Whitehead’s Universe: A Guide to Thinking Process - Dr. Andrew Davis
Homebrewed Christianity Podcast with Tripp Fuller
My friend and philosopher, Dr. Andrew Davis, is back on the podcast to bring us a stellar introduction to Alfred North Whitehead’s Process philosophy. “Process philosophy” is wider than the work of Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947), but the depth and dynamism of his “philosophy of organism” have made him the defining figure of the modern process tradition. His beloved wife Evelyn once used the metaphor of a prism to describe his thinking: “It must be seen not from one side alone but from all sides, then from underneath and overhead. So seen, as one moves around it, the prism is full of changing lights and colors. To have seen it from one side only is to not have seen it.” In this conversation, Dr. Davis walks us through 5 different sides, lights, and colors belonging to Whitehead’s prismatic universe from the microscopic to the macroscopic, and in direct relation to human experience as an expression of the cosmos.
If this conversation is intriguing and you want a guided tour of Whitehead’s philosophy, go join up for the class Whitehead’s Universe. I am so excited about Andrew’s project and having a new compelling introduction to process philosophy for the people.
Andrew M. Davis is an American process philosopher, theologian, and scholar of the cosmos. He is the academic and research director for the Center for Process Studies where he researches, writes, teaches, and organizes conferences on various aspects of process-relational thought (Whitehead and Beyond). An advocate of metaphysics and meaning in a hospitable universe, he approaches philosophy as the endeavor to systematically think through what reality must be like because we are a part of it. He is the author, editor, and co-editor of nearly a dozen books including Mind, Value, and Cosmos: On the Relational Nature of Ultimacy, Process Cosmology: New Integrations in Science and Philosophy, and Metaphysics of Exo-Life: Toward a Constructive Whiteheadian Cosmotheology. This course is based upon drafts of his next book which is comprehensive, yet conversational, introduction to Whitehead’s universe.
Andrew’s Previous visits to the podcast
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