Who was Alfred North Whitehead? Of course I know the name. Betrand Russell was his most distinguished pupil at Trinity College in Cambridge UK.
From 1900 to 1911 they collaborated on the "Principia Mathematica", which attempted to proof that mathematics could be deducted from premises of formal logic.
In his obituary note on Whitehead, Russell wrote that although one or the other would take primary responsibility for writing some parts, every part was always discussed by both of them, the whole work being a compete collaboration.
W.V. Quine in his essay "Whitehead and the Rise of Modern Logic" called Principia Mathematica "one of the great intellectual monuments of all time".
This is Whitehead to me. Untill these days I never took notice of any other philosophical work by him.
And then I learn that during his lifetime he moved from fundamental mathematics to philosophy of science and from there to metaphysics to finally end in a kind of natural theology.
Whitehead was dissatisfied with the Newtonian scheme of the material world as composed of atoms each occupying a position in absolute space at an absolute time. That was too static.
It is my impression that there were two issues at stake for Whitehead. In the first place the question: how can there be a real relation between mathematics and matter.
Whitehead sought to define the concepts of a geometry from which, as a formal system, the theorems of Euclidean geometry can be derived and which can be interpreted by notions of space, time and matter.
A seconds issue in the days of Whitehead was the development of chemistery. Real atoms didnt behave like the newtonian static ones at all. Atomes meant movement. If you read what was going on in the field of chemistery in those days around 1820 to 1920. Really sensational new insights regarding matter.
So Whitehead developed a theory of what we really perceive: not the Humean sensations, but events. It almost is the Parmenides - Heraclitus controvery from the old Greek, where Parmanides hold that being is the core of reality, while Heraclitus believed that there only was a constant flux.
In a way Whitehead joined Heraclitus' theory. Later he would move on to a new notion. In stead of events extending over other events he then spoke of "societies" (also called nexus, which means knots) of actual occasions, which can be structured by subsocieties and which can inherit characteristics from eachother in serial order................are you still with me....????? (^_^)
For here I jump off the train. I may be a philosopher, but this is really too abstract for me. And this is just the beginning of Whtehead's elaborate theory. Here I miss the point.....what does all this intricate abstraction actually describe?
Let me quote one of my reliable sources: " Process and Reality is a very difficult book, partly because of its vocabulary and not least, when words of ordinary spreech, such as 'feelings' are used with special meaning." Then I think, thanks for warning me.
At the end we see similar thoughts as we saw by Darwin, who eventually decided to stay an agnostic, although impressed by the order and complexity of reality.
Whitehead held that religion was concerned with permenance and change.He connected the idea of permenance with the conception of a general ordering of the process of the world.This ordering of the world he called 'the primordial nature of God". And here we leave philosophy behind and enter the realm of theology, which is outside the skope of our project.
The Discussion
[13:20] Herman Vos: So far on Alfred North Whitehead
[13:20] Herman Vos: A man of highly abstract reasoning which is ok in mathematics, but his metaphysics is too much for me
[13:22] Herman Vos: he is not a fellow who will provoke much of a debate, I guess
[13:22] Laila Schuman: what made his book so important... what was it's contribution...the one he did with Russel
[13:22] arabella Ella: i found it strange that Harvard invited him to go there as a philosopher when he was 64 and previously a mathematician
[13:22] Herman Vos: Yes Arabella...
[13:23] Herman Vos: The Principia Mathematica was a three volume work...of utmost importance.
[13:23] Laila Schuman: why
[13:23] Herman Vos: I think it was the first time propositional logic was applied..
[13:24] Herman Vos: before we had only the aristotelian syllogisms
[13:24] Herman Vos: but it is all very technical
[13:25] arabella Ella: herman i read a bit about whitehead today and agree his ideas are very dense and difficult to understand ... but ...
[13:25] arabella Ella: i think that as a mathematician he saw maths as abstract thought and wanted to apply it to the rest of our philosophical thinking
[13:25] Mickorod Renard: i see he is described as being organicist?
[13:26] Herman Vos: yes..and what interested me is that he sees matter not as static
[13:26] Mickorod Renard: organicist?
[13:26] Herman Vos: more as energy....events...
[13:26] arabella Ella: maths is all about abstract relationships and he attempted to apply his insights on maths to human thinking, ontology and epistemology
[13:27] Herman Vos: yes arabella, but to me it stayed too abstract
[13:27] Cailleach Shan: I read that Whiteheat produced something called 'Process Philosophy' do you know what that is Herman
[13:27] arabella Ella: yes herman i agree and to me too ;)
[13:28] Samuel Okelly: was it through the "process philosophy" that he defended theirm? (if so, how?)
[13:28] Herman Vos: well Cailleach..to some extend..
[13:29] Herman Vos: he started with interpreting matter as events and objects...later he called it ocassions and later again societies....knots...
[13:29] Herman Vos: the general idea was that matter was movement in time
[13:29] Herman Vos: he had read Bergson for instance
[13:29] Herman Vos: so matter is a process not a substance
[13:30] Cailleach Shan: Ah... ok.
[13:30] Herman Vos: and this idea, it seems , comes close to ideas of present day quantum mechanics
[13:30] Mickorod Renard: i guess its the same matter today as yesterday but it has changed and moved on
[13:31] Herman Vos: yes Mickorod, just like I could refer to Parmenides/Heraclitus and their controversy
[13:31] Herman Vos: so maybe the general philosophicla, say ontological question here is
[13:31] Herman Vos: is matter a substance (static) with attributes
[13:32] Herman Vos: or is it energy / movement
[13:32] Osrum Sands: surly the second herman
[13:32] Samuel Okelly: do we know why he came to see matter as a process as opposed to a constant "state" being accessed from a "relative" point?
[13:33] Herman Vos: he had a mathematical argumentation for that Samuel...
[13:33] Herman Vos: but dont ask me to reproduce it...:-)
[13:33] arabella Ella: the strange thing herman is that he seems to slice up matter into little pieces which change and then say everything is interconnected altho he is certainly not a determinist
[13:33] Herman Vos: but it had something to do with the fact that a point is not a static thing
[13:34] Mickorod Renard: yea, cos everything is changing
[13:34] Herman Vos: Yes he does something like that Arabella....reality is a series of events
[13:35] Samuel Okelly: so it represents a theistic belief as a process suggests a purpose?
[13:36] Osrum Sands: good point Samuel
[13:36] Herman Vos: Well...at least he saw the order of the world as some nature of God...
[13:36] Herman Vos: but I didnt read any teleological ideas in his philosophy
[13:37] Cailleach Shan: Sorry folks. Have to leave. sl is getting slower and slower.... crashing out here!!!
[13:37] AristotleVon Doobie: bye cal
[13:37] Samuel Okelly: tc cai
[13:37] Herman Vos: Ok Cailleach...take care
[13:37] Alarice Beaumont: take care Cail!
[13:37] Cailleach Shan is Offline
[13:37] Mickorod Renard: see you cail
[13:37] arabella Ella: bye cail
[13:38] Nadiah Morigi is Offline
[13:38] Herman Vos: Well..maybe we maybe we have said what had to be said about Whitehead...
[13:39] Mickorod Renard: is there not more to him?
[13:39] Herman Vos: He was most known for his mathematical work and the Principia Mathematica
[13:39] AristotleVon Doobie: well I have decided to be done with Mr. Whitehead
[13:39] Herman Vos: His later metaphysical work wasnt of much influence actually
[13:39] Mickorod Renard: ok
[13:40] Alarice Beaumont: ah ok
[13:40] Alarice Beaumont: sounded real complicated
[13:40] Samuel Okelly: its a very interesting to view matter as a process..., something I've never considered
[13:40] AristotleVon Doobie: I think he merely convolutes things for self importance
[13:40] Osrum Sands: Yes Sam that is one point I liked about his work
[13:40] Herman Vos: I think it is looked at it like that in quantum mechanics...
[13:41] Osrum Sands: do you know if his work was any sorta pre work in the QM field, herman
[13:41] Herman Vos: I still have to look into that, but Itsme made some remarks about it some time ago
[13:41] arabella Ella: thank you herman i must go now bye everyone
[13:41] AristotleVon Doobie: bye ara
[13:41] Mickorod Renard: bye ara
[13:41] Herman Vos: bye Arabella
[13:42] Osrum Sands: by
[13:42] Samuel Okelly: tc ara
[13:42] Samuel Okelly: is anything really "static" in the observable universe?
[13:42] Mickorod Renard: i liked his thoughts but was gettin lost
[13:42] Herman Vos: thank you for your attention and participation, you all..:-)
[13:42] AristotleVon Doobie: thank you Heramn
[13:42] Samuel Okelly: thank yo herman
[13:42] Alarice Beaumont: thanks herman
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