A Key to Whitehead's Process and Reality

Whitehead's magnum opus is as important as it is difficult. It is the only work in which his metaphysical ideas are stated systematically and completely, and his metaphysics are the heart of his philosophical system as a whole. Sherburne has rearranged the text in a way designed to lead the student logically and coherently through the intricacies of the system without losing the vigor of Whitehead's often brilliant prose. "The Key renders Process and Reality pedagogically accessible for the first time."--Journal of Religion

Donald W. Sherburne is professor of philosophy at Vaderbilt University.

Purpose and Design of This Book 1. The Actual Entity I. The Actual Entity II. Prehensions 1. Datum 2. Subjective Form III. Satisfaction, Superject, and Objective Immortality IV. The Ontological Principle 2. The Formative Elements I. Eternal Objects II. God 1. God and Subjective Aim 2. Coherence of the Concept "God" 3. Summary and Transition to Creativity III. Creativity 3. The Phases of Concrescence I. Introductory Statement II. Phase I-Conformal Feelings 1. Three Categoreal Obligations 2. Three Categoreal Obligations Illustrated III. Phase II-Conceptual Feelings 1. Conceptual Reversion 2. Reversion, God, and Subjective Aim 3. Valuations and Further Categoreal Obligations IV. Phase III-Simple Comparative Feelings 1. Physical Purposes 2. Propositions and Propositional Feelings 3. Physical Purposes versus Propositional Feelings V. Phase IV-Complex Comparative Feelings VI. Satisfaction 4. Nexus and the Macrocosmic I. Transmutation II. Nexus and Order III. Psychological Physiology 5. Perception I. Causal Efficacy II. Presentational Immediacy III. Symbolic Reference IV. Perception, Causation, and Whitehead's Rebuttal of Hume 6. Whitehead and Other Philosophers I. Descartes (and Hume) II. Locke (and Hume) III. Kant IV. Newton V. Newton and Plato VI. Modern Science 1. Substance 2. Philosophy and Science 7. God and the World I. The Ideal Opposites II. God and the World 1. Traditional Concepts of God 2. The Primordial Nature of God 3. The Consequent Nature of God 4. Resolution of the Cosmological Problem Appendix - In Defense of Speculative Philosophy Glossary Process and RealityPassages quoted in this book Index