Process Philosophy: A Survey of Basic Issues

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University of Pittsburgh Pre, Dec 1, 2000 - Philosophy - 144 pages

Process Philosophy surveys the basic issues and controversies surrounding the philosophical approach known as “process philosophy.” Process philosophy views temporality, activity, and change as the cardinal factors for our understanding of the real—process has priority over product, both ontologically and epistemically. Rescher examines the movement's historical origins, reflecting a major line of thought in the work of such philosophers as Heracleitus, Leibniz, Bergson, Peirce, William James, and especially A. N. Whitehead.

 

Contents

1 The Promise of Process Philosophy
3
2 The Idea of Process
22
3 The Revolt against Process
33
4 Human Agency as Process
48
5 Cognitive Processes and Scientific Progress
59
6 The Cognitive Process and Metaphysical Realism
91
7 Process Philosophy and Historicist Relativism
107
8 Process Philosophy and Monadological Metaphysics
123
Notes
133
Name Index
143
Back Cover
145
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About the author (2000)

Nicholas Rescher is Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh and chairman of the Center for Philosophy of Science. He is the author or editor of more than one hundred books, including Aporetics: Rational Deliberation in the Face of Inconsistency and Ignorance (On the Wider Implications of Deficient Knowledge).

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