PHGA 6256 Process Philosophy
Professor Jude Jones
Fall 2007
Monday 2:00–4:00 pm

Situated at the metaphysical heart of the Classical American tradition, process thought is nonetheless at home in Buddhist, Confucian, Hindu, Continental, and African-American contexts. Since process thought provides a rigorous, comprehensive metaphysical scheme while at the same time acknowledging some of the deep and constitutive problems of reason outlined in postmodern, pragmatic, and phenomenological thought, it represents a fruitful path for the exploration both of the hopes and the limitations of the philosophical–and human–project in general. For a snapshot of some current states of affairs in process circles, check out the official website of the International Process Network, an international coalition of process-oriented professional societies around the world, and the website of the Society for the Study of Process Philosophies (SSPP), one of the oldest satellite groups of the APA.

In this class, we will begin by looking briefly at a few of the historical antecedents to contemporary process thought, namely Heracleitis, Leibniz, Spinoza, and Hegel. While not focused on history, this course can help synthesize historical material students should know coming out of our program. We will then look more closely at the work of three thinkers: William James, Henri Bergson, and Alfred North Whitehead, emphasizing Whitehead most significantly since his work is the backbone of contemporary process enterprises. James is in many ways the intellectual heart of the pragmatic effort, while Bergson is he without whom phenomenology and existentialism as we know them on the continent would not have been. We will consider the manner in which process thought is an attempt to take both science and religion seriously and in tandem in a single vision of things. The nature and possibility of non-substantialist metaphysics will be scrutinized, as will the epistemological implications of a system that rewrites many of our fundamental assumptions about the nature of the world and the knower. We’ll look also at some of the contemporary applications of process thought in figures like Neville, Ferre, Griffin, etc., depending on where class conversation moves as the semester develops.

Some likely texts:
Principles of Psychology, by William James (short excerpts)
“The One and the Many” and other essays by William James
Creative Evolution by Henri Bergson
Science and the Modern World by A.N. Whitehead (excerpts)
Religion in the Making by Whitehead (short excerpts)
Process and Reality by Whitehead (big chunks)
Other select chapters from Whitehead.
We may use, alternative to some of the excerpting, the volume
Philosophers of Process, edited by Browning and Myers.

Students will come to class prepared to engage in discussion, as this class will be conducted as a seminar. Leading questions will be supplied by professor and students alike. The main writing assignment is a term paper of 20 pages due on the day our final exam would be scheduled. There is no final exam. Term papers will include some research as well as serious primary source engagement.