Whitehead Research Project

Last updated

The Whitehead Research Project (WRP) is dedicated to research and scholarship on the texts, philosophy, and life of mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead. It explores and analyzes the relevance of Whitehead's thought in dialogue with contemporary philosophies in order to unfold his philosophy of organism and its consequences for our time and in relation to emerging philosophical thought. [1]

Contents

Early history

The WRP was conceived and founded in 2005 by Roland Faber, who serves as its executive director. In February 2005, Faber proposed and installed WRP as a project of the Center for Process Studies, a faculty research center of the Claremont School of Theology since 1973, and of which Faber is a co-director. In March 2006, Faber invited Brian G. Henning to serve as the WRP's Director of Research. In July 2006, the project established an International Board of Academic Advisors. [2]

Conferences

The WRP has held eleven conferences since December 2007 on topics ranging from Whitehead’s intersection with Badiou and Deleuze, with Judith Butler, and with Pragmatism. [3] Most of the papers delivered at these conferences have been subsequently published in edited books in the Contemporary Whitehead Studies series.

Contemporary Whitehead Studies

In 2009, WRP founded Contemporary Whitehead Studies (CWS), an interdisciplinary book series that publishes manuscripts from scholars with contemporary and innovative approaches to Whitehead studies. [4] As of December 2022, it includes sixteen books. [5]

Critical Edition of Whitehead

In February 2009, the WRP announced the inauguration of the Critical Edition of Whitehead (CEW), a long-term initiative of the WRP that aims to make available the complete published and unpublished writings of Alfred North Whitehead in a single, critical edition. [6] The early focus of the project has been to collect and publish previously unknown Whitehead materials, including the notes of Whitehead’s students taken during his classes at Harvard from 1924–1937.

In March 2014, the WRP reached an agreement with Edinburgh University Press (EUP) to publish the Critical Edition. [7] Subsequently the first volume of student notes, which focuses on his first year teaching at Harvard, was published in 2017 as The Harvard Lectures of Alfred North Whitehead, 1924-1925: Philosophical Presuppositions of Science, edited by Paul Bogaard and Jason Bell. [8] The second volume of lecture notes – The Harvard Lectures of Alfred North Whitehead: The General Metaphysical Problems of Science, 1925-1927, edited by Brian G. Henning, Joseph Petek, and George R. Lucas, Jr. – focuses on Whitehead’s second and third years teaching at Harvard, and was published in 2021. [9]

The Critical Edition of Whitehead is led by General Editor George R. Lucas, Jr., Founder and Executive Editor Brian G. Henning, and Associate Editor Joseph Petek, in addition to an editorial advisory board. [10]

Whitehead Research Library

In February 2019, the WRP established the Whitehead Research Library (WRL) as a digital platform for sharing archival materials related to Whitehead. [11] Parts of Whitehead’s nachlass – donated to the project by his grandson in January 2019 – are freely available on the platform, with more set to be added as the collection is cataloged. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">T. S. Eliot</span> US-born British poet (1888–1965)

Thomas Stearns Eliot was a poet, essayist and playwright. He is considered to be one of the 20th century's greatest poets, as well as a central figure in English-language Modernist poetry. His use of language, writing style, and verse structure reinvigorated English poetry. He is also noted for his critical essays, which often re-evaluated long-held cultural beliefs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfred North Whitehead</span> English mathematician and philosopher (1861–1947)

Alfred North Whitehead was an English mathematician and philosopher. He created the philosophical school known as process philosophy, which has been applied in a wide variety of disciplines, including ecology, theology, education, physics, biology, economics, and psychology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seamus Heaney</span> Irish writer and translator (1939–2013)

Seamus Justin Heaney was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Among his best-known works is Death of a Naturalist (1966), his first major published volume. American poet Robert Lowell described him as "the most important Irish poet since Yeats", and many others, including the academic John Sutherland, have said that he was "the greatest poet of our age". Robert Pinsky has stated that "with his wonderful gift of eye and ear Heaney has the gift of the story-teller." Upon his death in 2013, The Independent described him as "probably the best-known poet in the world".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandra Faber</span> American astrophysicist

Sandra Moore Faber is an American astrophysicist known for her research on the evolution of galaxies. She is the University Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and works at the Lick Observatory. She has made discoveries linking the brightness of galaxies to the speed of stars within them and was the co-discoverer of the Faber–Jackson relation. Faber was also instrumental in designing the Keck telescopes in Hawaii.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Santayana</span> Spanish-American philosopher (1863–1952)

George Santayana, was a Spanish-American philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. Born in Spain, Santayana was raised and educated in the United States from the age of eight and identified as an American, yet always retained a valid Spanish passport. At the age of 48, he left his academic position at Harvard University and permanently returned to Europe; his last will was to be buried in the Spanish Pantheon in the Campo di Verano, Rome.

Crispin James Garth Wright is a British philosopher, who has written on neo-Fregean (neo-logicist) philosophy of mathematics, Wittgenstein's later philosophy, and on issues related to truth, realism, cognitivism, skepticism, knowledge, and objectivity. He is Professor of Philosophical Research at the University of Stirling, and taught previously at the University of St Andrews, University of Aberdeen, New York University, Princeton University and University of Michigan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Oakeshott</span> British philosopher (1901–1990)

Michael Joseph Oakeshott FBA was an English philosopher and political theorist who wrote on the philosophies of history, religion, aesthetics, education, and law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Garrett Birkhoff</span> American mathematician (1911–1996)

Garrett Birkhoff was an American mathematician. He is best known for his work in lattice theory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John B. Cobb</span> American theologian, philosopher, and environmentalist (born 1925)

John Boswell Cobb Jr. is an American theologian, philosopher, and environmentalist. He is often regarded as the preeminent scholar in the field of process philosophy and process theology, the school of thought associated with the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead. Cobb is the author of more than fifty books. In 2014, Cobb was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Ray Griffin</span> American philosopher (1939–2022)

David Ray Griffin was an American professor of philosophy of religion and theology and a 9/11 conspiracy theorist. Along with John B. Cobb, Jr., he founded the Center for Process Studies in 1973, a research center of Claremont School of Theology that promotes process thought. Griffin published numerous books about the September 11 attacks, claiming that elements of the Bush administration were involved. An advocate of the controlled demolition conspiracy theory, he was a founder member of Scholars for 9/11 Truth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Davies (philosopher)</span> British philosopher

Brian Evan Anthony Davies is a British philosopher, Roman Catholic priest, and friar. He is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Fordham University, and author of An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion, now in its fourth English edition, which has been translated into five languages.

Tanya Marie Luhrmann is an American psychological anthropologist known for her studies of modern-day witches, charismatic Christians, and studies of how culture shapes psychotic, dissociative, and related experiences. She has also studied culture and morality, and the training of psychiatrists. She is Watkins University Professor in the Anthropology Department at Stanford University. Luhrmann was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack W. Szostak</span> American biologist

Jack William Szostak is a Canadian American biologist of Polish British descent, Nobel Prize laureate, University Professor at the University of Chicago, former Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, and Alexander Rich Distinguished Investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. Szostak has made significant contributions to the field of genetics. His achievement helped scientists to map the location of genes in mammals and to develop techniques for manipulating genes. His research findings in this area are also instrumental to the Human Genome Project. He was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, along with Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol W. Greider, for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres.

Irving Singer was an American professor of philosophy who was on the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for 55 years and wrote over 20 books. He was the author of books on various topics, including cinema, love, sexuality, and the philosophy of George Santayana. He also wrote on the subject of film, including writings about the work of film directors Ingmar Bergman, Alfred Hitchcock.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Contemporary Whitehead Studies</span> Interdisciplinary book series

Contemporary Whitehead Studies (CWS) is an interdisciplinary book series that publishes manuscripts from scholars with contemporary and innovative approaches to the studies of Alfred North Whitehead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susanne Langer</span> American philosopher (1895–1985)

Susanne Katherina Langer was an American philosopher, writer, and educator known for her theories on the influences of art on the mind. She was one of the earliest American women to achieve an academic career in philosophy and the first woman to be professionally recognized as an American philosopher. Langer is best remembered for her 1942 book Philosophy in a New Key, which was followed by a sequel, Feeling and Form: A Theory of Art, in 1953. In 1960, Langer was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michel Weber</span> Belgian philosopher (born 1963)

Michel Weber is a Belgian philosopher. He is best known as an interpreter and advocate of the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead, and has come to prominence as the architect and organizer of an overlapping array of international scholarly societies and publication projects devoted to Whitehead and the global relevance of process philosophy.

Roland Faber is an author and Kilsby Family/John B. Cobb, Jr., Professor of Process Studies at Claremont School of Theology and Professor of Religion and Philosophy at Claremont Graduate University. He is Executive Co-Director of the Center for Process Studies, Executive Director of the Whitehead Research Project in Claremont, California, and Editor of the Contemporary Whitehead Studies series. Faber received a PhD in systematic theology from the University of Vienna in 1992. In 1998, he was appointed assistant professor at the Institute for Dogmatic Theology in Vienna, Austria. In 2005, he received a joint appointment as professor of process theology at Claremont School of Theology and professor of religion at Claremont Graduate University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Center for Process Studies</span>

The Center for Process Studies was founded in 1973 by John B. Cobb and David Ray Griffin to encourage exploration of the relevance of process thought to many fields of reflection and action. As a faculty center of Claremont School of Theology in association with Claremont Graduate University, and through seminars, conferences, publications and the library, CPS seeks to promote new ways of thinking based on the work of philosophers Alfred North Whitehead, and Charles Hartshorne, and others in the process tradition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stascha Rohmer</span> German philosopher (born 1966)

Stascha Rohmer is a German philosopher. His main research topics are Theoretical philosophy, German idealism, Anthropology, Philosophy of Nature and History of Philosophy. He is a specialist of the Metaphysics of Hegel and Alfred North Whitehead and since 2008 permanent member of the Whitehead Research Project in Claremont, California, United States. Currently he holds a visiting professorship at the Universidad de Antioquia.

References

  1. ↑ Faber, Roland. "Mission & Vision". whiteheadresearch.org. Whitehead Research Project. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  2. ↑ Faber, Roland. "International Advisory Board". whiteheadresearch.org. Whitehead Research Project. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  3. ↑ Faber, Roland. "Conferences". whiteheadresearch.org. Whitehead Research Project. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  4. ↑ Faber, Roland. "Contemporary Whitehead Studies". whiteheadresearch.org. Whitehead Research Project. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  5. ↑ Faber, Roland. "Book List". whiteheadresearch.org. Whitehead Research Project. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  6. ↑ Henning, Brian. "New Whitehead Edition". whiteheadresearch.org. Whitehead Research Project. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  7. ↑ Henning, Brian. "Press Release 3-31-14". whiteheadresearch.org. Whitehead Research Project. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  8. ↑ Henning, Brian. "Vol 1 - Harvard Lectures Philosophical Presuppositions of Science". whiteheadresearch.org. Whitehead Research Project. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  9. ↑ "The Harvard Lectures of Alfred North Whitehead, 1925-1927". edinburghuniversitypress.com. Edinburgh University Press. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  10. ↑ Henning, Brian. "Critical Edition". whiteheadresearch.org. Whitehead Research Project. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  11. ↑ Petek, Joseph. "Announcing the opening of the Whitehead Research Library (WRL)". whiteheadresearch.org. Whitehead Research Project. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  12. ↑ Henning, Brian. "On the recently discovered Whitehead papers". whiteheadresearch.org. Whitehead Research Project. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.