Category: Process Philosophy

One of the many surprising adventures of reading Whitehead is to discover what to some may seem an extravagant claim: that much of our received wisdom is not only wrong but that some of our most venerated thinkers got it exactly backwards. Whitehead reminds us that “the doctrines which best repay critical examination are those… Continue reading Whitehead Turns Things Upside Down

“Ask not what your country can do for you,ask what you can do for your country.” That sentence, spoken by President John Kennedy in a famous speech, is a good example of chiasmus, a rhetorical figure that reverses the terms of the two clauses that make up a sentence, or a part of a sentence.… Continue reading Whitehead’s Use of Chiasmus in “Process and Reality”

Martin Luther’s translation of the Bible, which first appeared in 1534, renders Job 9:11 as follows: 　Siehe, er geht an mir vorüber,　ehe ich’s gewahr werde,　und wandelt vorbei,　ehe ich’s merke. 　Lo, He passes by me　before I am aware of it,　and is transformed　before I can take note of it. The German verb wandelt, meaning “to change,” or… Continue reading Goethe’s Process Poem

Charles Hartshorne has 34 entries in The Encyclopedia of Religion, the reference book edited by Vergilius Ferm. Some of the entries, such as the one on “cause” that runs over 2,000 words, qualify as mini-essays. One of my favorites, “God, as personal,” stands out as a model of clarity. All are characterized by Hartshorne’s buoyant… Continue reading Charles Hartshorne’s Entries in The Encyclopedia of Religion

Everyone has heard about the pathetic fallacy, but there is another fallacy, the exact opposite of the pathetic, that is of far more importance. This fallacy, which was first named and analyzed by Charles Hartshorne, is called the prosaic fallacy. Science tends to cast a cold eye on life and the world of nature, and… Continue reading The Prosaic Fallacy