From math to metaphysics
About 100 years ago, a reknown but aging English mathematician named Alfred North Whitehead turned his attention from mathematics to philosophy ... and finally to metaphysics where he articulated a remarkable, comprehensive and integrated explanation of reality which radically departed from the "bifurcation" [or "dualism"] more or less inherent in most of Western philosophy that preceded him.
"[For Whitehead] the division [of reality into inorganic and organic] is ultimately false, sanctioned by the purported mechanical universe idea, once again resulting from Descartes’ mind/matter split. [He said, 'Biology is the study of the larger organisms; whereas physics is the study of the smaller organisms.'] Most importantly here, to Whitehead, actual entities have a degree of sentience – of awareness, feeling and purpose – [which connect them in organic] systems, or ‘societies’. ... Consciousness as we humans have it is therefore a complex nested system of subordinate sentiences [an emotional complex of feeling other entities nearby ... both positive and negative]." The Philosophy of Organism, Peter Sjöstedt-H, 2016
Whitehead's fundamental notions of "feeling" and "sentience" sound like Jesus' outrageous claim that the "rocks would cry out" if the people failed to do so. And yet they permitted him to forge a powerful notion of continuous organic "creativity" that undergirds all reality ... connecting the many as one in steady progress towards true potential. We encourage the brave among you to probe Whitehead's thought for yourselves.
A sense of urgency
But if you know nothing else about Whitehead, know this: his philosophy of organism compelled him to conclude that
"there is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have consequences for the world around us." Wikipedia fn[23]
And for this reason, some of the most promising applications of Whitehead's thought have gained even greater vitality nearly 100 years later in the areas of ecological civilization and environmental ethics ... and in understanding The Aims of Education:
"We can be content with no less than the old summary of educational ideal which has been current at any time from the dawn of our civilisation. The essence of education is that it be religious. Pray, what is religious education? A religious education is an education which inculcates duty and reverence. Duty arises from our potential control over the course of events. Where attainable knowledge could have changed the issue, ignorance has the guilt of vice. And the foundation of reverence is this perception, that the present holds within itself the complete sum of existence, backwards and forwards, that whole amplitude of time, which is eternity." AN Whitehead, 1916
For Whitehead, all of creation is the unfolding of a process ... known as process philosophy ... which means change and adaptation. And yet his deep insights into the variables that inhere in the process enabled him to confidently make observations and recommendations that might not occur to less insightful thinkers ... even though they would be nearly "obvious" to anyone with common sense.
Avoiding educational GMO's
In the spirit, then, of examing Whitehead's profoundly rooted but common sensical ideas on education as an organic process ... to see if/how they might assist us in adaptation at this point in time ... to discover and unleash the power of organic schools ... we offer this essay titled
to which we will be adding in the coming weeks, so come back from time to time and refresh your thoughts with us. Your Comments and Replies below are ALWAYS welcome !!
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