Process Philosophy

In this book, I examine the principles that philosopher and historian of ideas, Arthur Lovejoy, considers founders of the interpretation of the world as a great hierarchical chain of being. That is to say, the “principle of plenitude”, that of ‘continuity’ and that of ‘qualitative grading’, all related to that of ‘sufficient reason’. But we deal particularly with the Middle Ages interpretation.
After considering how the ‘principle of plenitude’ arises in Platonic philosophy, then that of ‘continuity’ in the Aristotelian and also the mode of application of these principles in the Plotinian system; we select two Medieval philosophers among all those mentioned by Lovejoy: St. Augustine and St. Thomas. The first, because of its clear tendency towards Neoplatonic thinking, it is possible, indeed, to find a Christian version of the principle of plenitude, where Incoate variations of that reflection are the seed that will bear fruit in much more elaborate systems such as the Thomist. St. Augustine takes the Neoplatonic ideas of the self-diffusing high Good and the ‘principle of plenitude’ and leads them towards the constitution of a full but contingent universe. On the other hand, the second author, Thomas Aquinas, separates himself from the Platonic conception to think of a much more contingent universe, founded on the free divine gift of the esse. He elaborates a very complete and sophisticated theory about the divine Will and concludes conceiving a universe where necessity is nuanced.
There isn´t just an absolute necessity but also a hypothetical, which guarantees that the Necessary Being himself has the freedom to choose the creation of a merely contigent world. In the end we found very suggestive the theory created by Lovejoy, but irrelevant, rigorously speaking, to the philosophy of the Aquinate.

"Michel Weber et Pierfrancesco Basile (sous la direction de), Chromatikon III. Annuaire de la philosophie en procès — Yearbook of Philosophy in Process, Louvain-la-Neuve, Presses universitaires de Louvain, 2007. (300 p. ; ISBN 978-2-8746-3083-5 ; 23 € ; http://www.i6doc.com/fr/livre/?GCOI=28001100028210 ; http://www.i6doc.com/en/livre/?GCOI=28001100028210; http://www.i6doc.com/doc/chromatikon3 & http://www.i6doc.com/doc/chromatikon3-eng)

Table
Michel Weber, Avant-Propos & Foreword
I. Séminaires de recherche — Research Seminars
Pierfrancesco Basile, The Reality of Forms
Jean-Marie Breuvart, Husserl et Whitehead, sur l’Intentionnalité
Didier Debaise, Life and Orders
Ronny Desmet, The Rebirth of the Ether
Guillaume Durand, Les objets perceptuels du Professeur Whitehead
Franck Robert, Penser la couleur avec Process and Reality
Xavier Verley, Sentir : Whitehead et Merleau-Ponty
II. Etudes critiques — Critical Studies
Jean-Pascal Alcantara, Le rôle des mathématiques dans la genèse whiteheadienne
Une Sœur de Saint-Jean, Un Principe que les religions appellent « Dieu »
Laura Ilinescu, Vérité et pouvoir dans le Léviathan de Thomas Hobbes
Marc Maesschalck, Raison et événement chez Jean Ladrière
Pierre Montebello, Nietzsche, une philosophie de la nature
Michel Weber, Contact Made Vision: The Apocryphal Whitehead
III. Comptes rendus — Critical Reviews
Stéphan Galetic : James, Essais d’empirisme radical
Ronny Desmet : Lacoste Lareymondie, Une philosophie pour la physique quantique
IV. Informations réticulaires — Reticular News
Discussion: David Ray Griffin, A Reply to Alexander Cockburn
Notes : Peter H. Hare, On Gertrude Stein and Mathematical Logic
Interview : Carlo Sini, Luca Gaeta and Luca Vanzago, The Milano School
Tribute: Leemon McHenry, T.L.S. Sprigge, the Last Idealist
Séminaires — Seminars
Publications
Table des matières — Table of Contents
"

How much does stimulus input shape perception? The common-sense view is that our
perceptions are representations of objects and their features and that the stimulus structures the perceptual object. The problem for this view concerns perceptual biases as responsible for distortions and the subjectivity of perceptual experience. These biases are increasingly studied as constitutive factors of brain processes in recent neuroscience. In neural network models the brain is said to cope with the plethora of sensory information by predicting stimulus regularities on the basis of previous experiences. Drawing on this development, this chapter analyses perceptions as processes. Looking at olfaction as a model system, it argues for the need to abandon a stimulus- centred perspective, where smells are thought of as stable percepts, computationally linked to external objects such as odorous molecules. Perception here is presented as a measure of changing signal ratios in an environment informed by expectancy effects from top-down processes.

International Relations and Identity International Relations and Identity examines the issue of collective political identity formation and expands the concept of the international beyond the notion of states. Providing a dialogical approach to questions of identity and alterity in ...

This chapter argues that scientific and philosophical progress in our understanding of the living world requires that we abandon a metaphysics of things in favour of one centred on processes. We identify three main empirical motivations for adopting a process ontology in biology: metabolic turnover, life cycles, and ecological interdependence. We show how taking a processual stance in the philosophy of biology enables us to ground existing critiques of essentialism, reductionism, and mechanicism, all of which have traditionally been associated with substance ontology. We illustrate the consequences of embracing an ontology of processes in biology by considering some of its implications for physiology, genetics, evolution, and medicine. And we attempt to locate the subsequent chapters of the book in relation to the position we defend.

An schematic outline of a coherent alternative to the "Anselmian" greatest-being theology that develops themes from the existential tradition, panentheism, process thought, and contemporary open theism. This approach depends centrally on a process-conception of perfection.

Environmental ethics has been compared to a bicycle brake on an international jet airliner; it is ineffective. Here I show how and why an ecological ethics based on process philosophy could be effective against the forces driving global environmental destruction. However, this will involve a radical transformation in what are taken to be the problems of ethics and how ethical philosophy is understood. Ethics needs to be centrally concerned with the virtues required to develop and sustain desirable social forms. To address global environmental problems ecological ethics must concern itself with the virtues required to develop and sustain democracy. Developing these virtues, it is argued, will involve reversing the growing fragmentation of work to revive a feeling of responsibility for creating a better world. Such an ethics must not only provide guidance for action, but also provide people with a sense of their place in and role in history and nature and an inspiring vision to motivate them to work for a better world. Process philosophy can provide such an ecological ethics not only because it can justify respect for all living beings, but also because it is a revolt against the fragmentation of intellectual, cultural, and social life which led to the trivialization of philosophy in the first place.

In my talk, I will present key ideas of my four-year research project "Bio-Agency and Natural Freedom" which aims to defeat free will scepticism on a fresh metaphysical basis informed by biology. I will proceed from the diagnosis that a convincing naturalist account of both human free will and human agency is prevented from the outset by the mechanistic-physicalist view of nature espoused by the majority of metaphysicians. More specifically, I will show that mechanistic physicalism, being part of a broadly substance or thing ontological orientation, makes it impossible to explain how human agency fits into the natural world and that, as a consequence of this, we are at a loss with respect to human free will too. In other words, we need to solve the problem of agency first before we can hope to solve the problem of free will, and to this end we need to radically revise our most fundamental ontological commitments. On this basis, I will then propose a therapy that reflects and brings together two recent developments in the philosophy of biology: the increasing interest in, and appreciation of, bio-agency, i.e., the capability of organisms to interact with the environment in an adaptive manner, and the emerging turn towards an understanding of organisms as processes rather than as substances or things. Human as well as non-human agents, I will argue, are biological beings and, i.e., a particular type of process. They are dynamical from tip to toe and endowed with agential capacities as a function of their dynamical organisation. Metaphysically speaking, this means to endorse a process ontology of both biological agents and their actions. I will explain how the resulting bio-process account of agency solves the metaphysical problem of agency, and I conclude by indicating how this may also help us with tackling the problem of free will.

The Austrian Science Fund (FWF) has awarded me € 341,176.50 to carry out a four-year ‘Elise Richter’ research project on “Bio-Agency and Natural Freedom” at the University of Vienna, Austria. The project explores the biological roots of free will, advancing a novel and scientifically informed libertarian account of free will (“bio-processual libertarianism”). I collaborate with an interdisciplinary team of scholars, namely Björn Brembs (Biology, Regensburg, Germany), John Dupré (Philosophy of Science, Exeter, UK), Johannes Jaeger (Biology, Vienna, Austria), Josef Quitterer (Metaphysics, Innsbruck, Austria) and Helen Steward (Metaphysics, Leeds, UK). The project will run from September 2019 to August 2023. More details on the research project are to be found on my personal website: https://www.annesophiemeincke.com/philosophy and on the website of the University of Vienna: https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/projects/bioagency-and-natural-freedom(2e075676-75f5-4871-bfd7-fdc2eedd7a29).html.

This short chapter appears in Partnering With God: Exploring Collaboration in Open and Relational Theology. Edited by Thomas J. Oord et al. (SacraSage Press, 2021).
The creative process by which possibilities become actualities, has much to do with your desire.

My analysis of the changed landscape of gay partying in Sydney, "Complex Events" looks at the impact of current policing practices (drug dogs) on the shapes gay partying is taking: its forms, pleasures, risks, contexts and sociomaterial implications – especially in the context of the increased use of online hook-up apps

Frank Herbert, author of the Dune series, a 6-part science fiction novel that explores the roles religion, politics, ecology, technology, corporations and economics meld together around a certain planet and a distinct commodity, the spice melange, has written an astounding work.  There have been various attempts at turning it into a film, the first being a cult classic, yet never able to achieve the essence of the book.  The second, a mini-series that further accomplished the goal of the book, still missed the essential portions of the series, that of fate, and of the loss of the most precious book which is one of the most celebrated of science fiction novels that discusses and critiques the venture of a society that is inundated by religion, in particular a universe run by a religious society of a God with their priests and priestesses.  A recurring theme throughout Frank Herbert's six titles is quite prevalent: In a place where manipulation is the key to control, and fate is the ultimate outcome, can a god-like being produce a more positive outcome?  Can the will of god and god's fate prove better for society?  How does one break away from the inevitable future, the path laid out for us?  Can one escape fate, or are they doomed to accept it?  Can it be controlled?  What are some of the ways in which one can break free from the fate of destiny?  Is there only one destiny?

In a similar vein, the postmodern work within the last 50 years has dealt with the same issue, albeit in diverse ways.  In a move away from the modern enlightenment perspective, what does the world look like when the notion of the metanarrative is held suspect?  How can we account for the various perspectives in society?  How can one be individual, yet maintain oneself within society?  How can one survive as a distinct individual, subversing the labels brought on by the virtual realities that seek to override who we are and what we should be thinking of?  Postmodern thought provides a framework for discussing the issues in Frank Herbert Dune series, discussions on how systems of theory can in many ways end up controlling our perspectives, thus becoming like god.  It is god-like because it controls how we see and how we proceed from that event.  In controlling everything it can lead us to a dark future.  This is what postmodernity pushes against, the reign of a singular view of the world, creating a system that encompasses all things, labeling them, domesticating them, and thus controlling them.  Postmodernity, at least in its positive reception, pushes and pulls for a future that is open, that introduces uncertainty, difference/differance, and novelty, creating a world that is sustaining, a hope for the future.  In order for this to happen, fate needs to be changed; an apoc/alypse, an un/covering of the virtual to the real, a world of webs of connection with multiple meanings and futures moving forward.  However, the deeper realization is not to remove the virtual, but also see its connections in that web, opening itself to the process.

So in this paper I will explore Dune and its interplay with postmodern thinkers on the subject of fate.  In particular, I will look at the lives of the protagonists Paul Atreides, his father Leto Atreides (albeit briefly), his son Leto Atreides II.  This lineage of generations provides a key to what I am trying to get to in this paper.  That only through the process of connections, through difference, novelty, in the hope of the next generation in all its differences, is the removal of fate as a single trajectory.

In 1870, Wilhelm Richard Wagner (1813-1883) wrote an essay to celebrate the centennial of Beethoven's birth. In this essay Wagner made the case that music is, unlike any other object we create or are attentive to in experience , in an immediate analogical relationship with the activity of the Schopenhauerian "will" and is always enlivened. By drawing on this idea, we can not only conceive of music as in an immediate analogical relationship with our personal experience, but as perhaps the only object of cognition that is in a constant state of personal vitality. It is by that very continuous vitality that it can return us to our own personhood with deeper insight and perspective. The essay concludes by exploring how attending to the musical object as a spiritual (existen-tial) exercise might reconnect us to our roots in sensus communis, educate us on our common personhood, and play an ethical role in our lives.

What bearing did the works of Whitehead have on the late Merleau-Ponty and his emerging ontology of flesh? When gauged by analysis of citations alone, Whitehead's influence on Merleau-Ponty appears to be a brief and minor encounter. However, despite the paucity of explicit reference to Whitehead, there is an argument to be made that Whitehead's philosophy played a pivotal role in the development of Merleau-Ponty's late thought. This can be understood in relation to Whitehead's theory of education, which consists of three stages: romance, precision, and generalization. It will also be shown how Whitehead's theory of education corresponds to Merleau-Ponty's incomplete phenomenological reduction. From this, we are provided with access to a metaphenomenological reading of Merleau-Ponty's oeuvre, which can be understood as an ongoing movement between phenomenology and ontology, a movement in which Whitehead's thought played a significant—if largely “invisible”—role.

Without a doubt, the question of rave culture’s politics – or lack thereof – has polarized debate concerning the cultural, social and political value of rave culture not only within electronic dance music culture (EDMC) studies, but in disciplines that look to various manifestations of subculture and counterculture for political innovation. It is time for the groundwork of this debate to be rethought. Ask not what rave culture’s politics can do for you; nor even what you can do for it. Rather, ask what the unexamined account of politics has ever done for anyone; then question all that rave culture has interrogated – from its embodied and technological practices to its production of ecstatic and collective subjectivities – and begin to trace how it has complicated the very question of the political, the communal and the ethical. This complication begins with the dissolution of the boundaries of labour and leisure and the always-already co-optation of culture. To the negation of ethics, community and politics, this tracing calls for the hauntology of technics, precarity and exodus. And it ends with a list of impossible demands demonstrating the parallax gap of rave culture’s politics.

Quel est le secret de Pythagore ? On pourrait avancer que, par définition, s’il y a secret, il est caché et n’est pas dévoilable, ou ne sera pas dévoilé. Le vrai secret est celui dont on ne soupçonne même pas l’existence. On peut toutefois approcher tangentiellement le cœur du pythagorisme à partir d’un idéal qui a traversé les âges : celui qui est juste et parfait devient digne d’entrer en commerce avec les dieux et de bénéficier de leurs enseignements. Une double harmonie est pour ce faire requise : être juste géométriquement, et intègre moralement, c’est-à-dire, d’une part, faire preuve de droiture et d’équité, et, d’autre part, de sagesse et d’équilibre. En conséquence, on examine ici la métaphysique numérique de Pythagore, sa religion gnostique, et sa morale ascétique.

Pythagore juste et parfait. Philosophie ou ésotérisme ?, Louvain-la-Neuve, Éditions Chromatika, 2018. (ISBN 978-2-930517-58-2)

Whitehead's thought continues to attract attention in mathematics and metaphysics, but few have recognized with Roland Faber, the deeply mystical dimensions of his philosophy. "If you like to phrase it so," Whitehead states, "philosophy is mystical. For mysticism is direct insight into depths as yet unspoken." Where, however, do these unspoken depths speak in Whitehead, and what are their associated themes in his philosophy? For the first time, Depths As Yet Unspoken gathers together Faber's most compelling writings on Whitehead's mutually immanent themes of mysticism, multiplicity, and divinity. In dialogue with a diversity of voices, from process philosophers and theologians, to mystical and poststructuralist thinkers, Faber creatively articulates Whitehead's "theopoetic" process cosmogony in its relevance to metaphysics, cosmology, everyday experience, religious pluralism, and interreligious violence, spirituality, and longstanding concerns of the theological tradition, including creation, the Trinity, revelation, religious experience, and divine mystery. Although Whitehead's mystical inclinations may not be obvious at first, they in fact constitute the apophatic backdrop to his entire philosophical corpus. Through Faber's work, Whitehead's philosophy is revealed to be nothing short of a remarkable endeavor to speak to the unfathomable depth of things.

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Even when the Enlightenment Project—where reason (or
“rationality”) is believed to be the key in solving many human
problems through the development of science and technology—is repudiated by continental philosophers, it can be replaced by the Intellectual Project which installs reason as necessary in all forms of intellectual discourse, be it in the sciences or the humanities. Continental philosophers themselves—especially the existentialists and the postmodernists—cannot do away with reason (“rationality”)
when they pursue a line of argument that is against reason
(“rationality”) itself. The present article discusses how philosophy can contribute to the development of the Intellectual Project, an intellectual theorizing aimed at uplifting groups or nations less developed to a stage where benefits of intellectualization become a positive contribution to the general welfare of the people. Towards that end, the article talks about the prospects of the intellectual development of Cambodia through philosophy.

"Carter's music poses struggles of opposition, for instance in timbre (Double Concerto), space (String Quartet No. 3) or pulse (String Quartet No. 5). His preference for the all-interval tetrachords, 4–Z15 [0, 1, 4, 6] and 4–Z29 [0, 1, 3, 7], is also well known. From these facets of Carter's music, I develop a narrative interpretation of his Petrarch sonnet–inspired solo flute piece, Scrivo in Vento (1991). Specifically, I forge narrative pathways by imagining the two tetrachords as active agents opposed in competition. Previous Scrivo analyses (Capuzzo 2002; Childs 2006) stress continuity by revealing Q-transforms and common-note voice leading between the tetrachords. While acknowledging such features, my analysis emphasises oppositional struggle by tracing the tetrachords as separate entities which cooperate and conflict as they manoeuvre to outdo each other.

The analysis advances three theses: (1) it guides listening to and reading Scrivo in a way which resonates with Carter's concern for the aesthetics of oppositional struggle, his choice of a sonnet as inspiration and his affinity for all-interval tetrachords; (2) it shows that music-analytical detail can be organised into dramatic narratives by (a) projecting dramatic roles onto categories asserted by a formal theory and (b) treating the formal theory's relations metaphorically as actions performed by each role as the musical work unfolds; and (3) it shows how detailed pc-set analysis can support a Heraclitean view of music: a flux of opposing forces seeking and resisting unity."

資本と大学の重なり合いが深まっていくのが見られるようになった、ここ二〇年のあいだに
価、利益、近年の経営戦略論の研究者たちは。特定しようとするものである—批判理論のなかに—起きる地点を
これらと同じ存在。プロセス的存在論や関係的存在論に目を向けた、成長をめぐる論理を新たに作り直すために、値
本稿は経営。批判地理学者によって好んで用いられてきた、論が空間を固定されないものとして再考する手法として
不明瞭、必然的に搾取の構造を再生産し、学の文献におけるドゥルーズの流用をケーススタディとして参照しながら
。こうした存在論がどのようにして前提視しているのかを示すものである、なものにもする生命論を

林凌訳/マクファーレン・キー

“Creating the future” is a notion introduced by Alfred North Whitehead to define the task of universities and the function of philosophy. Implicitly, it is a rejection of the idea that the future is already determined, and in some sense, already exists, with the appearance of temporal becoming an illusion. “Creation” originally meant “the action of causing to exist”, or “a coming into being”. The “future” is not normally considered to be what can be created. Originally, it meant “yet to be”. It now tends to be defined in relation to time, as “the time to come”, where “time” is assumed to be an independent existent along with space as the “containers” of material beings, with the future in some sense pre-existing its becoming present. The quantity of “matter” or “mass-energy” is assumed to be constant and to change its position and configurations in predictable ways over time. To refer to the future as being created is to reject this view of the universe and the basic concepts that define it, replacing these with concepts that can make intelligible the freedom of and creativity of people, the future as in process of being created, and humans as partially responsible for what future is created. It is to recognize that there are real possibilities that can be envisioned, understood, chosen, and brought into existence, with some process philosophers claiming that new possibilities can also be created.

Cet article présente les apports d’une approche processuelle et rythmologique afin de rendre compte des temporalités constitutives des processus d’apprentissage, de transformation et de développement. La spécificité d’une telle approche est abordée à partir de trois aspects caractérisant les recherches sur les temporalités de la formation : la terminologie mobilisée, les catégorisations opérées et les formes de raisonnement à travers lesquelles les relations entre des temporalités hétérogènes sont rendues intelligibles.

M. Weber, « Rendre le visible invisible », Kairos 48, février/mars 2021, p. 16.

Toute addiction est, par définition, problématique : il s'agit d'une consommation dont on ne peut se passer malgré les nuisances qu'elle entraîne. Certaines assuétudes sont bien sûr plus onéreuses, nébuleuses, insidieuses et pernicieuses que d'autres. Les écrans dont il est question ici sont multifonctions ; chronophages, ils sont aussi ubiquistes (présents partout), contribuant à estomper la différence entre les mondes public et privé. Ils possèderaient toutefois les vertus de leurs vices, c'est-à-dire d'être des outils d'émancipation, de communication, et de culture. L'écran serait le poème moderne. Invoquer le sens commun permet pourtant certains courts-circuits interprétationnels tendant à prouver le contraire. Remarquons, pour commencer, que le premier sens d'écran est celui de protection et d'obstacle (XIVe). Il s'agit d'une sorte de meuble dont on se sert pour se garantir de l'action directe du feu (Littré 1882, cf. Le Robert 1979). L'écran empêche ainsi, à la fois, de se blesser et de voir. Ce n'est qu'au XIXe siècle qu'il vient à nommer une surface de projection (1864), jusqu'à devenir, cent ans plus tard, le « petit écran ». L'écran (dé)voile alors ce qu'il veut bien montrer et ne blesse que le spectateur non averti des dangers qu'il représente. Cette ambiguïté constitutive-voiler et dévoiler-se décline en trois temps : atomisme, conformisme, et autisme. L'écran est tout d'abord atomisateur de la société, c'est-à-dire qu'il est producteur de dissociété 2. C'est un outil d'isolement (on dit maintenant de confinement) qui empêche la communication en personne, voire la dissuade.

In this paper I discuss and try to show that Process Philosophy is the superior metaphysical framework
as opposed to the traditional substance metaphysics. I introduce substance metaphysics and some of its
limitations with special focus on Gödel’s incompleteness theorem, as applied to metaphysical systems. I
then introduce Process philosophy and two process philosophical systems- Whiteheads’ Philosophy of
organism and Buddhist philosophy, as expounded by Nagarjuna in the Mulamadhyamikakarika. I discuss
the response of both philosophies to Gödel’s theorem and proceed to highlight and analyze some
common motifs appearing in the two systems. I conclude by making a case for the superiority of Process
philosophy as a metaphysical framework for philosophy.

阿尔弗雷德·诺思·怀特海的过程哲学认为，自然的审美连续体是由诸视角 构成的系统，每一个视角所呈现的情境（occasion）都近似于一个莱布尼兹的视角、单子，或者说形而上学的点，它们作为大宇宙里的一个小宇宙，就如一面活的镜子，从自己的独特角度映照出整个世界。在本文的第一部分，作者分析了形而上学的视角学说，它是怀特海关于自然的生态学概念的基础。在此也简要考察了怀特海的视角学说是如何阐明日本关于自然的美学概念的，自然被形象地比喻为因陀罗网，在因陀罗网中，一事物就好比一颗闪闪发光的宝珠，从各自的视点映照出整个世界。本文的第二部分剖析了怀特海视角学说的发展，先是乔治·赫伯特·米德，接着是劳伦斯·柯尔伯格和于尔根·哈贝马斯，他们将视角说发展成一个道德上变换视角的伦理进程，即自由的道德行动者学习如何采用共同体中他者的视角看问题。作者在第三部分提出了自己的观点，建议将道德上变换视角的步骤当作一种新的环境伦理学和环境美学的基础。

The title of Pierre Macherey’s famous book (Hegel ou Spinoza) published in 1977 summed up a generation of French philosophers that took this question extremely seriously. Battle lines were drawn, and a whole slew of fascinating debates could be organized along the Hegel-Spinoza axis. In the Hegel corner, we have the bulk of Marxist thought that took inspiration from the lectures of Alexander Kojeve, followed by the work of the Frankfurt School members (Adorno and company). Then came Jean Hyppolite’s careful studies of the Phenomenology of Spirit, and the work of Sartre and Lacan, Today, Badiou and Zizek beat their Hegelian drum with pride.

Team Spinoza’s roster isn’t too shabby either: Althusser and his school of structuralist Marxism looked to Spinoza as their philosophical patron saint that would redress the corrupting influence of Hegel in philosophy and politics. Deleuze was even more stridently averse to Hegel, going so far as to propose that we “forget Hegel”. Deleuze wrote several books on Spinoza and doubtless saw the Ethics as offering a preferable alternative to the vast Hegelian system. Finally, Pierre Macheray, in his above- mentioned book, appears to lean toward Spinoza while nonetheless giving Hegel a great deal of respect and credit. (We have left out many other past and contemporary philosophers who have also explicitly taken sides in this debate.)

There have been surprisingly few works of scholarship that take the Hegel and Spinoza divide as their principal object. The following paper will hopefully contribute to the filling in of this absence in some small way, while bringing another philosophical titan into the fray: Alfred North Whitehead. Our angle of approach to this debate will be theological. It is however, difficult, if not impossible, to separate theological considerations from metaphysical ones in the case of Spinoza and Hegel. Although Whitehead wrote extensively on theological matters, and his work spawned a great deal of constructive theological debate, religion was not among his most central concerns as a philosopher. Whitehead was well aware, however, that in theology, the most important metaphysical problems are often sharpened and fore grounded. A philosopher of science and expert on Whitehead, Randall E. Auxier, has even gone so far as to claim that Whitehead does not have a fully fleshed out theological position of his own; it is therefore up to us speculate about what that position might have been and what Whitehead’s God would actually look like.

This chapter questions the reductionist assumption that bits of lifeless matter must have grouped themselves into complex patterns that eventually became living conscious beings. There is no decisive reason to question Peirce’s suggestion that mind came first and that mechanical causality emerges when regions of a fundamentally conscious universe settle into deterministic habits. If we define consciousness in a way that ignores clearly accidental properties such as looking and behaving like us, some form of panpsychism is not only possible but plausible. Ignoring this possibility could cause us to subconsciously exclude legitimate avenues of research.

In this paper, we describe an experimental approach to the study of coordinated group activity (ensemble) through the development of a responsive media system and enacted movement-based research. Interested in how ensembles emerge, we take into account the material conditions of phenomena associated with coordination and entrainment. To this end we share about the development of a responsive media system and as well as a series of movement experiments with the system. As a unframing tactic, we suspend ontological assumptions which occlude, mask, or ignore relation and event as emergent and unprestateable. This tactic belies both our observations of event as well as the design of responsive behaviors in the media environment apparatus. Our investigations yielded insights for us about embodied experience with respect to technicity.

Argues for value of responsible speculative thinking in the context of crisis • Investigates intersections between Gilles Deleuze and Alfred North Whitehead • Situates the development of process ontologies in the lineage of radical empiricism and compares this to other contemporary speculative ontologies • Compares Whiteheadean feeling to Deleuze and Guattari's Spinozist-inspired deployment of affect • Identifies three points of potential divergence between Deleuze and Whitehead: the status of temporal discontinuity or continuity, the relation between Deleuze's virtual' and Whitehead's 'eternal objects' , and the question of lived value, thematised through a discussion of what Deleuze calls the 'beautiful soul' Hardback £80 | $105 December 2020 240 pages ISBN: 9781474466912 Also available in ebook Launch discount: save 30% Visit https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book/9781474466912 and use the discount code NEW30

Abstract
This research thesis explores the method and content in the Evangelical process model of relational theism as advanced in the writings of Thomas Jay Oord. The specific aim of the thesis is to evaluate and critique Oord’s model of divine providence, identifying the internal inconsistencies within Oord’s philosophical and theological framework, problems in his methodology, and clearing up misconceptions he and the process tradition have of classical theism, while constructively showing that the general sense of Scripture agrees more with classical theism than process theism, as it pertains to divine power.

This thesis concludes that Oord’s Evangelical process theology is insufficient as a biblical model due to its inability to harmonize with the various complexities and themes of Scripture, which a robust doctrine of providence requires. While admitting that the Bible does not have an internally consistent definition of love, Oord set out to formulate a definition of love, descriptive of God’s love in Scripture, claiming that it is the dominant form of love in the Bible. His attempt, however, proved unsatisfactory because his methods were flawed in that he limited his scope to biblical texts that supported a philosophically contrived definition of love. Oord’s process metaphysic placed a stricture on God’s power that was exegetically unjustifiable, and he advanced a straw-man argument against a conception of coercion, which comprised his strongest objection against classical theology, that classical theism does not, and never has, affirmed. His model is inadequate as a viable alternative to classical theology because its metaphysics cannot support and account for biblical truths he affirms that were originally formulated in the long-standing classical tradition of Christian theism, which he rejects. Oord claims that Scripture functioned as his primary source and guide in the formulation of his theology. However, this thesis concludes that his theological framework is axiomatically grounded in process metaphysics, serving as the “handler” instead of the “handmaiden” in constructing a relational model of Christian theism.

This paper is dedicated to the victims of those continuing tragic events that started on September 11. Human communication is a crucial factor ensuring the survival of our species. Any message carried through by means of a violent act leading to destruction and self-destruction represents a
fundamental breakdown in meaningful communicative activities. As pertaining to the philosophy of education, the problematics of language and communication relates to the understanding of human
subjectivity (Garrison 1999a) in terms of human behaviors, actions and thoughts. The paper, by placing the notion of communication in the framework of complex dynamical systems, posits communication as a
continuous and open-ended process. The concepts of poiesis, or making, and autopoiesis, as—literally— self-making, or making of the “self”, are critical for describing the dynamics of such a process understood
as creative—versus destructive—and potentially leading to the production of new meanings, habits and values.

The paper draws from John Dewey’s philosophy of education devoted to the transformations of our old “habitual attitudes” (Dewey 1922, p. 26) and creation of new, intelligent habits or, as Dewey called them,
“organizations” (Dewey 1922, p. 22). The paper also introduces some views on language and communication derived from the works of the French poststructuralist philosopher Gilles Deleuze. Reading Deleuze through the lens of Dewey’s process philosophy strengthens the possibility that
“poststructuralism—its genealogy, transmission, development and application—has ongoing significance for educational theory” (Peters 1998, p. 18) as well as for actual classroom practice. If, as a result of such a
“coupling” (see further below) of two thought-processes, Dewey’s philosophy itself undergoes some transformation, it only confirms the fact, as Jim Garrison (1995) has indicated, that Dewey would welcome,
in accord with his own philosophical project, the reconstruction of his own ideas so as “to better respond to the vicissitudes of new times and contexts” (Garrison 1995, p. 1). The notion of communication as shared, that is as a process leading to the emergence of commonly shared meanings, questions the accepted view of the Self as autonomous entity, in the tradition of liberal
education, and presents human subjectivity as a function of an ongoing complex process of multiple interactions. Epistemology overlaps with ethics, and the educational practice in a classroom becomes a selforganizing
process of self-discovery in terms of assigning novel meanings to students’ own experiences.
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Keywords— autopoiesis, becoming, complexity, Deleuze, Dewey, difference, desire ."

El problema de la unidad temática en la obra de Gilbert Simondon es una de las cuestiones más discutidas en la literatura sobre el autor. La hipótesis de lectura que plantea la presente tesis ofrecería, por primera vez, una solución verdaderamente satisfactoria a este problema. Se recupera la unidad programática de los textos, el programa de la axiomatización de la ontogénesis, y partiendo de la imagen que encierra el esquema del modulador, el paradigma elemental de la filosofía de la individuación, se elabora una noción paradigmática que permite interpretar esta unidad en comunicación con la unidad anterior en una unidad de génesis, la génesis de esa axiomatización como el esbozo de una teoría de los campos morfogenéticos. La propia elucidación de la noción de relación, entendida como interfaz, abre esta vía. Como resultado de esta investigación, con la invención de un acto enciclopédico que conjugaría los diferentes modos del pensamiento, se pone a punto una máquina de aprendizaje. La filosofía de Simondon se convertirá entonces en una tecnología epistemológica, una razón filosófica abocada a la búsqueda de nuevos paradigmas, y también en una metafilosofía, en cuanto deviene filosofía de la historia de la filosofía. Se rehabilita así un pensamiento ucrónico, retrofuturista, creando las condiciones para un simondonismo que sea tan contemporáneo como es extemporáneo.

Michel Weber, Anarchie, gnose et sagesse. Essai typologique, Louvain-la-Neuve, Éditions Chromatika, 2021. (978-2-930517-84-1)


Mettre en faisceau, dans un même argument, anarchie, gnose et sagesse pourra sembler peu académique. On trouvera ici des raisons de penser qu'il n'en est rien : une communauté de vues s'atteste non seulement historiquement, mais aussi conceptuellement. En un mot, elle se nomme volonté d'authenticité, qui est exigence d'autonomie. Il faut donc faire prévaloir l'autorité sur le pouvoir, la connaissance sur la foi, et la vie sur la mort. Michel Weber est professeur adjoint de philosophie à l'Université du Saskatchewan (Canada). Il pratique également la thérapie psychocorporelle ayurvédique et le coaching existentiel (Cabinet Metabyanga).

RESUMO

Esta dissertação investiga processos criativos e pedagógicos nas Dança de salão (DS) com ênfase em aspectos tratados como condução. Danço aqui, através da necessidade de compreender articulações e sensações nestas práticas, com o escopo conceitual da filosofia do processo nos trabalhos de Erin Manning, Brian Massumi e seu fundador Alfred N. Whitehead, bem como com a filosofia da diferença em Gilles Deleuze e Félix Guattari. No trabalho de pesquisa-criação apresento uma revisão bibliográfica do campo a partir de artigos, dissertações e teses brasileiras entre 2010 e 2020 sobre DS e dialogo com minhas perspectivas junto à Grão Cia de dança, à parceria com a artista Maria Claudia Reginato e a performance-diálogo Karma e no estudo de pedagogias em movimento através do projeto aulas-entrecruzadas. Exploro aqui uma política imanente à condução baseada em políticas táteis engajadas na relação e reflito sobre uma ética dos devires que atesta pelo direito a diferenciar-se e individuar-se de dentro da dança-dançada. Desenvolvo assim o conceito de condução-em-formação, que sugere condução como um conceito múltiplo e ressonante para pensarmos um fenômeno mais-que-humano, complexo e que envolve toda a ecologia das relações e espaços de dança (para além das técnicas, códigos e formas previstas nas DS tradicionais). Defendo aqui que já existem múltiplos movimentos em processo de condução, a partir da ressonância entre os corpos vibráteis e planos de pré-movimento, pré-forma e pré-linguagem; fenômeno onde se corporificam movimentos já em movimento e que tornar-se-ão proposições possíveis de serem validadas pelas(os) dançantes, conceito que desenvolvo como conducorporificação. Por fim, construo a proposição de um movimento do pensamento para uma DS mais-que-DS. Uma DS esboçada por entre possibilidades de proposições em movimento e através de decisões situadas no instante. Dessa forma, alcanço a noção fundamental de autonomia da condução, indicando uma DS sempre-mais-que-a-duas/dois dançada através de sempre mais-que-uma-proposição possível para ambos os corpos.

Palavras-chave: Condução. Proposição. Danças de salão. Estudos da Dança. Filosofia Processual.

ABSTRACT

This dissertation investigates creative and pedagogical processes in Social Dances with emphasis on aspects treated as leading and following techniques, that in Brazil is called "condução", reason why I choose to translate here as "conduction". I dance here, through the need for understanding articulations and sensations in these practices, with the conceptual scope of process philosophy in the works of Erin Manning, Brian Massumi and its founder Alfred N. Whitehead, as well as with the philosophy of difference in Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. In the research-creation work I present a bibliographic review of the field, based on Brazilian articles, dissertations and theses on Social Dances between 2010 and 2020, engaging it in a dialogue with my perspectives within Grão Cia de dança (Grão Dance Company), the partnership with artist Maria Claudia Reginato and the performance-dialogue Karma (performance-dialogo-Karma) and in the studies of pedagogies in movement through the project aulas-entrecruzadas (crossed-lessons project). Here I explore an immanent politics of conduction based on tactile politics engaged in relation and I reflect on an ethic of the becoming that attests to the right to differentiate and individuate oneself from inside the dance-danced. Thus, I develop the concept of conduction-in-formation which suggests conduction as a multiple and resonant concept to think of a more-than-human and complex phenomenon that involves all the ecology of dance relations and spaces (beyond the techniques, codes and forms prescribed in traditional Social Dances). I defend that there are already multiple movements in process of conduction, emerging from the resonance between the vibrating bodies and the planes of pre-movement, preform and pre-language, a phenomenon where movements already in movement are embodied and become possible propositions to be validated by the dancers, a concept that I develop here as conductembodiment. Finally, I construct the proposition of a movement of thought for a Social Dance more-than-social Dances. A dance sketched out in-between the moving possibilities of propositions, by situated decisions in the instant. In that, I reach the fundamental notion of the autonomy of the conduction process, indicating a Social Dance (danced in two people) as danced in always-more-than-two by always-more-than-one proposition possible for both bodies.

Key words: Leading and following. Propositions. Social dances. Dance Studies. Process philosophy.

Our understanding of being (ontology) affects how we imagine and build the world. This includes the way we build institutions, we do politics, and we shape our economy. This insight lies at the heart of the deep dive conversation we invite you to. The living process, which some of us call commoning, brings its operational and ethical logic to every sphere-political and economic. It does so at every level that it reaches-micro, meso and macro.

This invitation-only Deep Dive offers twenty people from different disciplines and geographic regions the opportunity to form a common understanding and community around the importance of relational ontologies to societal transformation. We will host a conversation that will weave together various strands of knowledge from philosophers, political scientists, economists, commoners, anthropologists, patterns experts, systems thinkers, and sustainability scientists. We will discuss how society (across sectors) might be designed around a relational ontological shift.

There will be a balance of discussion, practice, and process-oriented sessions, offering space to create, share, and enact the integration we all seek. There will also be opportunities to explore cases that illustrate what a relational ontological shift looks like across various cultural and sectoral contexts. The meeting will finish with agenda-setting exercises that outline how the community we create can grow in concrete outcome-oriented projects.