Overview
- Re-considers the concept of life in light of a process ontology
- Encompasses the writing of Darwin, Bergson Whitehead and Hartshorne
- Revisits the question of ecological balance and the place of human activities in relation to it
Part of the book series: Palgrave Perspectives on Process Philosophy (PPPP)
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Table of contents (7 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
This book provides a survey of key process-philosophical approaches that, in conversation with selected concepts across the biological and physical sciences, help us to think about living processes, or ‘lived time,’ at different scales of functioning.
The first part is written from an opening perspective on the question of the differing scales of analysis provided by Alfred North Whitehead. In particular, his interest in questions arising from the quantum mechanical reconciliation with classical mechanics informs the first two chapters that address problematic categorizations of life as variously ‘despotic,’ ‘invasive,’ or as primitive (in the radically more-than-human case of micro-organisms), whose potential recategorization relies on our willingness to acknowledge changes in value depending on the scale at which we view them.
The second part of the book concerns methodologies, in the light of works by Henri Bergson, whose intertwiningconcerns with epistemology and ontology in his theories of mind and life serve as a model for a process philosophy of biology. The chapters focus on techniques used across philosophy and the sciences to visualize processes that are otherwise unavailable to us due to the limitations of our perceptual faculties, no matter how sophisticated the tools for analysis, from microscopes to telescopes, have become. This book concludes with a consideration of the relations between parts and wholes in process, panpsychist, and ecological terms. It revisits the question of ecological balance and the place of human activities in relation to it, with reference to works of Charles Hartshorne and William James.
Reviews
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Dr Wahida Khandker is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her research focuses on intersections between process thought, particularly the work of Henri Bergson, and the philosophy of biology. She is the author of Philosophy, Animality, and the Life Sciences (2014).
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Process Metaphysics and Mutative Life
Book Subtitle: Sketches of Lived Time
Authors: Wahida Khandker
Series Title: Palgrave Perspectives on Process Philosophy
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43048-1
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Religion and Philosophy, Philosophy and Religion (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2020
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-43047-4Published: 12 May 2020
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-43050-4Published: 12 May 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-43048-1Published: 11 May 2020
Series ISSN: 2524-4728
Series E-ISSN: 2524-4736
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIII, 193
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations
Topics: Ontology, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Nature, Philosophy of Biology, Philosophy of Mind