BOOK REVIEWProcess Cosmology: New Integrations in Science and PhilosophyPalgrave Perspectives on Process Philosophy1st ed. 2022 Editionby Andrew M. Davis (Editor),Maria-Teresa Teixeira (Editor),Wm. Andrew Schwartz (Editor)This book newly articulates the international and interdisciplinary reach of Whitehead's organic process cosmology for a variety of topics across science and philosophy, and in dialogue with a variety of historical and contemporary voices. Integrating Whitehead's thought with the insights of Bergson, James, Pierce, Merleau-Ponty, Descola, Fuchs, Hofmann, Grof and many others, contributors from around the world reveal the relevance of process philosophy to physics, cosmology, astrobiology, ecology, metaphysics, aesthetics, psychedelics, and religion. A global collection, this book expresses multivocal possibilities for the development of process cosmology after Whitehead.
Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan; 1st ed. 2022 edition (December 14, 2021)
Language : English
Hardcover : 481 pages
ISBN-10 : 3030813959
ISBN-13 : 978-3030813956
Whitehead’s subtitle for Process and Reality was “an essay in cosmology.” It would be a serious mistake to think that Whitehead’s cosmology was or is complete. The cosmology he developed, partly systematic and partly exploratory, was a beginning not an end. And, in truth, it was not even a beginning, or at least an absolute beginning, since Process and Reality built upon intuitions also found in many previous sages and thinkers.
Whitehead’s cosmology is best understood as a fresh movement in an ongoing and unfinished symphony, prefigured and sometimes surpassed by insights from the Buddha, Heraclitus, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, Lao Tzu, Spinoza, Hegel, and Indigenous traditions the world over. What they have in common are some core intuitions, such as the idea that the universe itself is an activity not a thing, and that something like becoming, or process, is at its core. Or the idea that all things depend on one another, such that the idea of an isolated 'substance' is an illusion. Or the idea that, amid all the becoming, there is something like 'value' or 'importance,' which means that the things of this world, including the material things, truly matter: matter matters. These are but three of many intuitions at the heart of process thinking. A friend playfully suggests that Whitehead's philosophy has 127 core intuitions about what the cosmos is like and who we are within it. I've asked him for the list but haven't received it yet. In my own work I list 20 of them, awaiting the list's arrival. See Twenty Key Ideas in Process Thinking.
This larger and unfinished "process" symphony, building upon such intuitions, has no pre-written score; and in this sense it is more like an improvisational jazz concert, with people making it up as they go, albeit in response to other improvisers. Or, better, as Roland Faber often says, like a wildfire. Whitehead’s cosmology gives off sparks that can ignite other fires.
You'll find many sparks in Process Cosmology: New Integrations in Science and Philosophy in the Palgrave Perspectives in Process Philosophy series, edited by Andrew M. Davis, Maria-Teresa Teixeira, and Wm. Andrew Schwartz. Pick it up carefully if you happen to have a hardback copy, the sparks will burn your fingers with pregnant possibilities, all of which ignite your imagination. All are part of process cosmology in process.
The future? Who knows where the wildfire will lead, but here's hoping that it leads toward a better world, where people live lightly on the earth and gently with one another, for the common good of all, with no one left behind. Such are the four hopes of the process movement: whole persons, whole communities, a whole planet, and holistic thinking (of which this book is an example).
Suggestion: Let the sparks ignite your imagination and inspire your life. Some inspiration can occur just by reading the table of contents and luxuriating in its variety (see below). And, of course, you can buy the book, too. It's a bit pricey, but your local library can afford it, as can institutions of higher learning. And amid the burning, let's thank the spark-throwers, all emerging process thinkers in their own right, part of an ongoing, vibrant tradition whose flames just might help warm the heart and brighten the imagination of a world sorely in need.
January 2, 2022
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| Process Cosmology |
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