process studies articles @ religion online...
Volume 2 (1972)
- Number 1, Spring 1972
- Bergson on Science and Philosophy by C. F. Delaney
- Evil and Persuasive Power by Peter H. Hare and Edward H. Madden
- Experience and Philosophy: A Review of Hartshorne’s Creative Synthesis and Philosophic Method by Robert Neville
- Indian Theism and Process Philosophy by Delmar Langbauer
Bergson not only maintains an irreducible dualism of the ways of knowing but also the absolute character of both.
The writers approach the problem of evil from the stance of process thought. Basic to their position is the view that God’s power is persuasive, not coercive.
The author offers a listing of Hartshorne’s achievements and difficulties, and concludes that his philosophy does not capture the living waters of experience. That is, it makes experience philosophically uninteresting.
Process thought from an Indian perspective: The parallel between the Indian view of Isvara and Whitehead’s vision of the divine becomes apparent.
- Number 2, Summer 1972
- An Early Whiteheadian View of Perception by John H. Kultgen
- Croce and Whitehead On Concrescence by George Allan
- Freedom and Faithfulness In Whitehead’s God by Delwin Brown
- Is Whitehead’s Actual Entity A Contradiction in Terms? by Robison B. James
Whitehead devised his metaphysic to elucidate forms of experience besides perception, and to systematize concepts drawn from other sources Nevertheless, certain problems can be solved while accepting perception more nearly at face value than Whitehead did in his later theory.
Dr. George Allan examines Whiteheadian themes in some of Benedetto Croce’s thought, in an attempt to make Whitehead's thought more understandable.
Faithfulness fundamentally pertains only to the repetition of free actions. A God who acts freely only once, whether or not that action is somehow eternally present, cannot be faithful. God is faithful because he could, but does not, "sin" -- against his own previous primordial ideals. That God continues to relate himself to the world in a given way is a matter of grace, not of necessity.
Whitehead has a more fluid understand of existence than many interpreters realize caused by some terminological ambiguity in Whitehead’s terms.
- Number 3, Fall 1972
- Diverse Currents in Whitehead’s View of Time by Jerome Ashmore
- Hartshorne on Personal Identity: A Personalistic Critique by Peter A. Bertocci
- Literary Criticism and Process Thought: Blackmur, Brooks, Sartre, and Whitehead by C. Carter Colwell
- Omniscience and Divine Synchronization by John Robert Baker
- Personal Identity from A to Z by Charles Hartshorne
- Unmediated Prehensions: Some Observations by John C. Bennett
In Whitehead’s treatment of time, three stages of development may be observed. The first embodies a philosophy of space-time with a realistic position assumed and nature accepted as consisting largely of space and of time. The second and third stages respectively stress concepts of "creativity" and of the "actual entity."
Any resort to bodily unity-continuity to explain the awareness of self-identifying unity despite intermittent consciousness does not resolve the problem.
This essay shows how three quite different criteria can be reconciled within the framework of Whitehead’s thought. Blackmur is concerned with the "poet’s version of the actual." Brooks’ thought is about the establishment of an experience that shall be structurally faithful to the complexity which is generically characteristic of reality. Sartre’s emphasis is on freedom and individual time.
The author deals with two questions raised by Hartshorne concerning the Whiteheadian understanding of the temporal structure of God. First, whether there is be a cosmic present; and second, the temporal length of the divine present.
Hartshorne, in 26 steps, builds up his argument for personal identity. He submits that it is in harmony with Whitehead’s view and in some respects close to historical Buddhism, whether Theravada or Mahayana.
The attenuations, enhancements, and supplementations of emotion and value in which prehensions of the past effect us are all important in experience.
- Number 4, Winter 1972
- Cosmic Epochs and the Scope of Scientific Laws by Tom L. Beauchamp
- Deficiencies in Whitehead’s Philosophy by Archie J. Bahm
- Regional Inclusion and the Extensive Continuum by John B. Cobb Jr. and Donald W. Sherburne
- Relativity Physics and the God of Process Philosophy by Paul Fitzgerald
According the author, there is a lack of discussion about Whitehead’s view that scientific laws state principles which are immanent in nature but which evolve concurrently with novel changes in the entities actually constituting the universe.
Two process philosophies, Organism and Organicism, serve three purposes for process studies: 1. Whitehead’s thought. 2. Other process philosophies. 3. "Radical critiques of process thought."
Cobb and Sherburne debate issues concerning regional inclusion and the extensive continuum. The argument is over the attributions of certain doctrines to Whitehead’s process thought.
The bearing of relativity theory on process theism suggests two mutually incompatible approaches to the problem of conceiving God as a temporal being. The author spells out why and suggests the advantages and drawbacks which process theists might see in each.