The Emergence of Whitehead's Metaphysics 1925-1929 (S U N Y Series in Philosophy)

A breathtaking detective story, this book charts the adventure of Whitehead’s ideas in a remarkably detailed and careful reconstruction of his metaphysical views. Incorporating heretofore unpublished material from students’ notes and correspondence, Professor Ford analyzes the order of composition of various portions of Whitehead’s books, principally Science and the Modern World, Religion in the Making, and Process and Reality.Ford’s reconstructive method is perfectly tailored to his subject, for Whitehead revised by inserting new material rather than altering or deleting the old. Thus Ford is able to date the sequence of the composition of many passages. In distinguishing these layers of articulation, he has pushed the techniques of “higher criticism” beyond anything the French structuralists and deconstructionists have dreamed of and chronicled an extraordinary intellectual biography. A breathtaking detective story, this book charts the adventure of Whitehead's ideas in a remarkably detailed and careful reconstruction of his metaphysical views. Incorporating heretofore unpublished material from students'notes and correspondence, Professor Ford analyzes the order of composition of various portions of Whitehead's books, principally Science and the Modern World, Religion in the Making, and Process and Reality.Ford's reconstructive method is perfectly tailored to his subject, for Whitehead revised by inserting new material rather than altering or deleting the old. Thus Ford is able to date the sequence of the composition of many passages. In distinguishing these layers of articulation, he has pushed the techniques of “higher criticism” beyond anything the French structuralists and deconstructionists have dreamed of and chronicled an extraordinary intellectual biography.Lewis S. Ford is Professor of Philosophy at Old Dominion University and author of The Lure of God: Biblical Background for Process Philosophy and over sixty articles in his field. Editor of Process Studies since 1971, he has also edited Two Process Philosophers: Hartshorne's Encounter with Whitehead. A breathtaking detective story, this book charts the adventure of Whiteheads ideas in a remarkably detailed and careful reconstruction of his metaphysical views. Incorporating heretofore unpublished material from students notes and correspondence, Professor Ford analyzes the order of composition of various portions of Whiteheads books, principally Science and the Modern World, Religion in the Making, and Process and Reality. Fords reconstructive method is perfectly tailored to his subject, for Whitehead revised by inserting new material rather than altering or deleting the old. Thus Ford is able to date the sequence of the composition of many passages. In distinguishing these layers of articulation, he has pushed the techniques of higher criticism beyond anything the French structuralists and deconstructionists have dreamed of and chronicled an extraordinary intellectual biography.