Process and Reality
Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology is a foundational 1929 work by British philosopher and mathematician Alfred North Whitehead, based on his Gifford Lectures delivered at the University of Edinburgh in 1927–1928, in which he develops a comprehensive metaphysical system known as the philosophy of organism or process philosophy.[1] This system posits that the fundamental units of reality are not static substances but dynamic, event-like entities termed actual occasions or actual entities, which arise through a process of "concrescence" involving the prehension—feeling or grasping—of data from the past, eternal objects (pure potentials akin to Platonic forms), and possibilities.[2][3] Whitehead's ontology emphasizes creativity as the ultimate principle driving the universe's continual becoming, integrating aspects of physics, biology, and theology into a coherent cosmology where all entities, including God, participate in relational processes.[2] God, in this framework, is reconceived as a dipolar actual entity with a primordial nature (ordering eternal objects for potential realization) and a consequent nature (responsive to the world's events, embodying persuasive love rather than coercive power).[3] The book critiques the "bifurcation of nature" in modern philosophy—separating primary qualities (like matter) from secondary (like experience)—arguing instead for a monistic view where mentality and physicality are intertwined poles of every actual occasion.[2] Published originally by Cambridge University Press in the United Kingdom and The Macmillan Company in the United States, Process and Reality has influenced diverse fields, including process theology, ecology, and systems theory, though its dense, abstract style—replete with neologisms like "nexus" (societies of occasions) and "creativity"—has made it challenging for readers.[1] A corrected edition, edited by David Ray Griffin and Donald W. Sherburne, appeared in 1978 from The Free Press, incorporating over 700 emendations to clarify Whitehead's intricate arguments.[2] The work builds on Whitehead's earlier ideas from Science and the Modern World (1925) and represents his magnum opus, seeking to reconcile scientific empiricism with speculative metaphysics in response to the limitations of Cartesian and Kantian traditions.[3]Introduction
Overview of the Book
Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology is the magnum opus of Alfred North Whitehead, a British mathematician and philosopher, published in 1929 based on his Gifford Lectures delivered at the University of Edinburgh in 1927–1928. The book presents a comprehensive metaphysical system aimed at constructing a cosmology that integrates scientific, philosophical, and theological insights into the nature of reality. Its central thesis posits that reality is fundamentally composed of processes of becoming rather than static substances or beings, emphasizing a dynamic universe characterized by perpetual change and relational events.[4] Whitehead's process philosophy, also termed the "philosophy of organism," represents a radical shift from traditional substance-based metaphysics—where enduring entities like atoms or souls are primary—to an event-based ontology where reality emerges from interdependent processes. In this framework, the universe is understood as a web of occurrences or "actual occasions" that creatively integrate past influences to produce novel configurations, embodying the principle of "creative advance into novelty." This approach seeks to overcome the bifurcations of modern thought, such as the separation of mind and matter, by viewing all entities as organically interconnected in a flux of becoming.[4] The book is structured in five parts: Part I, "The Speculative Scheme," lays the foundational concepts; Part II, "Discussions and Applications," explores implications across domains; Part III, "The Theory of Prehensions," details the mechanisms of relational experience; Part IV, "The Theory of Extension," addresses spatial and temporal structures; and Part V, "Final Interpretation," synthesizes the system with broader philosophical and religious considerations. A notable passage from Part I, Chapter II, encapsulates Whitehead's critique of Western philosophy: "The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato."[1]Philosophical Context
Process and Reality emerged as a direct response to the intellectual upheavals of the early 20th century, particularly the crises in physics triggered by Albert Einstein's theory of relativity and the advent of quantum mechanics, which challenged traditional mechanistic views of the universe with their emphasis on relational spacetime and probabilistic events.[5] Alfred North Whitehead aimed to forge a metaphysical framework capable of integrating these scientific revolutions, rejecting the "bifurcation of nature" between primary qualities (measurable) and secondary qualities (experiential) inherited from classical science.[4] In the philosophical domain, the work counters the prevailing materialism and empiricism—epitomized by figures like Isaac Newton and David Hume—that prioritized isolated substances and sensory data while neglecting the organic interconnections inherent in experience.[5] Whitehead's approach thus promotes a "radical empiricism" that includes not only sense-data but also the prehensive grasp of relations, addressing empiricism's limitations in explaining holistic reality.[5] Central to this context is Whitehead's stark contrast with substance ontology, as articulated by René Descartes in his dualism of res extensa (extended substance, or matter) and res cogitans (thinking substance, or mind), which posits independent, enduring entities as the building blocks of reality.[5] Instead, Process and Reality advocates a relational, organic realism where reality consists of interdependent processes rather than static substances, allowing for the dynamism observed in modern physics and avoiding the isolationism of Cartesian metaphysics.[4] This shift underscores Whitehead's vision of an "organic philosophy" that views the universe as a web of creative advance, in opposition to the atomistic and mechanistic paradigms that dominated post-Cartesian thought.[6] Whitehead draws significant influences from ancient philosophy, adapting Plato's theory of Forms—recast as "eternal objects"—to serve as potential patterns for realization in the temporal world, thereby bridging ideal forms with empirical science in a way that accommodates evolutionary and relativistic insights.[7] From Aristotle, he reinterprets the categories of potentiality and actuality, transforming Aristotle's hylomorphic substances into dynamic processes where potentiality (as energy or form) actualizes through relational becoming, aligning classical organicism with contemporary scientific understandings of change, such as in chemical transformations and quantum indeterminacy.[6][8] These adaptations enable Whitehead to construct a cosmology that fuses Platonic and Aristotelian insights with the exigencies of modern science, emphasizing creativity and interconnectedness over fixed essences.[8] As the culmination of Whitehead's maturing philosophical project, Process and Reality synthesizes and expands upon ideas from his earlier work Science and the Modern World (1925), where he first critiqued the abstractions of modern science and proposed a processual alternative to romanticize the universe's interconnected creativity.[5] Delivered as the Gifford Lectures at the University of Edinburgh in 1927–1928, the book represents Whitehead's ambitious attempt to unify speculative philosophy with empirical rigor.[4]Background
Whitehead's Intellectual Development
Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) began his academic career as a mathematician at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he lectured for over three decades on subjects including algebra and geometry. His early work focused on the foundations of mathematics and physics, reflecting the influence of Newtonian mechanics, which he initially sought to extend through algebraic innovations. A landmark achievement came in his collaboration with Bertrand Russell on Principia Mathematica (1910–1913), a three-volume treatise that aimed to derive all of mathematics from a small set of logical axioms, addressing paradoxes in set theory and establishing logicism as a foundational approach.[9][10] By the 1910s, amid personal and intellectual transitions—including his move from Cambridge to University College London in 1910—Whitehead began shifting toward philosophy, particularly the philosophy of science and natural knowledge. This evolution was evident in key publications such as An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Natural Knowledge (1919), where he proposed an event-based ontology that prioritized processes and relations over static substances, critiquing the bifurcated subject-object model inherited from Newtonian physics. His ideas drew from Henri Bergson's emphasis on duration and creative evolution, which resonated with Whitehead's growing interest in temporality and becoming, as well as from American pragmatism's focus on experience and practical consequences, encountered through figures like William James and John Dewey.[9][11][12][13] In 1924, at age 63 and facing mandatory retirement from Imperial College London, Whitehead relocated from England to the United States, accepting an invitation to Harvard University as a professor of philosophy. This transatlantic move not only distanced him from European academic traditions but also immersed him in the vibrant intellectual environment of American philosophy, further deepening his engagement with pragmatism. During this late-career phase at Harvard, Whitehead undertook a comprehensive synthesis of scientific rigor and theological insight, viewing metaphysics as a bridge between empirical observation and ultimate concerns of value and purpose; Process and Reality (1929) emerged as the capstone of this endeavor.[9][14][9] The Gifford Lectures of 1927–1928 provided the immediate occasion for its composition.[9]The Gifford Lectures
The Gifford Lectures were established in 1887 by the will of Adam Lord Gifford, a senator of the College of Justice in Scotland, to promote the study of natural theology as a means of understanding the existence and attributes of God through reason and observation of the universe, without reliance on revelation.[15] Gifford's bequest funded annual series of public lectures at the four ancient Scottish universities—Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and St Andrews—intended to be accessible to all and delivered over two academic years, typically comprising ten lectures in total.[15] Alfred North Whitehead delivered the Gifford Lectures at the University of Edinburgh during the 1927–1928 academic session, presenting ten lectures under the title "Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology."[16] These public events drew an initial audience of several hundred, including academics and philosophers, though attendance reportedly declined sharply after the first lecture due to the lectures' abstract and technical nature.[17] Whitehead's position as Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University, which he had assumed in 1924, facilitated the invitation and his travel to Scotland for the delivery.[18] In preparation, Whitehead expanded upon metaphysical ideas he had developed in earlier works, such as Science and the Modern World (1925), and tested drafts of the lectures in his Harvard seminars during 1926 and 1927, refining concepts like the philosophy of organism through student discussions.[19] Following the delivery, which concluded in June 1928, Whitehead revised and substantially expanded the material, incorporating additional philosophical analysis to form a cohesive cosmological framework.[16] The resulting text was published in 1929 as Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology by Macmillan, marking the lectures' transformation into his seminal metaphysical treatise.[16]Publication History
Original 1929 Edition
Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology was first published in November 1929 by The Macmillan Company in New York and simultaneously by Cambridge University Press in Cambridge, England.[1] The original edition appeared in hardcover format, spanning xii preliminary pages and 547 pages of main text, for a total of approximately 560 pages.[1] This debut publication drew directly from the ten Gifford Lectures that Alfred North Whitehead had delivered at the University of Edinburgh during the 1927–28 academic session, supplemented by expansions to form a cohesive metaphysical treatise.[1][20] Released mere weeks after the Wall Street Crash of October 1929, the book entered circulation amid the initial economic turmoil of the Great Depression. The volume opens with a preface, dated September 1929 from Harvard University, in which Whitehead introduces his "philosophy of organism" as a speculative framework rooted in pre-Kantian traditions, structured across five parts to integrate scientific, aesthetic, ethical, and religious dimensions of experience.[21]Corrected Editions and Changes
The 1978 corrected edition of Process and Reality was edited by David Ray Griffin and Donald W. Sherburne and published by the Free Press in New York (ISBN 0-02-934570-7).[22] This edition systematically addressed textual inaccuracies in the original 1929 Macmillan publication by incorporating corrections from the contemporaneous Cambridge University Press version and making additional emendations based on scholarly review.[21] Key changes encompassed over 700 corrections, including approximately 350 adjustments to resolve discrepancies between the two early editions and another 350 to fix typographical errors, misprints, and inconsistencies unique to the Macmillan text. Specific revisions clarified terminology for precision, such as standardizing "categorical" to "categoreal" (following suggestions from Victor Lowe) and altering phrases like "real internal constitution" to "real essential constitution" and "already constituted" to "already actual."[21] The editors also added new footnotes to provide explanatory references, such as citations to Norman Kemp Smith's Commentary on Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding, enhancing conceptual links without altering Whitehead's original arguments.[21] Structural reorganizations improved flow, including adoption of the Cambridge edition's detailed table of contents, insertion of original Macmillan pagination in brackets for cross-referencing, and minor adjustments to paragraph order and section divisions, such as repositioning discussions of measurement to Section IV.[21] These modifications significantly enhanced the text's readability and scholarly reliability, transforming a notoriously error-prone work into a more accessible resource for studying Whitehead's process philosophy. The edition features a new preface by Griffin and Sherburne detailing the editorial principles, which emphasized fidelity to Whitehead's intent while prioritizing accuracy and clarity in response to decades of reader feedback.[21] Subsequent reprints maintained these corrections, including a 1985 paperback edition from the Free Press.[23] Digital versions of the corrected text emerged in the early 2000s, facilitating broader access through online archives and academic repositories.[24]Core Metaphysical Concepts
Actual Entities
In Alfred North Whitehead's metaphysics, actual entities serve as the fundamental building blocks of reality, described as the atomic units from which the world is constituted. They are defined as "the final real things of which the world is made up," with no underlying substance more real than these indivisible drops of experience.[21] Each actual entity is an "occasion of experience," a process of becoming that integrates diverse elements into a unified whole, emphasizing the dynamic, relational nature of existence over static substances.[21] These entities are primarily temporal, manifesting as fleeting events that arise and perish, though God represents a singular actual entity with a dipolar nature, featuring a primordial (nontemporal) aspect that is everlasting, prehending the entire universe without temporal origination.[21] A core property of actual entities is their capacity to prehend, or "feel," the universe, whereby each entity appropriates aspects of the antecedent world as data for its own becoming, establishing the interconnectedness of all reality.[21] This process culminates in concrescence, the internal unification of prehended data into a novel, determinate satisfaction, after which the entity perishes as a subject but endures objectively as object for subsequent entities.[21] Prehensions thus constitute the mode through which actual entities interact, forming the basis of their experiential synthesis without implying passive reception alone.[25] Actual entities exhibit a dipolar structure, comprising a physical pole and a mental pole, which together enable both inheritance from the past and the introduction of novelty. The physical pole involves receptive prehension of objective data, such as causal influences from prior entities, while the mental pole facilitates conceptual valuation and subjective aim, driving creative advance.[21] This dipolarity underscores Whitehead's panexperientialism, where even the simplest entities possess rudimentary mentality, though varying in degree.[25] Whitehead delineates four grades of actual entities based on their complexity and experiential capacity: barren physical occasions, which exhibit minimal, unoriginative responses with negligible immediacy; simple physical feelings, involving basic integrations of past data like those in electrons; living occasions, characterized by novelty and endurance in organisms such as animal bodies; and high-grade mentality, seen in conscious syntheses like human intellect, integrating physical and conceptual elements for unified knowledge.[21] These levels form a continuum, reflecting the creative evolution of the universe through increasingly complex occasions.[21]Prehensions and Concrescence
In Alfred North Whitehead's metaphysics, prehensions represent the fundamental mode by which actual entities grasp and incorporate aspects of the universe into their own becoming, serving as the relational vectors that connect all occasions of experience. A prehension is defined as the process of an actual entity "feeling" or apprehending data from other entities, ensuring that no occasion arises in isolation but is inherently intertwined with the broader cosmic process.[25][26] Prehensions are classified as positive or negative: positive prehensions actively include and integrate the prehended data into the entity's subjective experience, while negative prehensions exclude or render irrelevant certain data, thereby shaping the entity's focus without direct incorporation.[25] Whitehead further delineates prehensions into simple types based on their object and mode: physical prehensions involve the direct apprehension of past actual entities' objective data, such as their completed feelings or physical attributes; conceptual prehensions grasp eternal objects, which are pure potentials or possibilities not tied to specific occasions; and intellectual prehensions, a higher-order form, integrate conceptual valuations into physical feelings, allowing for reflective synthesis.[25][26] These types underscore the dipolar nature of actual entities, which possess both a physical pole (responsive to the past) and a mental pole (oriented toward possibilities), enabling a dynamic interplay between inheritance and novelty.[25] Concrescence, the culminating phase of an actual entity's process of becoming, refers to the unification of its diverse prehensions into a coherent, determinate "satisfaction"—the entity's final, concrete state that then becomes data for future prehensions. This process unfolds through distinct phases: it begins with initial data from prehended objects, proceeds to the subjective form in which the entity feels that data with its own emotional tone or perspective, incorporates a subjective aim that coordinates the prehensions toward a unified goal (often influenced by divine provision), and integrates the mental pole to refine conceptual elements into the whole.[25][26] Through concrescence, the multiplicity of prehensions is synthesized into atomic unity, marking the entity's completion as a superject available for prehension by subsequent occasions.[25] This mechanism of prehensions and concrescence ensures the non-isolation of actual entities, as every prehension transmits feelings, valuations, and influences across the universe, fostering a relational web where the becoming of one entity reverberates in the data for others.[26] For instance, a positive physical prehension might carry forward the intensity of a past event's satisfaction, while a negative prehension subtly excludes distractions, allowing the universe's creative advance to proceed without redundancy.[25]Eternal Objects
In Alfred North Whitehead's Process and Reality, eternal objects are defined as pure potentials for definite character, existing as timeless possibilities that are neither actual nor subjective. These abstract entities encompass qualities such as specific colors (e.g., a particular shade of green), shapes (e.g., triangularity), and numbers, as well as more complex combinations like a "green life form" or "vegetable." They constitute the realm of potentiality, providing the raw materials of definiteness without themselves undergoing change or process.[5][27] Eternal objects play a crucial role in the metaphysical scheme by supplying form and quality to the processes of actualization, ingressing into actual entities through conceptual prehensions to shape their subjective experiences. In this way, they enable the realization of novelty and relational structure within the flux of becoming, transforming indeterminate potential into definite character during the concrescence of events. Whitehead describes them specifically as "definite, non-temporal matter of fact," abstract from time yet indispensable for the patterned coherence of reality.[5][27] Whitehead's conception of eternal objects modernizes Plato's theory of Forms, portraying them as relational potentials rather than static, independent ideals; their relevance emerges only through ingress into actual occasions, depending ontologically on these concrete processes for instantiation in the world. This integration avoids the separation of form from flux in classical Platonism, embedding eternal objects within a dynamic cosmology.[5][27]The Speculative Scheme
Categoreal Scheme
The categoreal scheme forms the foundational structure of Alfred North Whitehead's metaphysics in Process and Reality, systematically organizing the principles that govern the processual nature of reality. Presented in Part I of the work, it comprises the Category of the Ultimate, eight Categories of Existence, twenty-seven Categories of Explanation, and nine Categoreal Obligations, all derived from an analysis of experience to ensure the scheme's adequacy, coherence, and applicability to empirical observation.[21] This framework replaces static substance-based ontologies with a dynamic philosophy of organism, where reality emerges through relational processes rather than fixed entities.[21] The Category of the Ultimate, identified as creativity, serves as the singular metaphysical principle underlying all becoming, abstracting from particular actual entities and eternal objects to emphasize the ongoing production of novel unities from diversity.[21] Creativity drives the "creative advance" of the universe, wherein the many are unified into one, perpetually increasing the sum of actuality without loss.[21] The eight Categories of Existence delineate the basic ontological types within Whitehead's system, providing the "final real things" and their relational modes that constitute the fabric of process. These include:| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| Actual Entities | The primary units of reality, each a process of becoming that prehends the universe and achieves subjective satisfaction.[21] |
| Prehensions | The concrete modes of relatedness whereby actual entities feel or grasp other entities, forming the basis of experience.[21] |
| Nexus | Ordered sets of actual entities interconnected through prehensions, enabling public facts and structured societies.[21] |
| Subjective Forms | The qualitative characters or emotional valences that qualify prehensions, rendering private feelings determinate.[21] |
| Eternal Objects | Pure potentials of definiteness, such as qualities or forms, that ingress into actual entities to provide specificity without temporal change.[21] |
| Propositions | Lures for feeling that bind eternal objects to actual entities, functioning as tentative hypotheses in the process of concrescence.[21] |
| Multiplicities | Disjunctive collections of diverse entities, serving as the raw material for synthesis in prehension.[21] |
| Contrasts | Modes of synthesis that highlight differences and unities among entities, essential for the relational depth of reality.[21] |