Process Philosophy and the Emergent Theory of Mind: Whitehead, Lloyd Morgan and Schelling
Aarran Gare
Quote:While some process philosophers have denigrated the emergent theory of mind, what they have denigrated has been ‘materialist’ theories of emergence. My contention is that one of the most important reasons for embracing process philosophy is that it is required to make intelligible the emergence of consciousness. There is evidence that this was a central concern of Whitehead. However, Whitehead acknowledged that his metaphysics was deficient in this regard. In this paper I will argue that to fully understand the emergent theory of mind and its relation to process philosophy it is necessary to recast the whole history of modern philosophy in terms of efforts by philosophers grappling with the relationship between mind and body, or more broadly, consciousness and nature. This will involve granting a central place to Schelling’s philosophy, the ideas that influenced it and how Schelling’s insights were developed by subsequent philosophers. Process philosophy will then be seen as the tradition generated by efforts to transcend the opposition between idealism and materialism, and its promise in this regard, apart from anything else, is what makes it the most promising philosophy for the future.
'Historically, we may regard materialism as a system of dogma set up to combat orthodox dogma...Accordingly we find that, as ancient orthodoxies disintegrate, materialism more and more gives way to scepticism.'
- Bertrand Russell
(2018-11-30, 01:23 AM)Oleo Wrote: I'm slowly wending my way through William James seies of lectures on Pragmatism. Which could also be seen as an attempt to reconcile idealism with materialism. Or if you prefer Science and religion.
The main reason I'm relating this is, James is much easier to comprehend than Whitehead. In my opinion.
Yeah I got the Key to Process Philosophy, which helps lay out Whitehead's ideas much more clearly. Part of this I think is just re-aligning my thinking to the PoV of guys like Whitehead and Bergson.
I do need to dig deeper into the original writings of James & Meyers though...
'Historically, we may regard materialism as a system of dogma set up to combat orthodox dogma...Accordingly we find that, as ancient orthodoxies disintegrate, materialism more and more gives way to scepticism.'
- Bertrand Russell
(This post was last modified: 2018-11-30, 01:57 AM by Sciborg_S_Patel.)
(2018-12-03, 11:01 AM)David001 Wrote: I have found PP incredibly obscure, I think when you feel you have mastered it, it would be great if you wrote a down to earth essay on the subject!
So 1000 years from now?
Seriously though I've been thinking about this issue with regard to a variety of things we discuss here - there needs to be a more clear medium of expression for some of the ideas/concepts.
'Historically, we may regard materialism as a system of dogma set up to combat orthodox dogma...Accordingly we find that, as ancient orthodoxies disintegrate, materialism more and more gives way to scepticism.'
- Bertrand Russell
(2018-11-30, 01:23 AM)Oleo Wrote: I'm slowly wending my way through William James seies of lectures on Pragmatism. Which could also be seen as an attempt to reconcile idealism with materialism. Or if you prefer Science and religion.
The main reason I'm relating this is, James is much easier to comprehend than Whitehead. In my opinion.
I'm a step behind you - I'm almost finished with season 3 of The Good Place on Netflix. Today I was left pondering determinism and free will after watching episode 7.
I do not make any clear distinction between mind and God. God is what mind becomes when it has passed beyond the scale of our comprehension.
Freeman Dyson
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