Whitehead, Alfred North

Process and Reality (Gifford Lectures Delivered in the University of Edinburgh During the Session 1927-28)
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • The Timaeus and Process and Reality
  • Poor writing style
  • "The shock of a great philosopher."
  • The Brilliance of Hard Work and Imagination
  • uplifting but difficult....
 Process and Reality (Gifford Lectures Delivered in the University of Edinburgh During the Session 1927-28)
Alfred North Whitehead
Manufacturer: Free Press
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Binding: Paperback

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  1. Adventures of Ideas
  2. A Key to Whitehead's Process and Reality
  3. Modes of Thought
  4. Science and the Modern World
  5. Process Theology: An Introductory Exposition

ASIN: 0029345707

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars The Timaeus and Process and Reality.......2006-12-11

If you can read closely, this is not as difficult as many would have you believe. It is a brilliant analysis of that which comes before any study of physics and how you can understand general and special relativity theory through meta(that which comes before)physics. A wonderfu exercise is to read it side by side with Plato's TIMAEUS. Doing so will blow your socks off.

2 out of 5 stars Poor writing style.......2005-03-23

"Whitehead" doesn't refer to something on the face. Although, like puss spewing therefrom, the book is a morass of grotesque prose. What is Whitehead getting at that so many scholars seem to ignore completely? At the core of Whitehead's philosophy is "bifurcation of nature." From this, Ph.D's have waxed eloquent and stated, "Aha, Whitehead is a panentheist," meaning, the universe contains a god like a spirit in the body. Hmmmm. Modern democrats espouse an unusually similar theory that cannot be coincidence. Nevertheless, everyone has missed the point. First and foremost, to his credit, Whitehead had great command over mathematics and modern ideas in science. More noteworthy is the fact that quantum mechanics (micro physics) and relativity theory (macro physics) cannot be reconciled (unless we use Hermann Weyl's guage theory, which implements methods from group theory, which is nothing but mathematical formalism and reconstruction with no physical meaning). The theories are irreconcilable since relativity predicts via E=mc squared that an electron, which approaches the speed of light, must approach infinity. Yet, the physical fact is that an electron is of finite weight (although, I think a clue to this problem is in nuclear fission, aka the fact of the atom bomb). Whitehead resolved to accept that both quantum mechanics and relativity theory are both true, or rather, complete unto themselves for the domain of physical phenomena they addressed, and resolved to accept they cannot be reconciled. This resolution is formulated in his fundamental hypothesis about the bifurcation of reality. Case closed.

4 out of 5 stars "The shock of a great philosopher.".......2001-08-26

I approached this book as an influence to Ken Wilber. In his book, SEX, ECOLOGY, SPIRITUALITY, he recognizes Whitehead "as one of the first great philosophers of vision-logic" (p. 191). As Editor Donald Sherburne acknowledges in the Preface to this edition, PROCESS AND REALITY "is highly technical and far from easy to understand" (p. v). In fact, Whitehead (1861-1947) makes reading Ken Wilber seem easy.

First published as a series of lectures in 1929, PROCESS AND REALITY sets forth Whitehead's philosophy of speculatve metaphysics. "Speculative Philosophy," he writes, "is the endeavor to frame a coherent, logical, necessary system of general ideas in terms of which every element of our experience can be interpreted" (p. 3). Whitehead integrates the the works of Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Locke, Hume, and Kant (p. 39), as he looks into the nature of all things as an ongoing process. (About Plato, Whitehead says, "the safest general characterization of the whole Western philosophic tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.")

I do not profess to fully understand Whitehead, but his basic premise appears to be that reality is in an organic process of becoming, and is never complete. That is, he asserts the many become one and are then increased by one. So, too, God is a process of becoming. Whitehead's philosophy is revolutionary. "Philosophy never reverts to its old position after the shock of a great philosopher" (p. 11), he writes. I have given this book a four-star rating only because Whitehead's writing style is difficult and at times impenetrable, which detracts from his five-star content.

G. Merritt

5 out of 5 stars The Brilliance of Hard Work and Imagination.......2000-12-18

Early in this century American philosophy made a 'linguistic' turn that determined the direction it would take all the way to the present day. In the spirit of the times, language made its way to the forefront of philosophy, the end result being (among other things) Positivism and a scientistic approach to the Geisteswissenschaften. It is a turn many of us, looking back, wish it had never made. Because of this turn, certain philosophers and ways of doing philosophy all but stopped being considered. Among these philosophers were Dewey and James. These thinkers have in recent decades been resurrected by contemporary neopragmatists, most notably Richard Rorty, who look back at the arid desert of mid-twentieth century philosophy and wonder how far we have come after all. To quote Rorty (who is certainly no Whiteheadian), American philosophical thought 'began taking its cue from Frege rather than Locke.' Broadly considered, this meant that language rather than experience, mind rather than body, was taken to be the most serious matter for philosophy.

Whitehead stayed with Locke. Whitehead wanted to critique most Modern philosophy with what he termed the 'philosophy of organism;' that is, Whitehead insisted that experience or 'feeling' rather than disembodied thinking was the hallmark of human existence, and that all experience was subjective. Now, this does not sound like Locke. Anyone writing this side of modernity knows that Locke was the quintessential modern philosopher, with all the baggage that entails. But when Whitehead wrote in the preface to Process and Reality that `the writer who most fully anticipated the main positions of the philosophy of organism is John Locke,' he was stressing the fact that Locke discarded metaphysics, seeking rather to look at what was actually happening, as far as he could tell.

In many ways, and though they wrote at the same time but in complete isolation from each other's thought, Whitehead and Heidegger were searching for the same thing, the thing both philosophers thought that Plato and Aristotle had known, but that had been forgotten in the intervening centuries: what it actually meant to experience something, or, as Cooper puts it, how `to make intelligible our immediate experience so that we can discover how it is possible to have any experience of the actual world.' Rather than reading Whitehead as an elaborate and old-school metaphysician, one ought to read him as a phenomenological empiricist, if such a beast exists, and thus find an answer to the people who dismiss Whitehead as `behind the times,' people who simply don't bother to actually read Whitehead.

It is true that thinkers still committed to a reductionist/linguistic approach to philosophy will not see Whitehead's importance as a critic of closed systems (Whitehead's is expressly open and revisable, one reason it has endured as long as it has without being widely read in philosophy departments). It is also true that American philosophy left Whitehead behind. However, the blind alleys linguistic analysis and positivism lead us into should cause us to wonder if we were led in the right directions, or if we should have left in the first place. Leaving something behind certainly does not necessarily mean progressing beyond it. Whitehead's goal was expressly NOT the goal of philosophy in America after his time, though Whitehead's goal had been an important part of James's `Radical Empiricism,' ironically. Whitehead looked back to James and Dewey, and Bergson on the continent, hoping `to rescue their type of thought from the charge of anti-intellectualism, which rightly or wrongly has been associated with it.' Present-day neopragmatism, noting how vapid and unsatisfying most rationalist and linguistic philosophy has become in American thought, also looks back to Dewey and James, but to the pragmatism rather than to the empiricism of these two masters. It has become axiomatic that the only way to read James and Dewey is as pragmatists, after all.

However, the axiom is not true. A `rediscovery' of Whitehead by contemporary American philosophy might lead to another and equally valid reading of James and Dewey. James, Dewey, and Whitehead were thinkers of the same ilk. If you like any two, you should at least consider reading the third. Similarly, the relations between Heidegger and Whitehead have only recently been resurfacing, and deserve closer scrutiny. Analytic philosophy never took seriously the questions raised by Heidegger because they weren't precise enough for logical analysis. When a grandfather of the analytic movement, Wittgenstein, began distancing himself from his earlier work, his own disciples balked because, they said, he seemed to be retreating into metaphysics! It is much more likely, however, that Wittgenstein realized that life cannot be reduced to propositions and truth tables. This was also Whitehead's view. Whitehead was also not precise enough for the analytic philosophers (I always wonder who is). Whether or not the fact that he did not measure up to their standards (and still does not) should be seen as an indictment or a complement remains to be seen.

Whitehead is an immensely difficult writer. Hosinski's Stubborn Fact and Creative Advance (1993) is a brilliant introductory work, and I highly recommend it, especially if you have to read Whitehead for a class Sherburne's Key is also very helpful, though you get a lot of Sherburne, too. At issue is usually Whitehead's neologisms. To draw another analogy between Heidegger and Whitehead, however, both men were notorious for creating new words because what they wanted to explain was both so uncanny and yet so obvious that the old words didn't work. Don't let the language scare you away. Whitehead rewards hard work, and you will likely never forget what you learn from him. The ideas that we are beginning to take much more seriously these days about holistic thinking, interconnectedness, interdisciplinarity, non-dualism, commensurability between science and religion, and creativity were all covered by him seventy years ago. Don't let your professors tell you that Whitehead is an outmoded metaphysician. His `philosophy of organism' is as inherently open-ended, properly understood, as anything passing today as postmodernism. Read Whitehead.

3 out of 5 stars uplifting but difficult...........2000-06-02

Whitehead carries on the tradition of turgidity inaugurated by Hegel and even buys into the philosophy-as-system game; on the plus side, however, his key concepts make sense, especially his emphasis creativity and on reality as process. If you're new to Whitehead, read someone else's stuff about him before attempting this book.
A Key to Whitehead's Process and Reality
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Kudos to Donald Sherburne!
  • An excellent primer
  • Must have for Process and Reality
  • you'll need this one...
  • This key really works
 A Key to Whitehead's Process and Reality
Donald W. Sherburne
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
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Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:
  1. Process and Reality (Gifford Lectures Delivered in the University of Edinburgh During the Session 1927-28)
  2. Adventures of Ideas
  3. Modes of Thought
  4. Science and the Modern World
  5. The Metaphysics of Experience: A Companion to Whitehead's "Process and Reality" (American Philosophy Series , No 8)

ASIN: 0226752933

Book Description

Whitehead's magnum opus is as important as it is difficult. It is the only work in which his metaphysical ideas are stated systematically and completely, and his metaphysics are the heart of his philosophical system as a whole. Sherburne has rearranged the text in a way designed to lead the student logically and coherently through the intricacies of the system without losing the vigor of Whitehead's often brilliant prose.

"The Key renders Process and Reality pedagogically accessible for the first time."--Journal of Religion

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Kudos to Donald Sherburne!.......2005-04-15

I am proud to say I own this book. Sherburne does an excellent job laying out the arguments in a systematic fashion. He says he did this, because the reader "will not find a linear development PR, a beginning, a middle, and an end." It is this approach that keeps the spirit of Whitehead's PR alive and makes it accessible to the determined reader--I say determined because it still is difficult trying to interpret the content of Whitehead's "Speculative Philosophy."

Of course for being only 261 pages this book isn't an "exhaustive account of all aspects of Whitehead's thought." A key can unlock a door, but you still have to go through the door to see what is on the other side. I would encourage anyone to take Sherburnes key to unlock the door to Process and Reality...

5 out of 5 stars An excellent primer.......2003-08-07

Alfred North Whitehead, in his magnum opus 'Process and Reality', set forth a philosophical framework that has inspired the subsequent generation of theologians to look towards a new system of metaphysics, ethics, epistemology, and theological reality. One of the problems with 'Process and Reality', however, is that it is not a very accessible text to most people, even to most theologians. Donald Sherburne has done great service to legions of pastors, students, and interested lay persons by simplifying and reorganising the text of 'Process and Reality' into a more logical and easier-to-read text.

Sherburne's introduction speaks of the lack of information available on Whitehead - since his death in 1947, his influence has been confined to philosophy and theology, and then only at graduate-student and higher levels. This has not changed, for the most part, in the decades since the first publication of Sherburne's text, but it is beginning to make itself felt in various levels through grassroots 'evangelism' of process thought principles.

The text itself is organised to allow primary emphasis on Whitehead's own writing from 'Process and Reality', followed closely in the chapters by paragraphs of explanation and commentary by Sherburne (these are presented in an italicised typeface, making the distinction between Whitehead's words and the commentary very clear).

The rearrangement of topics follows more closely what a typical student of philosophy might expect to find in any other philosophy text. Like logic or geometry (Whitehead was a protégé of Bertrand Russell of Principia Mathematica fame), it begins with basic principles and concepts. For Whitehead, this is the actual entity and the process itself. From this, the text explores how things are what they are, and how we can come to know them.

How things are constituted involved their formative elements; for Whitehead, these consist of God, creativity, and the pure potentiality inherent in the universe. With these in mind, the process of concrescence is presented.

Sherburne then presents ideas of the macrocosmic and nexus, and the requirements and limitations on perception. This leads to a discussion of Whitehead versus other philosophers, many of whom will be far more familiar to the readers. Descartes, Hume, Locke, Kant, and the methods of science (through a lens of Newton and Plato first, then further developed) are explored.

The seventh chapter, on God and the World, is perhaps the most interesting and useful to theologians. God's primordial and consequent natures are explored. Whitehead uses the process ideas set forth earlier to look at the concept of immortality, in particular, the love of God for the world, and the process by which all of reality can be redeemed and held complete in the mind of God.

Sherburne states that the Appendix - In Defense of Speculative Philosophy - can be read first or last in the text; Sherburne actually recommends both, so that Whitehead's Defense can serve both as a setting and a conclusion to this text. Philosophy, particularly metaphysics and the more speculative sorts of philosophy, has been under critical attack over the past few generations. Whitehead's arguments for the value of philosophy, particularly when it relates to other intellectual disciplines (as opposed to merely trying to explain things away) are worth considering by the philosopher, scientist, historian, theologian, political scientist, and followers of many other disciplines.

There is a useful glossary of terms that I return to time and again. These are good definitions, succinctly stated, deriving from the text of 'Process and Reality'.

Sherburne, a professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt, is also one of the editors who produced the corrected version of Whitehead's primary text, 'Process and Reality'. This book can serve as an excellent preliminary study prior to going on to 'Process and Reality' itself, but I would advise those seriously interested in Whitehead and process thought to continue on toward that text.

4 out of 5 stars Must have for Process and Reality.......2001-09-19

I tried to wade though Whitehead's Process and Reality unarmed several times and was routed by hoards of "actual entities", "eternal objects" and other beasts. Finally, fortified by Sherburne, I made it. And you can too, but don't think the going is easy even with Sherburne at your side.

He does a good job of reorganizing the text so that the concepts build in a more linear fashion, he also provides some insightful introductions to his chapters. Still, I give the book only a 4, because it's still hard to get the big picture from the onslaught of details.

5 out of 5 stars you'll need this one..........2000-06-02

...if you want to understand Whitehead but haven't attempted him yet. Sherburne does indeed provide a key to Whitehead by unlocking his concepts one by one and explaining them in plain English. Recommended.

5 out of 5 stars This key really works.......1999-12-23

This book is the place to start if you want to understand Whitehead's Process and Reality. Sherburne has done a masterful job of explaining Whitehead's many neologisms.

Process and Reality is one of the masterworks of 20th century philosophy, however its terminology make it hard to comprehend.

Sherburne's book makes Process and Reality accessible even to non-philosophers.
The axioms of projective geometry, (Cambridge tracts in mathematics and mathematical physics)
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    		The axioms of projective geometry, (Cambridge tracts in mathematics and mathematical physics)
    Alfred North Whitehead
    Manufacturer: Hafner
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    Binding: Unknown Binding
    ASIN: B0006W24RY
    Principia Mathematica to *56 (Cambridge Mathematical Library)
    Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    • A monumental tower of Babel
    • ludicrously quixotic work
    • A Hallmark in the History of Mathematics and Philosophy.
    • Principia
    • If you don't know know this book then you don't need it
    		 Principia Mathematica to *56 (Cambridge Mathematical Library)
    Alfred North Whitehead , and Bertrand Russell
    Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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    Binding: Paperback

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    1. The Principles of Mathematics
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    ASIN: 0521626064

    Book Description

    The great three-volume Principia Mathematica (CUP 1927) is deservedly the most famous work ever written on the foundations of mathematics. Its aim is to deduce all the fundamental propositions of logic and mathematics from a small number of logical premises and primitive ideas, establishing that mathematics is a development of logic. This abridged text of Volume I contains the material that is most relevant to an introductory study of logic and the philosophy of mathematics (more advanced students will of course wish to refer to the complete edition). It contains the whole of the preliminary sections (which present the authors' justification of the philosophical standpoint adopted at the outset of their work); the whole of Part I (in which the logical properties of propositions, propositional functions, classes and relations are established); section A of Part II (dealing with unit classes and couples); and Appendices A and C (which give further developments of the argument on the theory of deduction and truth functions).

    Amazon.com

    Could it be true that Whitehead and Russell's Principia Mathematica is the most influential book written in the 20th century? Ask any mathematician or philosopher--or anyone who understands the impact these fields have had on modern thinking--and you'll get a short answer: yes. Their goal, to set mathematics on a firm logical foundation, was revolutionary, and their tools and rigor continue to influence modern professionals. Using Peano's symbolic logic, they formalized axioms and produced theorems (including the famous "1 + 1 = 2") in orderings, continuous functions, and other areas of mathematics.

    Although the Principia is far from comprehensive, Whitehead and Russell's method and program captivate their readers. The audacity to hope to formalize all of mathematics logically was inspirational and helped to give great boosts to math and logical philosophy. Though Gödel proved in 1931 that any such program is doomed to incompleteness, the tools found in and developed from the three volumes helped build the atomic bomb and the Internet. It may not be summer vacation reading (for most), but Principia Mathematica will reward the dedicated student with a deeper understanding of how we got here. --Rob Lightner

    Customer Reviews:

    3 out of 5 stars A monumental tower of Babel.......2005-12-07

    Poor Whitehead and Russell, trying to build a perfect, complete, self-consistent foundation for mathematics instead built one enormous, convoluted monstrosity that led to a spectacular collapse at the hands of Gödel. Using cold logic (in a horribly arcane notation) they set upon themselves the task of ridding mathematics from ambiguity and counter-intuitive paradoxes such as the Banach-Tarski Paradox of 1924. Using the Zermalo-Fraenkel Axioms upon which modern mathematics is conventionally based, the Banach Tarski Paradox, resulting principally from the Axiom of Choice, states that if S and T are solid three-dimensional spheres of possibly different radii, (one a golf ball, one a basketball say), then S and T are equivalent by finite "cut and paste" decomposition. Clearly we believe this is nutty, but we are forced to live with this paradox because so many theorems of non-paradoxical mathematics depend on the Axiom of Choice.

    Then came Gödel and with his Incompleteness Theorem destroyed with one fell swoop the notion that a mathematical system no richer than that defined by the arithmetic of the integers, would always contain true theorems that, because of self-reference, can never be demonstrated as such within the system. Grow the system, prove the previously non-provable statements, but generate new non-provable statements.

    This book is NO easy read, probably requiring years of dedication which I imagine would be difficult to sustain in the light of Gödel.

    Alex Alaniz Ph.D.

    1. Please see the reviews of my own strong science fiction book: Beyond Future Shock about the near-terms perils and promise of advanced bio/nano technology in a world still roiled with Middle Age religious conflict and ever growing extreme wealth gradients.

    2. I have REVIEWED many books from undergraduate to graduate in: PHYSICS, MATH, ECONOMETRICS, and HISTORY among other areas.

    1 out of 5 stars ludicrously quixotic work.......2005-03-22

    I have not read this book. I tried, having been fascinated by logic and mathematics since high school, but it has absolutely nothing to offer most people. in fact I find it hard to believe anyone has ever read this book. The 4 and 5 star reviews on this page should be taken as evidence there are some people out there with very different taste from mine, and I bet yours. In fact I have difficulty believing they are serious.

    I think only a fanatic could enjoy reading this book, certainly not a budding mathematician. If you are attracted by a book that proves 1+1 = 2 somewhere after 100 pages, this is the book for you!

    I admit I have been surprized before at what some people find interesting, but the idea that anyone would pay 5 or 6 hundred dollars for the set! the publishers seem to me to be sniffing glue. (I have a PhD in mathematics, a mathematical library costing thousands of dollars, and tried to read this work at Harvard as a young math student.)

    To call this book influential, is to me really ridiculous, since I suspect few people have even looked at it in the last half of the 20th century, nor would want to do so at any length, in my opinion.

    But don't take my word for it, go to your scientific library and check it out for yourself. You might like it, but I seriously doubt it. I did not intend to review this book, but some of the reviews here really defy belief. I could not let them pass without comment.

    One must assume those reviewers here are serious who praise it, but I suggest almost no mathematics student need give it more than a passing look. The review that stated something like "if you do not already know you want this book, then you do not" is pretty accurate.

    OK, a quick re reading of reviews here shows many of them say truthfully that this book is only appropriate for a very small group of readers. However I would suggest that group does not even include most mathematicians. The ones who like it are apparently philosophers, and some are the sort who resort to calling people stupid who disagree with them.

    5 out of 5 stars A Hallmark in the History of Mathematics and Philosophy........2004-07-22


    Much nonsense has been said on the subject of the importance of Principia Mathematica by people ignorant of the history of mathematics and logic. Principia Mathematica together with Frege's Grundgesetze der Arithmetik is the book which gives birth to modern logic. It is absurd to assume that Russell and Whitehead intended their axiomatization of mathematics as a guide to learn the subject, as one reviewer thinks, in fact what they tried to show was that the whole of mathematics could be deduced from a small stock of premises and inference rules and using only notions of first order logic and set theory. In doing this they were following a trend in mathematical thought in the late XIX century, that of introducing more rigour to the subject, they intended to do this by demonstrating that the derivation of mathematics needed only logic (think of Weierstrass, Dedekind, Cantor, Frege). From a philosophical standpoint they also did it to rebut the intuitionist views of Kant and Poincare as well as certain opinions regarding truth coming from British Idealism (think of Bradley). Of course there are much more rigurous treatises on logic, but they would have been impossible without PM because PM was the first thorough treatment of this subject-matter and, indeed, the first book to use the modern day notation. As another reviewer pointed out, Godel's proof would've been impossible without Principia; someone first needed to show that you could reduce mathematics to logic to a great extent (Russell and Whitehead were aware that their treatment used certain axioms unprovable within the system, like the axiom of infinity, but were hopeful a solution would be found, Godel found it, it was a negative solution, there could be no complete system PM like). This book together with Frege's gave birth to modern logic, it gave a tremendous boost to research in set theory, it influenced the presentation of modern mathematics to the extent that every student has to learn about sets at the beginning of a mathematics course, it showed also the scope of the deductive powers of logic and axiomatic systems which made possible the revolution in computers and AI. It developed an influential and responsive philosophy of mathematics, perhaps the most influential of the XX century. In it Russell's superb theory of descriptions, a cornerstone in logic and philosophy, is applied with success. This theory is tremendously important in logic through its use of quantification to break up much more complex expressions revealing their true logical form. In philosophy it provided a theory which would prove immensely useful and important in epistemology, metaphysics and the philosophy of language. Russell's paradox ( regarding those sets of sets which are not members of themselves) is disposed through ramified type-theory, now obsolete in logic (though not in computer science), because, thanks to it, other ways to avoid the paradox were developed, think of Zermelo-Fraenkl or Ramsey's simple type theory. Carnap, Hilbert, Weiner, Ramsey, Quine, Wittgenstein, Turing, Tarski, Godel etc were, as thinkers, tremendously influenced by it. In short, this work is one of the greatest achievements in the history of thought, its importance for mathematics, logic, philosophy (linguistics also) and computer science is first rate, suffice to say that none of these studies would be as advanced as they are now, or as complex, or in the same direction were it not for Russell and Whitehead's groundbreaking scientific work. Of course, like Newton's Philosophia Naturalis Principia Mathematica it is now, because the subjects it initiated are today tremendously advanced, mostly of historical interest, however, for the philosophers at least, Russell's introduction still holds great philosophical interest and rigourous arguments helpful in the contemporary debate in the philosophy of mathematics. For more details, historical background and a well-documented account check out Ivor Grattan Guiness's great works on the history of mathematics, logic and set theory. For an appropiate and easy-going understanding of the scope and purpose of this work read Russell's brilliant "The Principles of Mathematics", his "Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy", or Frank Ramsey's papers on the "Foundations of Mathematics". Even easier is Penrose's account of it in his "The Emperor's New Mind" or his "Shadows of the Mind." If you want to see the direct influence of Russell and Whitehead's work check the works of Quine, Wittgenstein, Godel, Tarski or some of the papers of Turing in Mind (some are available online); van Heijenoort's "From Frege to Godel" is a superb sourcebook on papers which detail the development of mathematical logic.

    Considering some statements from mathematicians arguing for the thesis of the irrelevance of the book based on the fact that probably no mathematician of notice has read the work in the last fifty or so years shows the misunderstandings to which people who dislike history are prone, and shows some contempt for the history of mathematics and logic. I am reminded of the comment I heard once, that the theories of the Milesians (all is water, etc) are absurd, a view which I am convinced would only be put forward by someone wholly indifferent to historical context, and who does not consider those theories as the first step towards the current scientific worldview. It is like saying that Bacon's methodology of science is irrelevant because we now have a deeper understanding of how science works, or even like saying that the study of the work of Adam Smith is worthless since for free-market economies we can now consider Hayek's or Milton Friedman's work. This analogy will, hopefully, show the preposterousness of views which do not consider the historical context of such major works. Indeed one does not need to review the proofs in PM (poor by modern standards) that 1 plus 1 equals 2, to understand the important place of this book in contemporary thought. It is only necessary to glance at any contemporary book on logic or set theory, most of the ideas there, the notation, and most developments in both disciplines in the past fifty or so years. Developments which are in debt of the work done by Zermelo, Hilbert, Quine, Turing, Weiner, Tarski, Godel etc, who, as anyone who has studied a bit of their works (as in authored by them) will know, owe their own ideas, developments and work to the study of Principia Mathematica during the first fifty years of the twentieth century. Indeed I would be the first to suggest that no one should read this book from cover to cover if one wants to learn logic (even Russell used to joke he only knew of a couple of poles who had read it and had then perished in WWII), just as I wouldn't suggest anyone interested in contemporary calculus and advanced mathematics to read Newton's Principia, or anyone interested in Set Theory to read Cantor's papers, or again, anyone interested in Einstein's special relativity to read his 1905 papers. In fact I cannot believe anyone would have to stress this point, but I am forced to on account of the various misunderstandings I see here, and by mathematicians, which one would presume would be the most rigurous of thinkers. These days the value of the book is mostly historical (with the introduction, mostly chapters II and III, having philosophical value), but, and I must once again stress this strongly, its tremendously influential and important place in the DEVELOPMENT of logic and set theory (and metatheory with the discovery of Russell's paradox) cannot be doubted, it can indeed be traced, if one takes the time to do so, to the various seminal thinkers it influenced strongly. Its value should be doubted even less by those academics ignorant of the history of their own disciplines not because they disagree with me (I could hardly be that vain) but rather because their misunderstandings are on par with disminishing Darwin's importance to contemporary biology on the grounds that his works are not cited in the bibliography of the most important papers written on the subject nowadays.

    4 out of 5 stars Principia.......2003-07-31

    I decided to write a review, because, when reading the existing ones,- I realized their incorrectness. Leaving out the "Customer from Christchurch New Zealand", the rest shows an evident shallowness of mind. The reader "La-la land" utilizes an enormous mass of epithets discrediting Russell and Whitehead, which could be valuable in a form, but instead,- he shows a stupid prejudice that must have learned in his Mathematical-logic "polytechnic" course. I will only refute his last thought( which is the base of his "thesis"), because the others refute themselves. He presents Russell as a "Fruitless Mathematician", and even more stupid, compares him with Hilbert, saying: " at least he proved himself worthy.....". Throughout all Mathematics history we have individuals with enormous logic-constructive aptitudes, who although creating fundamentals results, were unable to understand their significance. Two perfect examples are Newton and Leibniz, both creators of the "infinitesimal calculus". One went on to construct the modern mechanistic view of physics in his "Principia". The other, with a much more profound understanding of logic, a superficial "monadic-substantial" and teleological ontology. Newtonian physics was a major episode in modern science, and Leibniz "subject-predicate" logic is the first glance at mathematical-logic.But their incorrect understanding of the infinitesimal calculus made them see, in it, the proof of an omnipotent god: they both conceived a universe with its first cause as god, and the human aptitude is, within it, merely an "algorithmic" one, which could never fully calculate god's creation. Hilbert, also providing fundamental results in constructive knowledge, went on to expose a somewhat "Hegelian" conception of mathematics, giving an almost silly definition of numbers. Both of this errors cause enormous damage, which I don't have space to describe now. Russell's "Principia Mathematica", although written with the wrong "motivation"( that is: to reduce the whole of mathematics into axiomatic form, finding the "universal method"), achieved unquestionable logic-mathematical results: The most valuable and original, the "theory of descriptions". in an abridged explanation, these theory comprehends the next: "algorithmic" function in logic and mathematics. when you say, " this is black", the theory of descriptions shows that you are only saying something about "this", which is a subject-variable(x), and black is an element-predicate, calculable within the conjunct "this". The theory permits mathematical-logic understand algorithmic functions, and is, also, what makes possible via your computer processor to read codified information. The result is more than a "fruit". it gives you the possibility of grasping that, like any other mathematical fruit, men is able of creating it,- and of reading it(calculate it). these means: Mathematical creations are only valuable as a source of human power, not as mystic ontological formulae,- that stupid motivation in all pseudo "Mathematicians".
    In terms of actuality, the axiomatic system, the method, has been perfected, simplified, and transcended. If I had to recommend some books on the matter, I would say Tarski's: "Introduction to logic and to the methodology of the deductive sciences", Patrick Suppes:"axiomatic set theory", continued by the reading of the: "Gödel proofs" by Raymond Smullyan, some other text dealing whith "boolean algebra" such as: "logic as algebra" by Halmos. This would give any self-educated person, the basic models he needs to comprehend math-logic, the "method" with which he can possibly contribute to this "powerful trend of modern thought" as described by tarski. Remember that Russell and whitehead say in the introduction that they not claim having the most perfect axiomatic reduction, only that the one presented was enough to reduce mathematics into that form, which was, until godel, true, or at least "thought possible"(completely). Is important to undersatnd that "principia mathematica" made "possible" the incompleteness proofs of Godel: his original paper was named "on formally undecidable propositions of principia mathematica and related systems"(see dover edition), and although he uses mostly the axioms of peano in his system, if someone as Russel had not attempted successfully such axiomatic construction of math, godel would have never found or seen the incompleteness of arithmetic's. Something similar could be said of the later notions of completeness of first order logic, metamathematics, etc. The few works (few only in number) independent from principia may be the ones of: 1) the polish masters: Lukasiewicz, Lesniewski, and the last king Tarski. 2) the forgotten Richard Martin's and Rudolf Carnap's logic-syntaxic-semantic conception of math-logic. The rest walked, continued walking the path of principia. Individual example: Quine. ...

    5 out of 5 stars If you don't know know this book then you don't need it.......2003-07-22

    Let me try to give a balanced review.

    First this is a monumental work and one of the most influential works of the 20th century. I am not giving it five stars: this book earned them. With that said I don't think is the most influential book of the 20th century because such a book doesn't exist. In my opinion that kind of debate is totally misleading.

    However the five stars do not suggest that you should buy this book. With the exception of libraries and scholars specializing in Russell or related subjects, I can't see anybody else spending [this amount] on a copy of this work. That is unless they like to collect books. For a math or philosophy student the paperback copy to *56 is all you need.

    Unless you are a mathematician, a logician or a philosopher with a strong background in logic and philosophy of mathematics and aware of the issues surrounding the problems in the foundations of mathematics at the beginning of the 20th century then you are not going to benefit from STUDYING this book. The emphasis in studying is important because this book needs to be studied not just read like some reviewers may suggest.

    If you are not an expert in this area and you want to learn about the subject then you may want to start with Bertrand Russell's "Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy". It summarizes the major points of this work for the layman and is Russell at its best (he won a Nobel prize mostly due to this book). Read it with a critical mind and then you can continue reading Quine, Putnam, Brower, Heyting and the rest. You can get a good bibliography from Benacerraf and Putnam's "Philosophy of Mathematics".

    Finally if you are a mathematician, a logician or a philosopher you already know about this book and you don't need this review. Moreover you know you can borrow a copy from the university library for study...that is unless you like to collect books.
    Science and the Modern World
    Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
    • poorly published
    • A deep study by a great mind
    • CLassic little work in the philosophy of science
    • unreadable
    • Dense and sometimes difficult, but fascinating
    		 Science and the Modern World
    Alfred North Whitehead
    Manufacturer: Free Press
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    ASIN: 0684836394

    Customer Reviews:

    4 out of 5 stars poorly published.......2005-08-03

    The content of the book is just terrific. See other reviews.

    I just wanted to let folks know that for their $19.95, they are getting a very cheaply made book. The cover is quite thin, but even worse, the book is printed on awful, pulpy paper--worse than most romance/mystery novels.

    I'm sure that it will pass out of its concrescence sooner than most books . . . .

    5 out of 5 stars A deep study by a great mind .......2005-01-18

    I cannot make a good summary of this book, for I do not know it well enough. I do have a sense of its great depth and beauty. Whitehead seems to me not only a profound thinker but a humble person who stands in certain awe before the Universe. He opens by describing the way a few people in a small part of Europe caused a great revolution in human thinking. He argues that this Scientific Revolution will amount to the triumph of Reason in the world. His chapters are on, The Origins of Modern Science, Mathematics as Element in the History of Thought, The Century ofGenius, The Eighteenth Century, The Romantic Reaction, The Nineteenth Century, Relativity, The Quantum Theory ,Science and Philosophy, Abstraction, God, Religion and Science, Requisites for Social Progress.

    I was moved by the concluding words of his book .

    " I have endeavoured in these lectures to give a record of a great adventure in the region of thought. It was shared in by all the races of Western Europe .It developed with the slowness of a mass movement. Half a century is its unit of time. The tale is the epic of an episode in the manifestation of reason. It tells how a particular direction of reason emerges in a race by the long preparation of antecedent epochs, how after its birth its subject- matter gradually unfolds itself, howit attains its triumphs, how its influence moulds the very springs of action of mankind ,and finally how at its moment of supreme success its limitations disclose themselves and call for a renewed exercise of the creative imagination. The moral of the tale is the power of reason ,its decisive influence on the life of humanity. The great conquerors from Caesar to Napoleon, influenced profoundly the lives of subsequent generations. But the total effect of this influence shrinks to insignificance, if compared to the entire transformation of human habits and human mentality produced by the long line of men of thought from Thales to the present day, men individually powerless, but ultimately the rulers of the world. p. 186

    5 out of 5 stars CLassic little work in the philosophy of science.......2003-12-16

    Whitehead is widely regarded as a humane philosopher in the best sense of that word--a philosopher able to get across very difficult ideas with a wink and a smile. Also, he has always been commended for his prose style in his more intimate writings, at least in his books based on lectures (the best of which are Science in the Modern World and Adventures of Ideas). Process and Reality is difficult but worth the effort; one does need a glossary at times, but this isn't a review of that book.

    It is hard to imagine a philosophy book written with more clarity than this one. I think that the quotes given by reviewers witness that fact. The only review here, it turns out, which dilikes the book because of its "unreadability" is the one riddled with spelling and grammatical errors itself. Hard reading, it turns out, is even harder if one cannot spell. With that, I heartily concur.

    2 out of 5 stars unreadable.......2003-03-23

    The ideas and philosophical concepts in this book are generally sensible, rational, and correct, but the writing style and execution leaves much to be desired. In other words, this book is extremely difficult. The impenetrable density of this prose is intolerable, especially considering it was written IN ENGLISH, in the TWENTIETH CENTURY! If someone had handed me this book with a blank cover, I would have been convinced that it was originally written in old German during the time of Kant, and verbosely translated by some frustrated acedemic. It is beyond me how any book writeen in English so recently could be so unreadable.

    I might recommend this book to someone with a highly scientific, mathematical and empiricist mind-set. After all, Whitehead is an accomplished mathematician, and his book has an aire of unbiased, empirical objectivity. For a mathematician with a desire to cross over into the philosophy genre, this might be a good choice. But for normal philosophy readers who come from a liberal arts/literary background, this book will probably come across as obfiscated and tortuous.

    4 out of 5 stars Dense and sometimes difficult, but fascinating.......2002-08-16

    In short: A serious and thoughtful book about the meaning and impact of science. This is not light, popular science reading. (If you're looking for that, I highly recommend the works of folks like Freeman Dyson or Stephen Jay Gould.)

    _Science and the Modern World_ has some stunning, timeless insights, and many things I'm fond of quoting. Here's a favorite, from the last chapter:

    "Modern science has imposed upon humanity the necessity for wandering. Its progressive thought and its progressive
    technology make the transition through time, from generation to generation, a true migration into uncharted seas of adventure.
    The very benefit of wandering is that it is dangerous and needs skill to avert evils. We must expect, therefore, that the future
    will disclose dangers."

    (Here it comes:)

    "It is the business of the future to be dangerous; and it is among the merits of science that it equips the future for its duties."

    (*P*O*W*!*)

    "The prosperous middle classes, who ruled the nineteenth century, placed an excessive value upon the placidity of existence. They refused to face the necessities for social reform imposed by the new industrial system, and they are now refusing to face the necessities for intellectual reform imposed by the new knowledge."

    (Same as it ever was!)

    "The middle class pessimism over the future of the world comes from a confusion between civilization and security. In the immediate future there will be less security than in the immediate past, less stability. It must be admitted that there is a degree of instability which is inconsistent with civilization. But, on the whole, the great ages have been unstable ages."

    Whew.
    Modes of Thought
    Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
    • Philosopy is either self-evident or it is not Philosophy
    • The Best Single Introduction to Whitehead's Thought
    • A book that will change forever how you see the world.
    		 Modes of Thought
    Alfred North Whitehead
    Manufacturer: Fireside
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    ASIN: 002935210X

    Customer Reviews:

    4 out of 5 stars Philosopy is either self-evident or it is not Philosophy.......2006-05-02

    AI researchers often referencing Alfred North Whitehead's book "Modes of Thought" in an attempt too explain thought, consciousness, and reasoning. Whitehead's writings suggests that thought has quality of being both conditional and discrete. These two qualities are coveted in AI programming.

    Whitehead starts by discussing the topics of "Interest and Importance". He covers the topics of interest and importance. Interest drives importance, as either exciters or inhibitors.

    One becomes interested in his environmental factors and this interest activates a conditional response. To the observer, he believes this process is called thinking, but is following a series of behavioral responses and conditioned beliefs. The outcome of these conditions can be represented by a graph of possible paths. Disbelief is the pruning of certain paths that are dependant on the environmental factors. Consciousness seems to be the awareness or intuition too believe in ones conclusions or disbelieve. Consciousness creatively adds or subtracts conditional states in a person belief tree.

    The interaction of these states generates discrete and predictable behavior and the observer concludes intelligence is emerging. In reality the system is a series of augmented finite state machines running their algorithms.

    Interest and importance are the primary reasons for effort after exact discrimination of the sense data. For example, the motion of cars approaching an intersection is the conditioned by signals. The driver watches signals to determine exist lanes, when to stop, the rate of speed, merging into adjacent lanes, and travel spacing. The traffic signals are the outcome of the traffic. Stop lights are added to busy intersection to manage the flow of traffic and reduce confusion on turn taking at the intersection, car pool lanes encourage conservation by consolidation, and large digital messages forewarn of pending changes in traffic flow or detours information. Importance generates interest. Interest leads to discrimination. Finally consciousness develops and gradually and fitfully becomes another agent of stimulation. Consciousness is a human and divine quality. Consciousness is necessary for abstraction and abstraction necessary for proven theorms. Can a machine dream? Can a machine see the future? Can a machine feel? Of course not. A machine is no more conscious than a rock in your garden.

    Whitehead focuses on the importance of language and usage of language for expression. Feelings are the comprehension is the reception of expression. Language is the triumph of human ingenuity. Language can be both oral and written and the distinction difficult to distinguish. The greatest invention in the past century was the printing press. Today the Internet replaces the printing press and introduces digital publishing as the modern means of communication. Expression tells of widespread intelligence. Voice is produced sound interpretation as natural symbols of human existence. Language is the expression of ones past into ones present. Language meaning presupposes the concrete relationship of real events happening and issuing from each other. Language is the systemization of expression. Human civilization is the outgrowth of language.

    A thought is a tremendous mode of excitement. However, it is a hopeless task to attempt to understand understanding. Understanding is limited by its finitude. As science grew, men shrank in their width of comprehension.

    Science has failed to produce men of learning with sensitivities and appreciation of varieties of interest and of varieties of potentiality. The rise of objectivity dulled comprehension and defeated understanding. Instead of understanding man became more critical. It is impossible to prove through criticism. Proof is only possible through abstraction. Instead, objectivity created men of criticism and not men dedicated to abstraction and if civilization will survive then understanding is a prime necessity.

    Understanding involves the notion of composition. If a thing can be composed, the understanding of it can be in reference to its factors. The second mode of thought is to treat the concept as one unity, whether or not is capable of analysis. Philosophy is the attempt to make manifest the fundamental evidence as the nature of things. However, philosophy is only as good as things being explored are self-evident. The natural realm of cause and effect is described as differential equations. Differential equations provide a purely mathematical explanation of gravity, force, torque, current, optics, and relativity.

    Philosophy is only as good as the topics it explores are self-evident. Philosophy is the criticism of abstraction governing special modes of thought. Philosophy in the proper sense cannot be proven. Proof is in abstraction. So philosophy is either self evident or it is not philosophy. Philosophy can only argue that the existence of God is self evident. Certain truthes are self evident, such as, life, liberty, rights of property, and the pursuit of happiness. Philosophy can made explore and expound endlessly on these truthes. However, Philsophy does not have the capacity to prove the nonexistence of God because it can not abstract. Objectivity at best can only criticize those who believe in God and this criticism can be classified as "lacking understanding".

    5 out of 5 stars The Best Single Introduction to Whitehead's Thought.......2002-06-13

    For the reader looking for a way into the thought of Alfred North Whitehead, this short volume is the best place to begin. In six lectures delivered toward the end of his career, Whitehead provides a non-technical sketch of the metaphysics and cosmology he had earlier presented in extended and highly technical form in his magnum opus, Process and Reality.

    Modes of Thought is not an easy book--for it is highly compressed and sometimes reads like a series of aphorisms. But while this book will likely leave most readers wondering how all these aphorisms hold together, they are individually nearly crystaline in clarity and are wonderfully provocative. Even if one never reads further in Whitehead, engaging this short volume will set one pondering productively. And, if nothing else, one will come away armed with some wonderful philosophical one-liners.

    If reading Modes of Thought makes one want to read on, the good way to proceed would be to read Science and the Modern World next followed by Adventures of Ideas and then (and only then) Process and Reality.

    5 out of 5 stars A book that will change forever how you see the world........1999-03-11

    Whitehead wrote clearly and simply about some of the most difficult philosophical ideas. This brief book is perfect for anyone who has ever wondered "How do I know what I know?" It is filled with gems such as "The notion of a mere fact is the triumph of the abstractive intellect"; "The whole understanding of the world consists in the analysis of process in terms of the identities and diversities of the individuals involved." Today we know a lot more about the machinery of the mind and the nature of human cognition than he did. But like Darwin who didn't really know how "genes" work, Whitehead saw things that most of us miss. You have to think "on your toes" to read him. But the reward is worth the effort. No one who claims to be an educated person should make such a claim without "reading their Whitehead."
    Adventures of Ideas
    Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
    • Hard Going
    • Creative Platonist's Perspective on History and Civilization
    • The Ideas Are Still Adventurous
    • One of the best
    		 Adventures of Ideas
    Alfred North Whitehead
    Manufacturer: Free Press
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Paperback

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    ASIN: 0029351707

    Customer Reviews:

    3 out of 5 stars Hard Going.......2001-06-26

    The thought in this book is profound and enlightening, the style and language are clear enough, but I found it unbearably hard going to get through it.

    5 out of 5 stars Creative Platonist's Perspective on History and Civilization.......2001-06-06

    There are four parts to this text: "Sociological," "Cosmological," "Philosophical," and "Civilization." The first part is a history of how ideas, especially moral ideas, have influenced the progress of civilization. Whitehead is by training mathematician and by nature a philosopher, not a historian. As a consequence, he covers a great deal of historical ground at a high level of generality which, in Whitehead's case, I consider a virtue. He has a beautiful, long-term perspective; his account of the transition from a world in which slavery was taken for granted to one in which it is no longer legitimate, and the role that the ideas of Platonism and Christianity played in that 2500 year transition, makes me quite optimistic about the long-term possibility of humane progress in the world.

    I describe the first section in depth because it is among the more accessible pieces of Whitehead's writing. The remainder of the book calls upon his unique metaphysical perspective to some extent, and is thus more of a struggle for the casual reader. It, too, is beautiful and valuable for those who are willing to learn how to read Whitehead, but it is not easy. Buy the book for the first part, then if you like Whitehead's highly idiosyncratic view of reality, train yourself to read the rest of the book.

    Personally, although Whitehead has fallen out of favor of academic philosophers for most of this century, I think that his work is more likely to be read 200 years from now than are most other works written this century. Whitehead is definitely thinking of the big picture with a certain serene timelessness. Far more people should be exposed to his 20th century articulation of the eternal search for the True, the Good, and the Beautiful (and the Adventure).

    5 out of 5 stars The Ideas Are Still Adventurous.......2001-01-26

    Whitehead was the foremost twentieth-century advocate of Process Philosophy--he called it "The Philosophy of Organism"--the conviction that reality is composed of processes rather than of substances or matter.

    Students of process thought frequently focus on Whitehead's major work, _Process and Reality_, sometimes to the neglect of his other books. But Whitehead's thought was, fittingly, in continual flux; and _Adventures of Ideas_, written after _Process and Reality_, contains new themes which, some would say, provide needed correctives to some of the notions in Whitehead's earlier books. _Adventures of Ideas_ is also considerably more readable than _Process and Reality_. It should not be passed over.

    5 out of 5 stars One of the best.......2000-11-13

    Excellently written. I was somewhat fan of Whitehead's philosophical ideas before I picked up this book. However, since I started reading this book I have become quite fascinated by his works. I recommend this book for all who seek knowledge or would like to further their command over making an inquiry into pre thought process.
    Aims of Education
    Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
    • A Book for Students, Parents and Teachers
    • Some scattered good points
    • Powerful insights into the nature of learning
    • Provocative
    • Changed my life at age 17 -- Thank you, thank you!
    		 Aims of Education
    Alfred North Whitehead
    Manufacturer: Free Press
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    ASIN: 0029351804

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars A Book for Students, Parents and Teachers.......2007-05-25

    This book is as fresh and usefull as it was 50 years ago when I first read it. The summary of this book, that is Whitehead's concept of the message to be received from the writing, is the first line of the book. Dr. Whitehead assures us the purpose of education is to enrich life and "scraps of information have nothing to do with it." This magnificent book belongs on the shelf of every person who is interested in education of mankind throughout life. We are fortunate to have been blessed by this scholar and humanist.

    4 out of 5 stars Some scattered good points.......2007-03-25

    Whitehead makes some good general points, then a few more specific remarks including a quite interesting defence of the study of classics and a sketchy outline of a mathematics curricula (sensible but rather boring and far from revolutionary: de-emphasise technicalities, skip addition formulae in intro. trig., etc.), then there are three chapters on various aspects of logic and science that have nothing to do with education. Now I quote some highlights. "The fading of ideals is sad evidence of the defeat of human endeavour. In the schools of antiquity philosophers aspired to impart wisdom, in modern colleges our humbler aim is to teach subjects. ... I am not maintaining that in the practice of education the ancients were more successful than ourselves. ... But when ideals have sunk to the level of practice, the result is stagnation." (p. 29). "The mind is never passive ... You cannot postpone its life until you have sharpened it. Whatever interest attaches to your subject-matter must be evoked here and now; whatever powers you are strengthening in the pupil, must be exercised here and now; whatever possibilities of mental life your teaching should impart, must be exhibited here and now. That is the golden rule of education, and a very difficult rule to follow." (p. 6). "The love of a subject in itself and for itself ... is the love of style as manifested in that study. ... Style, in its finest sense, is the last acquirement of the educated mind; it is also the most useful. It pervades the whole being. The administrator with a sense for style hates waste; the engineer with a sense for style economises his material; the artisan with a sense for style prefers good work. Style is the ultimate morality of mind." (p. 12). This last point is relevant for Whitehead's justification for the study of classics, along with "the vision of Rome" (p. 69).

    5 out of 5 stars Powerful insights into the nature of learning.......2006-11-10

    Whitehead's essays are timeless. For the reader who instinctively feels that learning must be meaningful to be of value, Whitehead is a must read. This book is well suited to curriculum designers and/or instructors who feel strongly about including experiential activities. Whitehead's insights would be especially useful for decision-makers/sponsors of learning who must demonstrate a positive return on their investment. The first-time reader will have to overcome a sense of frustration that Whitehead's keen observations are as applicable today as when they were written nearly seventy years ago.

    4 out of 5 stars Provocative.......2005-10-11

    The highlight of this book is chapter 9 as he discusses ontology, i.e., the nature of what truly exists. He talks about the present as always changing into the past and the future. In other words, the present isn't really present. To illustrate how change occurs he mentions a piece of meat as it is cooking. If left unattended, when will the meat cease to be meat?

    In places he gets bogged down in jargon and complexity. He starts by discussing education in general, noting that in addition to English, a student should study French and Latin, that certain things can only be known though the original tongue of the author. Overall this is an insightful collection of essays.

    5 out of 5 stars Changed my life at age 17 -- Thank you, thank you!.......2004-08-31

    The university that accepted me into its six-year medicine program required that I read this (and other) book(s) during the summer before entering their program.

    It changed my life! It helped me to think about what I wanted to get out of formal education, how I wanted to develop my own mind through the rest of my life, and how to choose education that serves my objectives. This book made me a more knowledegeable consumer and user of education.
    The Emergence of Whitehead's Metaphysics 1925-1929 (SUNY Series in Philosophy)
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      		The Emergence of Whitehead's Metaphysics 1925-1929 (SUNY Series in Philosophy)
      Lewis S. Ford
      Manufacturer: State Univ of New York Pr
      ProductGroup: Book
      Binding: Paperback

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      ASIN: 0873958578
      The Archetypal Process: Self and Divine and Whitehead, Jung, and Hillman
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        		The Archetypal Process: Self and Divine and Whitehead, Jung, and Hillman
        David Griffin
        Manufacturer: Northwestern University Press
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Paperback

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