The Metaphysics of Experience: A Companion to Whitehead's Process and Reality (American Philosophy) 1st Edition

At the outset of the lectures collected in Process and Reality, the mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead states, in effect, that his texts abstract a discovery process rather than present a linear argument. Each lecture may be thought of as a mapping of Whitehead's core insights onto a particular philosophical topic in much the way a span of wheel rim maps the wheel hub with a range described by two or more of the radiating spokes.It's an admirable pedagogical technique that becomes considerably less effective when the unique source of those core insights, Whitehead, is not around to nudge the individual student, struggling to master a new terminology and fill in gaps, in a productive direction. What to do?For those wanting help with Whitehead's difficult magnum opus, two different approaches to Parnassus are available in published form from those who have previously ascended its slopes. The first, taken by Donald Sherburne in A Key to Whitehead's Process and Reality, reshuffles Whitehead's discourse to create the linear argument Whitehead deliberately avoids but that scholars since the time of Aristotle have been accustomed to consuming. Many, including Elizabeth Kraus, have praised Sherburne's achievement.The second approach, taken in the book under review, comes closer to Whitehead's own pedagogy. Kraus's text accompanies the reader, step by step, on their journey through Whitehead, acting as an experienced, indeed wise guide. Her first chapter provides an overview of Whitehead's terminology and key insights; her second, an explanation of how one "does" process philosophy, inevitably drawing on the fruits of her own journeys into Process and Reality. Chapter 3 provides an overview of Whitehead's philosophy of organism. Thereafter each chapter is keyed to one of the five parts of Whitehead's text, clarifying obscure points and filling in gaps.In effect, she substitutes for the missing master. In his spirit Kraus urges readers to take Process and Reality not as static template but as dynamic methodology, useful for sparking fresh insight. "To be a genuine Whiteheadian," she avers, "is to see his thought as seminal, as tentative, as demanding the kind of development, rethinking, and revision which results from the confrontation of a theory with its application to broad-spectrum practice." The potential for misinterpretation is significant, but through Kraus's expert, chapter-by-chapter walk-through of Process and Reality the reader gains every chance to confront Whitehead's theories from a secure vantage point rather than to sputter at them from looming incomprehension.As icing on the cake, Kraus's publisher, Fordham University Press, has designed the book to match closely in size and color the corrected Free Press edition of Process and Reality (accept no substitute). The Metaphysics of Experience is argued with rigor and is full of lived insight. I know of no better or more useful introduction to process philosophy.

Well written and rigorous and unpretentious. Good philosophy

Alfred Whitehead's "Process and Reality" can be a frustrating and abstruse book to try and understand for the uninitiated. For those people looking for an accessible introduction to Whitehead, this is definitely not the book. The author makes little effort to define Whitehead's jargon in a manner which is more accessible then Whitehead's own obscure wording. Like many academic outlines of Whitehead's Process philosophy, this book also makes no serious attempt to critically interpret what Whitehead may be ultimately saying. For example, we are told that Whitehead's notion of 'duration' can be described by using the metaphor of a wave, but then we are told that the wave metaphor breaks down since Whitehead's durations do not exist in space or time. We are told a duration 'emerges' in a kind of non-linear manner. But what is the 'stuff' that duration emerges from? Bohmian physicists and those who believe that nature is fundamentally understood as being like a hologram would be tempted to say that Whitehead's philosophy is saying that duration or 'actual occasions' arise out of a holographic 'implicate order.' This is the argument made in Nobo's "Whitehead's Metaphysics of Extension and Solidarity." Nobo's book is in many ways a more technical and dense book to read in comparison to this book, but the critical analysis and attempt to make sense of what Whitehead was expressing goes much deeper in Nobo's book. The book also makes no attempt to contextualise Whitehead's philosophy in previous metaphysical ideas. For example, I personally think that knowledge of Aristotle's four types of causation is crucial for understanding Whitehead's Process Philosophy. For those interested in a more easily accessible introduction to Whitehead, I would recommend Philip Rose's "On Whitehead." In any case, at least this book is currently free on Amazon.

This incredible book actually makes Process And Reality easily comprehensible. That is an astounding achievement.