Whitehead's Religious Thought : From Mechanism to Organism, From Force to Persuasion

This original interpretation of the religious thought of Alfred North Whitehead highlights Whitehead’s moves from mechanism to organism, and from force to persuasion to offer a third alternative between classical theism and religious skepticism. Daniel A. Dombrowski argues that the move from force to persuasion, in particular, is not only fundamental to Whitehead’s own thought and to process thought in general, but is a necessary condition for the continuing existence of civilized life. Following this line of analysis, Dombrowski demonstrates Whitehead’s relevance to contemporary work in philosophy of mind, political philosophy, and environmental ethics by placing him in dialogue with six major thinkers: David Ray Griffin, Isabelle Stengers, John Rawls, Charles Hartshorne, Judith Butler, and William Wordsworth. Dedication Contents Introduction Abbreviations of Works by Whitehead One Griffin’s Panexperientialism as Perennial Philosophy The Need for a Radical Approach Source of the Problem Being Is Power From Plato to Descartes and from Descartes to Kant Anticipating the Future Historical Thinking Two Stengers on Whitehead on God Against Classical Theism Against Theism Stengers’ Interpretation of Whitehead The Importance of Hartshorne Implications Regarding FTP The Importance of Stengers’ Critique Three Rawlsian Political Liberalism and Process Thought Conviviality Before Liberalism Liberal Political Theory Two Kinds of Conviviality Some Objections Not Comprehensive Liberalism Metaphysical Background Different Emphases? Need for Ideology Critique? Process Liberalism Four Hartshorne, the Process Concept of God, and Pacifism Dipolar Theism Dipolar Theism and Pacifism Pacifism and Practicality Preliminary Conclusion Nuclear Weapons Hartshorne’s Life The Eternal Object “Peace” Whitehead and the Hope for Peace War as Protection Whitehead’s Life Dipolar Theism, Again Postscript: Iraq and Afghanistan Five Butler and Grievable Lives The Argument from Marginal Cases Reflective Equilibrium Whitehead and Grievability Butler on Precarity in “Precarious Life” Butler on Grievable Lives in “Frames of War” Wild Animals and Environmental Ethics Marginal Cases, Again Which Lives Are Grievable? Six Wordsworth, Whitehead, and the Romantic Reaction Whitehead on Wordsworth Two Poems The Function of Symbols and Reason Hartshorne on Wordsworth Conclusion Bibliography Index of Names