This book introduces the reader to Whitehead’s complex and often misunderstood metaphysics by showing that it deals with questions about the nature of causation originally raised by the philosophy of Leibniz. Whitehead’s philosophy is an attempt at rehabilitating Leibniz’s theory of monads by recasting it in terms of novel ontological categories.
Author(s): Pierfrancesco Basile
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2009
Language: English
Pages: 256
Cover......Page 1
Contents......Page 8
Preface and Acknowledgements......Page 10
1 Introduction: From Leibniz to Whitehead......Page 14
Actual entities......Page 20
The relatedness of actualities......Page 25
Revisionary metaphysics and the language of process......Page 30
Russell on Leibniz's conception of substance......Page 37
Russell's critique of Leibniz......Page 39
Conclusion......Page 43
A Cambridge philosopher: James Ward......Page 45
Materialism and the fallacy of misplaced concreteness......Page 46
Back to Leibniz: idealism, panpsychism, and evolution......Page 48
Lotze on pre-established harmony and monadic interaction......Page 54
Lotze as a process philosopher......Page 60
Ward on substance and intermonadic causation......Page 62
Ward on mind and the order of nature......Page 67
In search of a new theism......Page 71
Conclusion......Page 74
Introduction: Whitehead, Leibniz, and Hume......Page 76
Perception in the mode of causal efficacy......Page 79
Whitehead on Hume's empiricism......Page 81
Whitehead on Hume on causation......Page 83
Hume on the vulgar notion of causation......Page 90
Conclusion: Kant on monadism and causation......Page 93
Whitehead on Hume's theory of the mind......Page 97
James, Whitehead, and the specious present......Page 104
Understanding causation through metaphysical generalization......Page 108
Whitehead's answer to Leibniz......Page 111
Sprigge on Whitehead on 'objectification' and 'prehension'......Page 113
Conclusion......Page 117
Introduction......Page 119
The argument from the reality of the eternal objects......Page 121
The threat of Spinozism: are there unrealized possibilities?......Page 124
The ontological principle......Page 126
The divine vision and the independency of the forms......Page 127
The principle of relativity......Page 131
A final doubt......Page 135
Introduction......Page 138
God, creation, and the order of reality......Page 139
The consequent nature of God......Page 141
God and the world......Page 147
Open questions......Page 151
Conclusion......Page 155
8 Epilogue: Is a Leibnizian Metaphysics Still Possible Today?......Page 157
Notes......Page 161
Bibliography......Page 173
C......Page 182
F......Page 183
M......Page 184
P......Page 185
T......Page 186
Z......Page 187
