This book fills a significant gap in current process scholarship by providing a detailed exposition of Whitehead's and Hartshorne's social and political writings, reconstructing their ideological commitments in depth, and placing them in their historical context. It focuses on four areas of inquiry: the individual and society; the ideals of freedom, equality, and democracy; the use of coercive force within and between societies; and the theory of social progress. As each feature of their political though is examined, Morris shows how Whitehead's and Hartshorne's political commitments are reflected in their metaphysical principles.

Process Philosophy surveys the basic issues and controversies surrounding the philosophical approach known as "process philosophy." Process philosophy views temporality, activity, and change as the cardinal factors for our understanding of the real—process has priority over product, both ontologically and epistemically. Rescher examines the movement’s historical origins, reflecting a major line of thought in the work of such philosophers as Heracleitus, Leibniz, Bergson, Peirce, William James, and especially A. N. Whitehead. Reacting against the tendency to associate process philosophy too closely with this last-named thinker, Rescher writes, “Indeed, one cardinal task for the partisans of process at this particular juncture of philosophical history is to prevent the idea of 'process philosophy' from being marginalized through a limitation of its bearing to the work and influence of any one single individual or group.” This book will appeal to both students and professors of philosophy. Those teachers who have not been trained in process philosophy will welcome this new text by one one of North America’s foremost philosophers as a perspicuous and informative introduction.

We usually think of signs as fixed relations: a red light signifies 'Stop'. In his bold new book, James Williams argues that signs are processes: you see the red light and think 'should I stop?', triggering a creative response. Williams develops this new process philosophy of signs through a formal model , in contrast to earlier structuralist definitions. He draws on the philosophies of Deleuze and Whitehead, criticises earlier work on the sign in biology by Jakob von Uexkull, and connects to contemporary work on process in the philosophy of biology by John Dupre. The process model has wide applications in the arts, humanities and social sciences, and informs their critical debates with science. In defining the sign as essentially political, this radical definition of the sign opens up new possibilities for social and political critique.

This book brings together some of the finest recent critical and expository work on Mead, written by American and European thinkers from diverse traditions. For English-speaking audiences it provides an introduction to recent European work on Mead. The essays reveal the richness of Mead's thought, and will stimulate those who have thought about him from very specific vantage points (behaviorism, symbolic interactionism, pragmatism, etc.) to consider him in new ways.

Process thought is the foundation for studies in many areas of contemporary philosophy, theology, political theory, educational theory, and the religion-science dialogue. It is derived from Alfred North Whitehead's philosophy, known as process theology, which lays a groundwork for integrating evolutionary biology, physics, philosophy of mind, theology, environmental ethics, religious pluralism, education, economics, and more. In Process-Relational Philosophy, C. Robert Mesle breaks down Whitehead's complex writings, providing a simple but accurate introduction to the vision that underlies much of contemporary process philosophy and theology. In doing so, he points to a "way beyond both reductive materialism and the traps of Cartesian dualism by showing reality as a relational process in which minds arise from bodies, in which freedom and creativity are foundational to process, in which the relational power of persuasion is more basic than the unilateral power of coercion." Because process-relational philosophy addresses the deep intuitions of a relational world basic to environmental and global thinking, it is being incorporated into undergraduate and graduate courses in philosophy, educational theory and practice, environmental ethics, and science and values, among others. Process-Relational Philosophy: A Basic Introduction makes Whitehead's creative vision accessible to all students and general readers.

This collection of essays written by leading Whitehead scholars bridges two important philosophical movements in Western philosophy separated by many centuries: Neo-Platonism and Process Philosophy. It focuses on a variety of topics, which can be found in both theories, including creativity, temporality, holism, potentiality, causality, evolution, organism, and multiplicities. They all concur with an integral, natural worldview, showing that wholeness, complexity, and indivisibility are prevalent in Nature. All in all, it brings together Neo-Platonism and Process Philosophy through the impact the former had on the latter. This volume shows that process philosophy can contribute to an integral worldview as it draws on ancient philosophy, setting new paradigms for novel approaches to nature, science and metaphysics.