Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Chapter One A Culture of Thought – The Bifurcation of Nature
- Chapter Two Introducing Whitehead's Philosophy – The Lure of Whitehead
- Chapter Three ‘A Thorough-Going Realism’ – Whitehead On Cause and Conformation
- Chapter Four The Value of Existence
- Chapter Five Societies, the Social and Subjectivity
- Chapter Six Language and the Body – From Signification to Symbolism
- Chapter Seven This Nature Which Is Not One
- Chapter Eight Capitalism, Process and Abstraction
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter Two - Introducing Whitehead's Philosophy – The Lure of Whitehead
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Chapter One A Culture of Thought – The Bifurcation of Nature
- Chapter Two Introducing Whitehead's Philosophy – The Lure of Whitehead
- Chapter Three ‘A Thorough-Going Realism’ – Whitehead On Cause and Conformation
- Chapter Four The Value of Existence
- Chapter Five Societies, the Social and Subjectivity
- Chapter Six Language and the Body – From Signification to Symbolism
- Chapter Seven This Nature Which Is Not One
- Chapter Eight Capitalism, Process and Abstraction
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The previous chapter outlined Whitehead's diagnosis of the culture of thought of modernity and the fault lines that sow inconsistency at its heart. This chapter will outline Whitehead's positive philosophical contribution and, concomitantly, the opportunities that he offers contemporary thought and social theory in general. Whitehead's work is not self-explanatory and it comprises philosophical, metaphysical, scientific, historical and sociological elements. It will not be possible to examine all these in detail or to do full justice to the intricacies of his work. Instead, this chapter is offered as an invitation to consider the most fundamental aspects of Whitehead's thought. Borrowing a term from Whitehead, this chapter aims to propose the “lure” (PR, 184 and passim) that his concepts offer. The discussions which follow will introduce Whitehead's key philosophical stance with regard to a range of topics but do not constitute an ‘introduction’ to Whitehead's philosophy. This chapter and this book are not simply an exegesis of his work which can then be applied to a certain set of problems. As Stengers (2002, 2008a) has stressed, it is not as if Whitehead provides a ready-made set of conceptual answers. Rather, he invites us to stop, to consider what and how we are thinking and then to construct novel responses to the problems we inhabit and which inhabit us and our world. This attention to the fabric of our concepts and problems, to that which enables us to think and also limits our thoughts, requires that we attend to those most abiding, assumed and presupposed aspects of our culture of thought which we usually take for granted or ignore.
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- Chapter
- Information
- A. N. Whitehead and Social TheoryTracing a Culture of Thought, pp. 23 - 38Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2011