Edited by John B. Cobb, Jr. and Wm. Andrew Schwartz
Change your thinking; change the world . . .
Philosophy has gotten a bad rap. As an academic discipline, it is mocked as irrelevant to modern society. But bias against philosophy doesn’t mean we don’t have one. We all have a basic worldview. This is as true for whole civilizations as for individuals, a point driven home daily as the dire consequences of the Western worldview—the most urgent being climate change—are now inescapable. But if Western philosophy has brought us to this razor’s edge, would another one be any better? The twelve contributors to this book argue, yes: the process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead.
But what is process philosophy? This book is designed not only to answer the what, but also to demonstrate the how and why—how process philosophy provides a practical answer to so many of the potentially catastrophic issues now facing us, and why it is so urgently needed.
Preface, John B. Cobb, Jr.
1. What Can Trigger Transformation? Catherine Keller
2. Philosophy Is Not Just for Philosophers: Breaking Philosophy Free for the Sake of the Planet, Andrew Schwartz
3. Have You Ever Wondered What It's Like to Be a Chimpanzee? Nancy Howell
4. Mind vs. Matter, Philip Clayton
5. What Can We Hope For? Sandra Lubarsky
6. World Loyalty, Mary Elizabeth Moore
7. Spirituality, Jay McDaniel
8. Are We Really Related? Franz Riffert
9. Do Ideas Matter? John Sweeney
11. Overcoming the Impasse in Political and Social Theory, Cliff Cobb
11. Culture in the Interstices: Finding Elbowroom in Whiteheadian Propositions, Luke Higgins
12. Creativity, Imagaination, and the Arts, Marjorie Suchocki