Twelve papers presented at the International Whitehead Symposium, October 1983 in Bad Homburg, West Germany. Topics include Whitehead's place in the history of philosophy, the connection between empirical results and their metaphysical interpretation, cosmological and anthropological dimensions, and the relation between the philosophical and theological interpretations of creativity. Paper edition (unseen), $16.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Postmodern philosophy is often dismissed as unintelligible, self-contradictory, and as a passing fad with no contribution to make to the problems faced by philosophers in our time. While this characterization may be true of the type of philosophy labeled postmodern in the 1980s and 1990s, David Ray Griffin argues that Alfred North Whitehead had formulated a radically different type of postmodern philosophy to which these criticisms do not apply. Griffin shows the power of Whitehead's philosophy in dealing with a range of contemporary issues—the mind-body relation, ecological ethics, truth as correspondence, the relation of time in physics to the (irreversible) time of our lives, and the reality of moral norms. He also defends a distinctive dimension of Whitehead's postmodernism, his theism, against various criticisms, including the charge that it is incompatible with relativity theory.

A Deleuzian reading of Whitehead and a Whiteheadian reading of Deleuze open the possibility of a critical aesthetics of contemporary culture. In Without Criteria, Steven Shaviro proposes and explores a philosophical fantasy: imagine a world in which Alfred North Whitehead takes the place of Martin Heidegger. What if Whitehead, instead of Heidegger, had set the agenda for postmodern thought? Heidegger asks, “Why is there something, rather than nothing?” Whitehead asks, “How is it that there is always something new?” In a world where everything from popular music to DNA is being sampled and recombined, argues Shaviro, Whitehead's question is the truly urgent one. Without Criteria is Shaviro's experiment in rethinking postmodern theory, especially the theory of aesthetics, from a point of view that hearkens back to Whitehead rather than Heidegger. In working through the ideas of Whitehead and Deleuze, Shaviro also appeals to Kant, arguing that certain aspects of Kant's thought pave the way for the philosophical “constructivism” embraced by both Whitehead and Deleuze. Kant, Whitehead, and Deleuze are not commonly grouped together, but the juxtaposition of them in Without Criteria helps to shed light on a variety of issues that are of concern to contemporary art and media practices.

This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note that the online publication date for this handbook is the date that the first article in the title was published online.

The basic aims of contemporary thinking in education are to cultivate a proper comprehension of the meaning and purpose of education and the role of the teacher, and to develop adequate theoretical and methodological frameworks that combine some of the positive sides of the leading theories, while avoiding their disadvantages. Toward these ends, one excellent candidate for consideration is Alfred North Whitehead’s (1861-1947) process-relational philosophy of education, as set forth in The Aims of Education (1929) and elsewhere. The contributors to this volume analyze Whitehead’s philosophy of education in a detailed and critical fashion, including inquiring into the development of cycle-based approaches to education, like Whitehead’s, in intellectual history as well as its potential objective bases. They also demonstrate how this relates to, and can be integrated with, other leading theories of education and contemporary pedagogical thinking, and identify avenues for its positive, practical application in schooling across the globe as well as in scientific research. The book further critically evaluates current educational practices and the organization of educational institutions in this light and the effectiveness of teaching strategies that are founded upon some of its principles, while also exploring the ramifications of its selection and application in education for society in general, as well as for our common civilizational aspirations, including humanity’s addressing of global problems, such as the ecological crisis. In addition, the volume also serves to lay some of the groundwork for its potential further development.

In "Thinking with Whitehead, " Isabelle Stengers one of today s leading philosophers of science goes straight to the beating heart of Whitehead s thought. Both an erudite yet accessible introduction and a highly advanced commentary, it establishes the mathematician-philosopher as a daring thinker on par with Deleuze, Guattari, and Foucault.