Process philosophy
pp. 359-383
in: , Twentieth-century Western philosophy of religion 1900–2000, Berlin, Springer, 2000Abstract
The expression, process philosophy, is widely understood today to designate the kind of speculative philosophy associated with Alfred North Whitehead, Charles Hartshorne and those influenced by them. Although not limited to American thinkers, it is in the United States that this approach to philosophy found its most secure footing. Its greatest impact in recent years, however, has been on theology where it stimulated a movement called process theology. Process philosophers and theologians often trace their ancestors back to Heraclitus and his comparison of reality with a river that forever flows and changes. They are particularly stimulated, however, by the widespread acceptance of biological evolution in the nineteenth century and the theory of relativity in the twentieth century. In general, process thinkers are committed to the view that whatever exists in reality may be characterized in terms of processes rather than substances or things. Their thought is particularly concerned with such concepts as time and becoming, freedom and creativity, and the interrelatedness of knower and known. They usually argue for a close relationship between philosophy and the natural sciences, and where a place is made for God, God is understood less in terms of timeless perfection and more in terms of temporal becoming. Whitehead is the major figure in the process tradition and his philosophy is closely connected with the British Neo-Realists whom we discussed in the second part of this book. Unlike many of the neo- realists, however, he insists upon the importance of a comprehensive metaphysics based upon the twentieth century scientific world view, and this takes him in a direction different from most of the neo-realists.