Process Philosophy: A Reader

Process Philosophy: A Reader is the first text to bring together excerpts of original writings from right across process thought. Keith Robinson draws from both the continental and anglophone traditions and spans a vast amount of history: starting with the rootedness of process thinking in Greek thought and moving right through to the new materiality debates in contemporary thought. The first text to include primary texts from the critics of process philosophy in the text itself, we don't only hear from Whitehead, Bergson, Marx, and Deleuze but also from critics such as Jacques Ranciere, Graham Harman, A.J. Ayers, and Heidegger. An engaging introduction to the key thinkers and critics in the history of process thought.

Table of Contents:
PREFACE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS GENERAL INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION N. Rescher – On Situating Process Philosophy PART 1 - ANCIENT AND CLASSICAL SOURCES Introduction 1. Heraclitus Heraclitus - Selection of Fragments and Testimonia J.Barnes – The Natural Philosophy of Heraclitus D. Graham – Heraclitus as a Process Philosopher (alternatives: James Wayne Dye – Heraclitus and the Future of Process Philosophy G.S Kirk – Natural Change in Heraclitus) Critics: Parmenides Parmenides - Poem on Being F.M. Cornford – The Elimination of Time by Parmenides Critics: Zeno of Elea Zeno - Selection of Paradoxes B. Russell – Zeno’s Paradoxes H. Bergson – Zeno’s Paradoxes 2. Plato Plato- Selections from Timaeus, Parmenides, Cratylus, Theatetus, Sophist Robert Bolton – Plato’s Distinction Between Being and Becoming T. Irwin – Plato’s Heracleiteanism (Alternative H. Cherniss) 3. Aristotle Aristotle - Selections from the Categories, Metaphysics and Physics G.E.L Owen – Aristotle on Time M.L. Gill - Aristotle on Substance PART 2 - MODERN SOURCES CONTINENTAL Introduction 1. Schelling Schelling - Selections from First Outline of a System for the Philosophy of Nature and On the History of Modern Philosophy Arran Gare – From Kant to Schelling to Process Metaphysics Critics: Hegel – ‘Preface’, Phenomenology of Spirit 2. Hegel Hegel - Selections from Phenomenology of Spirit; Encyclopedia; Philosophy of Nature. John Burbridge – Concept and Time in Hegel (Alternative George Lucas ) Catherine Malabou – The Future of Hegel – Plasticity, Temporality, Dialectic Critics: Deleuze – Selection from Nietzsche and Philosophy 3. Nietzsche Nietzsche - Selections from Twilight of the Idols, Will to Power. John Richardson – Nietzsche on Time and Becoming Robin Small – Being, Becoming and Time in Nietzsche. Critics: Malcolm Bull – Selections from Anti-Nietzsche 4. Bergson Bergson – Selection from Creative Evolution, Creative Mind. Introduction to Metaphysics Milic Capek – Process and Personality in Bergson’s Thought John Mullarkey – Bergson and the Language of Process Critics: Bachelard – Dialectic of Duration, selections Horkhemer – On Bergson’s Metaphysics of Time Russell - The Philosophy of Bergson A. Grunbaum – The Meaning of Time (The Status of Temporal Becoming) (Choose 2 from above) 5. Deleuze Deleuze – Selections from Logic of Sense, Difference and Repetition, The Method of Dramatization. Keith Robinson – Deleuze and Process Philosophy James Williams – Identity and Time in Gilles Deleuze’s Process Philosophy Critics: Badiou – Selections from The Clamour of Being, Being and Event. PART 3 - MODERN SOURCES ANGLO-AMERICAN Introduction 1. C.S Peirce Peirce - Selections from The Writings of Charles Peirce, The Essential Peirce Carl Hausman – Charles Peirce’s Evolutionary Realism as a Process Philosophy Critics: McTaggart – The Unreality of Time. 2. James James - Selections from Principles of Psychology; Essays in Radical Empiricism; Some Problems in Philosophy Richard Field – James and the Epochal Theory of Time Bertrand Helm - William James on the Nature of Time (Alternate: Stephen Daniel – Fringes and Transitive States in William James’ Concept of the Stream of Thought) Critics: J.P. Moreland – An Enduring Self: The Achilles Heel of Process Philosophy 3. Alexander Alexander - Selections from Space, Time and Deity Emily Thomas – Space, Time and Samuel Alexander Dorothy Emmet – Whitehead and Alexander Critics: Sprigge – Selections from The Vindication of Absolute Idealism, The Unreality of Time. 4. Whitehead Whitehead – Modes of Thought; Process and Reality; Adventures in Ideas; Essays in Science and Philosophy J. Nobo – Whitehead’s Principle of Process Critics: Graham Harman – Whitehead as Anti-Process Thinker. D. Williams – The Myth of Passage (Alternate: James Feibleman – Why Whitehead is not a ‘Process’ Philosopher) 5. Sellars Sellars - Selections from Foundations for a Metaphysics of Pure Process, Philosophy and the Scientific Image of Man. J.Seibt – Processes in the Manifest and Scientific Image Critics: JJC Smart - Sellars on Process (Monist) P. Strawson – selections from Individuals PART 4 - PROCESS AND SCIENCE Introduction Whitehead – Selections from Science and the Modern World Milic Capek – The Second Scientific Revolution 1. Process and Physics David Bohm – Time, Space and the Implicate Order, Selections from Wholeness and the Implicate Order. Henry Stapp – Whiteheadian Process and Quantum Theory (Alternate Shimon Malin – Whitehead and Quantum Physics) Critic: Julian Barbour – The Nature of Time 2. Process and Biology John Dupre - The Constituents of Life/Selection from Processes of Life Brain Goodwin – Is Morphogenesis an Intrinsically Robust Process? (Alternate: Richard Lewontin/S.Kauffman) Critic: Daniel Dennett – Evolution as an Algorithmic Process 3. Process and Chemistry Ilya Prigogine – Selections from Order out of Chaos R. Stein - Towards a Process Philosophy of Chemistry (Alternate: P. Needham: Continuants and Processes in Chemistry) Critic: Robin Le Poidevin - A Combinatorial Argument for the Ontological Reduction of Chemistry 4. Process and Neuroscience Maria Pachalsky - Towards a Process Neuropsychology: Microgenetic Theory and Brain Science Jason W Brown - Foundations of Cognitive Metaphysics Gerald Edelman – Neural Darwinism Critic: Patricia Churchland – Computation and the Brain 5. Process and Cognitive Science Mark Bickhard – Mind as Process Mark Bickhard and Richard Campbell – Physicalism, Energence and Downward Causation Critics: Jaegwon Kim – Emergence: Core Ideas and Issues (alternative: Zenon Pykyshyn – What is Cognitive Science?). PART 5 – PROCESS AND HISTORY Introduction 1. Marx – Selections from The German Ideology, Grundrisse, A Critique of Political Economy (preface). Hamrick and Marsh – Marx and Whitehead: Towards a Political Metaphysics Sean Sayers – Marxism and the Dialectical Method (Alternate: Anne Pomeroy) Critics: G.A.Cohen – Selection from Karl Marx’s Theory of History Karl Popper – from The Open Society and its Enemies 2. Collingwood – Selections from the Idea of History, Libellus de Generatione (one copy at the Bodleian library in Oxford) Spengler and the Theory of Historical Cycles, Speculum Mentis, Autobiography Louis Mink - Collingwood’s Historicism: A Dialectic of Process W. Jan Van Der Dussen – Collingwood’s Idea of Progress (Alternate: Stein Hegleby) Critics: A.J. Ayer, from Philosophy in the 20th century 3. A. Toynbee – Selections from A Study of History (abridged version), A Study of History: What the book is for, how the book took shape. C. Kerslake – Becoming against History: Deleuze, Toynbee and Vitalist historiography N. Rescher – Trapped Within History? A Process Philosophical Refutation of Historical Relativism. Critics: Pieter Geyl – Toynbee’s System of Civilizations Pitirim Sorokin – Arnold J Toynbee’s Philosophy of History 4. Foucault – Nietzsche, Genealogy, History, Selections from Archaeology of Knowledge, Discipline and Punish, History of Sexuality. P. Veyne - Foucault Revolutionizes History M.Poster – Foucault, the Present and History Critics: Habermas – The Critique of Reason and the Human Sciences – Michel Foucault 5. Manuel DeLanda - Assemblage Theory and Human History, Selections from A Thousand Years of Non-Linear History Critic: G. Harman – DeLanda’s Ontology: Assemblage and Realism PART 6 – PROCESS AND AESTHETICS Introduction 1. Nietzsche – Selections from Birth of Tragedy, Gay Science, Will to Power Christophe Cox – Nietzsche, Dionysus and the Ontology of Music Critics: Heidegger, Selections from Nietzsche volumes (Will to Power as Art) and Contributions 2. J. Dewey – Selections from Art as Experience R. Shusterman – Dewey’s Art as Experience Critics: B. Croce - On the Aesthetics of Dewey 3. S. Langer – Selections from Problems of Art. Feeling and Form Rolf Lachman - From Metaphysics to Art and back: The Relevance of Suzanne K. Langer’s Philosophy for Process Metaphysics F. Kruse – Vital Rhythm and Temporal Form in Langer and Dewey (V. Colapietro – Suzanne Langer on Artistic creativity and creations (Spinks and Deeley, Semiotics, Peter Lang, 1997). Critic: R. Auxier – Suzanne Langer on Symbols and Analogy: A Case of Misplaced Concreteness? 4. C. Hartshorne - The Aesthetic Matrix of Value.” Creative Synthesis and Philosophic Method. London: SCM Press Ltd., 1970; LaSalle: Open Court, 1970, pp. 303-322 “Duality in Aesthetics.” The Philosophy and Psychology of Sensation. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1934, pp. 159-190. “Expression and Association.” In Artistic Expression, ed., John Hospers, New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1971, pp. 204-217. The Aesthetics of Birdsong (3 of the above). George R. Lucas, Jr.: Hartshorne and the Development of Process Philosophies D. Dombrowski – The Aesthetics of Charles Hartshorne (from ‘The Divine Beauty’). Critics: John Hospers – Hartshorne’s Aesthetics (Library of Living Philosophers Vol XX Open Court, 1991). 5. G. Deleuze & F. Guattari - Selections from Kafka, A Thousand Plateaus, What is Philosophy? R. Bogue – “Art and Territory” or “Minority, Territory, Music” or “ Deleuze’s Aesthetics of Force” Critics: J. Ranciere – “Is There a Deleuzian Aesthetics?’ “Deleuze, Bartleby and the Formula” from the Flesh of Words (Stanford, 2004).

About the Author :
Keith Robinson is Professor of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy and Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Arkansas, USA. He is the author of Deleuze, Whitehead and Bergson: Rhizomatic Connections (2009).