Whitehead's Process Philosophy of Organism
Winter 2020 Independent Study
Fridays 10:30-11:45am, starting January 7
Zoom link: https://uci.zoom.us/j/95186118926
Brianne Donaldson
b.donaldson@uci.edu
"If Whitehead's work is hard to approach, it is because it demands, with
utter discretion, that its readers accept the adventure of the questions
that will separate them from every consensus."
—Isabelle Stengers, Thinking With Whitehead: A Free and Wild Creation of Concepts (2011, 7)
Fridays 10:30-11:45am, starting January 7
Zoom link: https://uci.zoom.us/j/95186118926
Brianne Donaldson
b.donaldson@uci.edu
"If Whitehead's work is hard to approach, it is because it demands, with
utter discretion, that its readers accept the adventure of the questions
that will separate them from every consensus."
—Isabelle Stengers, Thinking With Whitehead: A Free and Wild Creation of Concepts (2011, 7)
Required Texts
By A.N. Whitehead
PR Process and Reality, Corrected Edition, edited by David Ray Griffin and Donald W. Sherburne (1978 [1927–28])
AI Adventures of Ideas (1961 [1933])
MT Modes of Thought (1968 [1938])
John B. Cobb, Jr. Whitehead Word Book.
Optional:
A Key to Whitehead's Process and Reality by Donald W. Sherburne
PR Process and Reality, Corrected Edition, edited by David Ray Griffin and Donald W. Sherburne (1978 [1927–28])
AI Adventures of Ideas (1961 [1933])
MT Modes of Thought (1968 [1938])
John B. Cobb, Jr. Whitehead Word Book.
Optional:
A Key to Whitehead's Process and Reality by Donald W. Sherburne
Assignments
1. DISCUSSION LEADER WORKSHEETS (60 pts [20pts each x 3 per student])
Each week ONE student will sign up to create a discussion leader worksheet and send it to all participants before class. This student will also lead a 15-20 minute discussion using this sheet. Please see below instructions.
2. FINAL PROJECT (150pts)
Each student will complete a Whitehead-related final project that contributes to their own graduate progress and interest. This could be a paper, but I welcome other proposals--such as robustly annotated bibliographies or comprehensive outlines. Process and Reality should be a primary text engaged in the project.
You can submit any of the below earlier that the deadline.
1. Submit by email: 1-page, single-spaced (3-5 paragraph) proposal in writing by Sunday, January 30 11:59pm (40pts)
3. Submit by email: Final project due by Sunday, March 13 11:59pm (100pts)
Each week ONE student will sign up to create a discussion leader worksheet and send it to all participants before class. This student will also lead a 15-20 minute discussion using this sheet. Please see below instructions.
2. FINAL PROJECT (150pts)
Each student will complete a Whitehead-related final project that contributes to their own graduate progress and interest. This could be a paper, but I welcome other proposals--such as robustly annotated bibliographies or comprehensive outlines. Process and Reality should be a primary text engaged in the project.
You can submit any of the below earlier that the deadline.
1. Submit by email: 1-page, single-spaced (3-5 paragraph) proposal in writing by Sunday, January 30 11:59pm (40pts)
- Include: (a) tentative topic in detail, 6pts; (b) personal motivation, 8pts (c) why the topic matters; 10pts (d) interlocutors, including the particular aspect/s of Whitehead's thought you presently feel will be most valuable (24pts)
3. Submit by email: Final project due by Sunday, March 13 11:59pm (100pts)
| discussion_leader_worksheet__process_ind._study_.docx |
Attendance
Since this independent study will be run like a tutorial, and each student will be leading three particular classes, attendance is mandatory at each class. If one student cannot attend, we will cancel class for that week.
We must have 8 sessions throughout the quarter for full credit.
We must have 8 sessions throughout the quarter for full credit.
Weekly Schedule
WEEK 1: JANUARY 7
MT: Lecture 9, The Aim of Philosophy (171-74)
PR: Preface, and Part I/Ch 1 (p. xi-xv and 3-17)
While reading, please pay special attention to, and be ready to discuss:
MT: Lecture 9, The Aim of Philosophy (171-74)
PR: Preface, and Part I/Ch 1 (p. xi-xv and 3-17)
While reading, please pay special attention to, and be ready to discuss:
- what habits of though WH is responding to/repudiating (summarized on p. xiii, but described throughout)
- Key terms
- "fallacy of misplaced concreteness" (PR) and "fallacy of the perfect dictionary" (MT)
- Your own Qs
WEEK 2: JANUARY 14
Hi Nikita and Elias: Below is the updated reading (I kept a few pages from Ch 1 in the mix, but I think we should carry on to Ch 2 so we can actually begin to engage Wh's elements of the Philosophy of Organism)
PR (Part I):
Assignments
Hi Nikita and Elias: Below is the updated reading (I kept a few pages from Ch 1 in the mix, but I think we should carry on to Ch 2 so we can actually begin to engage Wh's elements of the Philosophy of Organism)
PR (Part I):
- Ch 1 (p. 4–8; Start at "Section II" on p. 4 and stop at the paragraph at the bottom of p. 8 beginning "The scheme is true with unformulated qualifications. . . "
- Ch 2-3 (p. 18-36)
- Please read John Cobb's Introduction (p. 1-8) to see how this "glossary" does and does not function; I draw your attention specifically to p. 4-6 where Cobb makes some basic connections to Buddhism and a possible philosophical method of "Whiteheadian meditation."
- Also at least look through pages 9-26 and use as needed; the content in these pages may help elucidate particular terms in Chs 1-2 of Process and Reality.
Assignments
- Discussion Leader Worksheet: Elias
WEEK 3: JANUARY 21
PR (focus on PR readings and WWB; the other easier readings in MT and CN give some more context of why WH sees this metaphysics as needed)
Concept of Nature p. 26-39 (text link here; start at CH II, Theories of the Bifurcation of Nature; stop reading when you hit paragraph on p. 39 starting "Some light is thrown on the artificial status . . . "; pages are noted in right margin)
Modes of Thought, Lecture 7, "Nature Lifeless" p. 127–47
Two notes: (1) In this week's readings for PR, Whitehead is articulating why change is not purely random, but has an "unrest" or "appetition" toward novel creative order of some kind. (2) Whitehead is, in a sense, offering an alternative to Aristotle's matter and form, or Platonic Forms/Ideas as eternal, timeless, changeless, unconditioned.
Assignments
WEEK 4: JANUARY 28
PR
Assignments
WEEK 5: FEBRUARY 4
PR
Assignments
WEEK 6: FEBRUARY 11
Connections and Applications
Steven Shaviro, "Deleuze's Encounter With Whitehead," link here
Wikipedia, "Agential Realism" (associated with feminist physicist Karen Barad), link here
Whitehead, Aims of Education excerpt (pdf below)
Assignments
PR (focus on PR readings and WWB; the other easier readings in MT and CN give some more context of why WH sees this metaphysics as needed)
- Part 1, Ch 3, 31–36 (recommend to re-read from last week since this short chapter describes the role of timeless order [aka "God," "eternality," "unrealized abstract form," "eternal objects"] in creative and novel becoming, or "imagination" beyond pure repetition)
- Part 2, Ch 1, Fact and Form 39–60, special focus on "eternal objects"
Concept of Nature p. 26-39 (text link here; start at CH II, Theories of the Bifurcation of Nature; stop reading when you hit paragraph on p. 39 starting "Some light is thrown on the artificial status . . . "; pages are noted in right margin)
Modes of Thought, Lecture 7, "Nature Lifeless" p. 127–47
Two notes: (1) In this week's readings for PR, Whitehead is articulating why change is not purely random, but has an "unrest" or "appetition" toward novel creative order of some kind. (2) Whitehead is, in a sense, offering an alternative to Aristotle's matter and form, or Platonic Forms/Ideas as eternal, timeless, changeless, unconditioned.
Assignments
- Discussion Leader Worksheet: Nikita
WEEK 4: JANUARY 28
PR
- Part 2, Ch 2, The Extensive Continuum 61–82
- Modes of Thought, Lecture 8, "Nature Alive," p. 148–69
Assignments
- Discussion Leader Worksheet: Elias
- Project proposal due by Sunday 1/30, 11:59pm by email (see details in "Assignments" above)
WEEK 5: FEBRUARY 4
PR
- Part 2, Ch 3, The Order of Nature 83-109
Assignments
- Discussion Leader Worksheet: Nikita
WEEK 6: FEBRUARY 11
Connections and Applications
Steven Shaviro, "Deleuze's Encounter With Whitehead," link here
Wikipedia, "Agential Realism" (associated with feminist physicist Karen Barad), link here
Whitehead, Aims of Education excerpt (pdf below)
Assignments
- Discussion Leader Worksheet: Elias
| aims_of_education_ch1_-_feb_5_2022_-_10-30_am.pdf |
WEEK 7: FEBRUARY 18
Connections and Applications
PR
Ācārāṅga-sūtra ("Book of Conduct") Book 1 (of Jainism) (pdf below)
Assignments
Connections and Applications
PR
- Part 3/Ch 3, "The Transmission of Feelings," 244-55
Ācārāṅga-sūtra ("Book of Conduct") Book 1 (of Jainism) (pdf below)
Assignments
- Discussion Leader Worksheet: Nikita
| ācārāṅga-sūtra_ch_1_excerpt_annotated.pdf |
WEEK 8: FEBRUARY 25
PR
Roland Faber, "'A Tender Care that Nothing Be Lost: Universal Salvation and Eternal Loss in Butler and Whitehead'", link here
Assignments
PR
- Part 5/Ch 1, "The Ideal Opposites," 337-41
- Part 5/Ch 2, "God and the World," 342-351
Roland Faber, "'A Tender Care that Nothing Be Lost: Universal Salvation and Eternal Loss in Butler and Whitehead'", link here
Assignments
- In-class progress report at the start of class; tentative bibliography emailed to BD by Sunday, February 27 11:59pm (10pts)
- Discussion Leader Worksheet: Elias
WEEK 9: March 4
Whitehead, Adventures of Ideas, Ch 20 (pdf below)
Brian Henning, Ethics of Creativity, Ch 5 (pdf below)
Whitehead, "Immortality" (pdf below)
Assignments
Whitehead, Adventures of Ideas, Ch 20 (pdf below)
Brian Henning, Ethics of Creativity, Ch 5 (pdf below)
Whitehead, "Immortality" (pdf below)
Assignments
- Discussion Leader Worksheet: Nikita
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WEEK 10: March 11
Assignments
Submit by email: Final project due by Sunday, March 13 11:59pm (100pts)
Assignments
Submit by email: Final project due by Sunday, March 13 11:59pm (100pts)