The Harvard Lectures of Alfred North Whitehead, 1925 - 1927: The General Metaphysical Problems of Science(The Edinburgh Critical Edition of the Complete Works of Alfred North Whitehead)

About the Book

This second volume in the critical edition reproduces more than 170 lectures delivered by Alfred North Whitehead at Harvard during his second and third years.
For the first time, readers will be able to see the development of Whitehead's philosophy during the crucial period between the publication of Science and the Modern World and his delivery of the Gifford lectures that would become Process and Reality, as he tests his theories in a classroom setting.
These student notes provide the long-missing window into critical developments in Whitehead's thinking during this time. They challenge longstanding speculations about when exactly Whitehead developed some of his most famous metaphysical concepts, as well as how those concepts are to be properly interpreted against the wider backdrop of his life and thought.
Also included is a transcript of the only known lecture Whitehead delivered on the topic of ethics, two mid-year exams given to his students, and nearly 2,000 footnotes that provide additional context for the lectures and alternative student accounts of key passages.

Table of Contents:
General Introduction Editorial Principles Chronology for Alfred North Whitehead Published Works of Alfred North Whitehead Volume Introduction Philosophy 3b: Philosophy of Science Radcliffe Lectures, Fall 1925 Harvard Lectures, Fall 1925 Fall 1925 Mid-Year Exam Harvard Lectures, Spring 1926 Harvard Lectures, Fall 1926 Fall 1926 Mid-Year Exam Harvard Lectures, Spring 1927 Philosophy 20h: Seminary in Metaphysics, Fall 1926Philosophy 20i: Seminary in Logic, Spring 1927 Social Ethics 20a: Fundamentals Underlying the Social Sciences Philosophy A: History of Philosophy Appendices Diary Entry of George Conger on Whitehead Samples of Original Notes Primary Source Bibliography Bibliography Index.

About the Author :
Brian G. Henning is Professor of Philosophy and of Environmental Studies and Sciences at Gonzaga University and Executive Director of the Whitehead Research Project. Dr. Henning holds a M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in philosophy from Fordham University. He is author or editor of fifteen books and more than thirty-five articles and chapters. His 2005 book, The Ethics of Creativity (University of Pittsburgh Press), won the 2007 Findlay Book Prize from the Metaphysical Society of America for the best work of metaphysics published between 2001 and 2006. He is the Founder and General Editor of The Edinburgh Critical Edition of the Complete Works of Alfred North Whitehead. Joseph Petek is the Director of Research and Publication of the Whitehead Research Project of Gonzaga University and Executive Editor of The Edinburgh Critical Edition of the Complete Works of Alfred North Whitehead. He has co-edited three books on Whitehead: Rethinking Whitehead's Symbolism (2017), Whitehead at Harvard, 19241925 (2020), and The Harvard Lectures of Alfred North Whitehead, 19251927: General Metaphysical Problems of Science (2021). His latest book is Unearthing the Unknown Whitehead (2022), which examines the significance of Whitehead's Harvard lectures and other previously unknown archival materials. George Lucas is Distinguished Chair of Ethics and Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at The United States Naval Academy. He is General Editor of The Edinburgh Critical Edition of the Complete Works of Alfred North Whitehead.

Review :
This volume is undoubtedly a valuable resource for any serious student or scholar of Whitehead, and a must for any library collection devoted to philosophy and science. The second volume of The Harvard Lectures offers more than a historical snapshot or a new opportunity for scholars to debate. It records the twentieth century’s preeminent metaphysician in his most creative phase, responding to student confusions, testing new formulations, and drawing upon everything from classical philosophy and advanced mathematics to recent developments in physics and biology on the way to a stunningly comprehensive cosmological scheme. … Future interpretation of his published works will surely be aided by the existence of these carefully edited and painstakingly indexed student notes. As with the previous one, this is a beautifully crafted book, … destined to be an invaluable tool, not just for the exponents of the process-philosophical tradition, but also for students of the history of philosophy. It provides not just answers to some vexing interpretative issues, but something more important: questions that can cast you on the open-ended journey that Whitehead was most fond of: his beloved “adventures of ideas”.