court,
1970)
___________________. The Logic of Perfection (La Salle: Open Court, 1962)
___________________. A Natural Theology for Our Time (La Salle: Open Court, 1967)
James, William. “The Stream of Thought” and "The Perception of Time," Principles of
Psychology, (New York: Macmillan, 1891), Chs. IX and XV; reprinted in Wilshire, Bruce, (ed.) William James: The Essential Writings (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1984), pp. 44-82, 119-127.
Johnson, Charles. "On Prehending the Past," Process Studies, 6/4, 1976, pp. 253-269.
Kline, George. (ed) Alfred North Whitehead: Essays on His Philosophy, (Englewood
Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1963).
Kuklick, Bruce. The Rise of American Philosophy (New Haven: Yale University Press,
1977)
Lango, John. Whitehead's Ontology, (Albany: State University of New York Press,
1972).
Leclerc, Ivor. Whitehead's Metaphysics, (London: Allen and Unwin,1975).
Lucas, George R. The Rehabilitation of Whitehead, (Albany: State University of New
York Press, 1990).
Lowe, Victor. "Introduction" to Ch. VI, "Alfred North Whitehead" in Fisch, Max, (ed.)
Classic American Philosophers (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1951), pp. 395-417.
___________. Alfred North Whitehead: The Man and His Work. Vols. I and II
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press 1985, 1990).
____________. Understanding Whitehead (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press,
1962.)
McHenry, Leemon. "Extension and the Theory of the Physical Universe,” Handbook of
Whiteheadian Process Thought, Volume I, Michel Weber and William Desmond
(eds) (Frankfurt: Ontos Verlag, 2008), pp. 291-302.
______________ .“Maxwell’s Field and Whitehead’s Events: The Adventure of a
Revolutionary Idea,” Subjectivity, Process and Rationality, edited by Michel Weber and Pierfrancesco Basile, (Frankfurt: Ontos Verlag, 2007), pp. 177-189.
_______________. "Alfred North Whitehead," British Philosophers, 1800-2000, Volume
262 in the series Dictionary of Literary Biography, edited by Philip B. Dematteis, Peter S. Fosl, and Leemon McHenry, (Detroit: Gale, 2002), pp. 304-319.
_______________ ."Quine and Whitehead: Ontology and Methodology," Process
Studies, The Forum, 26, 1997, pp. 2-12; reprinted in Process and Analysis:
Whitehead, Hartshorne and the Analytic Tradition, ed by George Shields, (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2003), pp. 157-169.
_______________ . "Descriptive and Revisionary Theories of Events," Process Studies,
Special issue on Process and Analytical Philosophy, 25, 1996, pp. 90-103.
________________. "Whitehead's Panpsychism as the Subjectivity of Prehension,"
Process Studies, Special Issue on Prehension, 24, 1995, pp. 1-14.
_______________ . "First Philosophical Publications," and "Pan-Physics: Whitehead's
Philosophy of Natural Science," of Victor Lowe's Alfred North Whitehead: The Man and His Work, Volume II: 1910-1947, edited by J. B. Schneewind (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990), pp. 89-130.
_______________. "Bradley, James and Whitehead on Relations," The Journal of
Speculative Philosophy III/3, 1989, pp. 149-169; reprinted in Whitehead and Bradley, Ch. 4.
_______________. “The Axiomatic Matrix of Whitehead's Process and Reality,"
Process Studies 15/3, 1986, pp. 172-180.
Palter, Robert. Whitehead's Philosophy of Science (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1960)
Plamondon, A. L. Whitehead's Organic Philosophy of Science (Albany: State University
of New York Press, 1979).
Quine, W. V. Word and Object (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1960).
___________. "Events and Reification," in LePore, E. and McLaughlin, B. (eds.)
Actions and Events: Perspectives on the Philosophy of Donald Davidson. (Oxford:
Blackwell, 1985), 162-171.
___________. "Response to Leemon McHenry" Process Studies, The Forum, 26, pp. 13-
14; reprinted in Process and Analysis: Whitehead, Hartshorne and the Analytic
Tradition, ed by George Shields, (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2003), pp. 171-173, and Quine in Dialogue, ed by Douglas Quine and Dagfinn Føllesdal, (Harvard University Press, 2008).
Rorty, Richard. "Matter and Event," in McMullin, Ernest, (ed) The Concept of Matter, 1963; reprinted in Ford and Kline, (eds.) Explorations in Whitehead's Philosophy, 1983.
______________. "The Subjectivist Principle and the Linguistic Turn," in Kline, George,
(ed) Alfred North Whitehead: Essays on His Philosophy, (Englewood Cliffs:
Prentice Hall, 1963).
Russell, Bertrand. Our Knowledge of the External World (New York: W. W. Norton, 1929)
______________. The Analysis of Matter (New York: Dover, 1954).
Schilpp, Paul. (ed) The Philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead, The Library of Living
Philosophers, (New York: Tudor, 1941).
Schmidt, Paul. Perception and Cosmology in Whitehead's Philosophy (New Brunswick:
Rutgers University Press, 1967).
Sprigge, Timothy. The God of Metaphysics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006)
________________. "The Distinctiveness of American Philosophy" in Caws, Peter, (ed)
Two Centuries of Philosophy in America (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1980), pp.
199-214.
________________.The Vindication of Absolute Idealism. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press, 1983).
Whitehead, Alfred North. The Aims of Education (London: Williams and Norgate, 1929)
_______________________. Adventures of Ideas (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1933).
_______________________. Concept of Nature (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1920).
_______________________. Essays in Science and Philosophy (New York:
Philosophical Library, 1947).
_______________________. The Function of Reason (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1929).
_______________________. Interpretation of Science, ed. by A. H. Johnson
(Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1961).
_______________________. Modes of Thought (New York: Macmillan, 1938).
_______________________. The Organisation of Thought (London: Williams and
Norgate, 1917).
_______________________. Principia Mathematica, with Bertrand Russell, Vols. 1-3
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1910-1913).
_______________________. An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Natural
Knowledge (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1919).
_______________________. Process and Reality (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1929), (Corrected Edition ed. by D.R. Griffin and D. W. Sherburne, New York: Free Press, 1978.)
_______________________. The Principle of Relativity (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1922).
_______________________. Religion in the Making (New York: Macmillan, 1926).
_______________________. Symbolism, Its Meaning and Effect (New York:
Macmillan, 1927).
_______________________. Science and the Modern World (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1926).
Weber, Michel and Desmond, William (eds), Handbook of Whiteheadian Process
Thought, Volumes I and II (Frankfurt: Ontos Verlag, 2008).