Nature in Process: Organic Proposals in Philosophy, Society, and Religion

Andrew M. Davis, Maria-Teresa Teixeira, and Wm. Andrew Schwartz, editors

 

The new physics, beginning in the early twentieth century, caused a rupture in the longstanding mechanistic paradigm of Descartes and Newton, opening up novel paths of discovery and new possibilities for deeper, organic ways of knowing and living. The emergence of Alfred North Whitehead’s “philosophy of organism” was contemporary to the new physics and responded with a truly organic vision of nature through rigorous philosophical scrutiny, scientific critique and imagination generalization. Whitehead effectively saw that addressing the mechanistic rupture required an innovative, organic departure. His critique of abstractions, his refusal to bifurcate nature, and his famous formulation of the “fallacy of misplaced concreteness” unveiled the inadequacies of mechanistic thought and the interdisciplinary value of a new organic paradigm. Written by scholars around the world, the proposals that comprise this volume follow in Whitehead’s footsteps in calling for an organic reconception of our philosophical, societal, and religious disciplines. Far from ousting creativity, experience, mind, feeling, and value, the organic shift represented in these chapters reintegrates what was lost in the mechanistic paradigm.

Reviews Nature in Process is an exciting and boldly interdisciplinary book that invites us to reimagine philosophy, society, and religion on the basis of organic modes of thought. Here we encounter fresh interpretations of Whitehead’s philosophy, incisive critiques of ideological and economic drivers of the ecological crisis, and visions of a possible future in which the well-being of people and the planet is prioritized over economic growth. Brilliantly framed by the editors, these essays collectively exemplify an integrative way of thinking about human and more-than-human worlds that is urgently needed if we are to achieve an ecological civilization. A timely work for this Anthropocene moment! ~Austin Roberts, Instructor of Philosophy and Environmental Ethics, College of the Redwoods.

This international collection of essays brings together leading process thinkers to reflect on the role of society, religion, and the Western philosophical tradition to demonstrate the promise of relational thinking for today. The underlying thread of the book is the re-entangling of mind and matter—that which modern thought and practices separated and that Alfred North Whitehead called the “bifurcation of nature.” These essays reconceptualize this necessary reattachment across disciplines, leaving no aspect of modernity unexamined. They show how the foundational features of life (nature, society, philosophy, and religion), both theoretical and practical, can be illuminated by emphasizing processual thinking. Anyone interested in the application of process thinking across disciplines, this collection is a must-have.. ~John Becker, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Lyon College  

• Series: Ecological Civilization
• Paperback: 288 pages
• Price: $24.00
• ISBN-13:  978-1-940447-53-7

Table of Contents
Introduction: From Mechanism to Organism
Part One: Organic Philosophy

1. Whitehead, Biosemiotics and Value, John Pickering
2. Nature and Experience: Between Process Philosophy and Phenomenology, Luca Vanzago
3. Memory and Thought, Jason Brown
4. The Anthropocene, Ecozoic Era, and Organic Philosophy: A Provocative Trio in Hamilton, Berry and Whitehead, Herman F. Greene
5. Cause and Influence in Whitehead, John B. Cobb, Jr.

Part Two: Organic Society

1. Growth, Commodification and Property Right, Maria-Teresa Teixeira
2. Nature-based Solutions and the Complex Relation Between Society and Nature, Moirika Reker
3. The Good and Prudent Handling of Things: The Need for an Ecological Management, Mark Dibben
4. Re-Embedding the Market: Institutionalizing Effective Environmentalism, Arran Gare
5. A Jurisprudence for Human Homeostasis with Nature, Charles Walker

Part Three: Organic Religion

1. Divine Wilder/ness: Nature, Panentheism, and Eco-Theological Ethics, Andrew M. Davis
2. Images of Lions: Psalm 104 as a Metaphor for a Processual View of Creation, Robert Gnuse
3. Toward an Ecologically Awakened Islamic Humanism, Farhan A. Shah
4. A Shortcut on the Jain Path of Liberation: Aparigraha as Ahimsā in Process Philosophy, Wm. Andrew Schwartz
5. A Process-Akashic Religious Naturalism, Leslie A. Muray

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