Knowra Alfred North Whitehead Alfred North Whitehead Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) was an English mathematician and philosopher who coauthored Principia Mathematica and developed process philosophy, a metaphysics centered on becoming and relations.
Process philosophy : A philosophical approach that treats change, activity, or becoming as fundamental to reality. Whitehead’s mature metaphysics became one of the tradition’s defining forms.
Principia Mathematica : A three-volume work by Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell that sought to derive mathematics from symbolic logic. Its collaboration with Russell established Whitehead’s reputation before his turn to philosophy.
Concrescence : In Whitehead’s metaphysics, concrescence is the process by which an actual occasion integrates its influences into a unified result. It names the becoming through which many inherited relations form one new occasion.
Logical atomism : A philosophical doctrine that analyzes the world into atomic facts represented by logically independent propositions. Whitehead’s early logical work overlaps with Russell’s doctrine, while his mature metaphysics rejects isolated atoms.
Process and Reality : Whitehead’s 1929 book presents his mature metaphysical system, later known as process philosophy. It gives the fullest account of the philosophy he developed after his mathematical career.
Bertrand Russell : A British philosopher, logician, and social critic who coauthored Principia Mathematica with Whitehead. Their long collaboration produced Whitehead’s best-known work in mathematical logic.
Causal efficacy : A mode of perception in which the influence of the past is felt directly rather than represented through clear sensory images. Whitehead uses it to explain how past occasions shape present experience.
Substance theory : A metaphysical view that treats enduring substances as basic and their properties or changes as dependent on them. Whitehead replaces enduring substances with events and patterns of inheritance.
Actual occasion : In Whitehead’s metaphysics, an actual occasion is a momentary process of becoming that constitutes reality’s basic unit. These events, rather than enduring substances, are his system’s fundamental entities.
Cambridge Apostles : An intellectual society at the University of Cambridge, founded in 1820, whose members met for debate. Whitehead belonged to this society during his Cambridge years.
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