Recent Advances in the Creation of a Process-Based Worldview

This volume demonstrates the interdisciplinary reach of Whitehead's thought across society and politics, education and language, theology and God - all concerned with creating a unified view of life and way of living. Politically, the notion of a social organism is proposed as a viable metaphor for modern society, while contributors are also concerned with our harmonious co-evolution with Nature (this recurs in the book below). Educationally, the key theme is appreciation for live human experience, while in terms of theology there is good deal of elaboration of Whitehead's ideas on the nature of religion and God. One interesting thought experiment is whether world peace is an inevitable development, and if so how this could come about through a far greater sense of solidarity. Itow discusses the interesting notion of systemism as a reconciliation of individualism and collectivism, while Wang highlights the convergence of David Griffin's constructive post-modernism and Chinese Marxism, a surprising and promising development. I also like Muray's notion of biocracy as another form of deep ecology. In the theological section, there are some interesting reflections on beliefs as processes, where the reader meets Angel's term 'credition' to identify the process character of believing, of which the basic unit is a 'bab' that includes a propositional aspect, an emotional loading, a sense of meaning and a degree of certainty. Much of the subsequent analysis is related to the relationship between cognition and emotion. This seemed to me a useful development, especially as our beliefs do not remain static.