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THU LIBRARY OF LIVING PHILOSOPHERS 1 Volume III THE PHILOSOPHY OF ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD THE LIBRARY OF LIVING PHILOSOPHERS Paul Arthur Schilpp, Editor Already Published- THE PHILOSOPHY OF JOHN DEWEY (1939) THE PHILOSOPHY OF GEORGE SANTAYANA (1990) THE PHILOSOPHY OF ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD ('94') 1 InPreparation: THE PHILOSOPHY OF BENEDETTO CROCE THE PHILOSOPHY OF G E MOORE THE PHILOSOPHY OF BERTRAND RUSSELL THE PHII OSOPHY OF ERNST CASSIRER THE PHILOSOPHY OF LEON BRUNSCHVICG Othervolumesto be announcedlater kffM. THE LIBRARY OF LIVING PHILOSOPHERS Volume III The Philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead Edited by PAUL ARTHUR SCHILPP NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY 1 941 NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY EVANSTON AND CHICAGO THE PHILOSOPHY OF ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD Copyright, 1941,by TheLibraryafLtvtngPhilosophers Printedinthe UntiedStates ojAmerica FirstEdition L-C QKOftGSBAWTAPUBLISHINGCOMPANY,MKNASHA,WISCONSIN GENERAL INTRODUCTION* TO “THE LIBRARY OF LIVING PHILOSOPHERS” ACCORDING to the late F. C. S. Schiller, the greatest /AV obstacletofruitfuldiscussioninphilosophyis“thecurious etiquette which apparently taboos the askingofquestions about a philosopher’s meaning while he is alive.” The “interminable controversies which fill thehistones ofphilosophy,”he goes on to say, “could have been ended at once by asking the living philosophersafewsearchingquestions.” Theconfident optimism ofthislastremarkundoubtedlygoes too far.Livingthinkershave oftenbeenasked“afewsearching questions,” but their answers have not stopped “interminable controversies” about theirreal meaning. It isnone the lesstrue that there wouldbe fargreaterclarity ofunderstandingthan is now often the case, if more such searching questions had been directed togreatthinkerswhiletheywerestill alive. This,atanyrate,isthebasicthoughtbehindthepresentunder- taking.ThevolumesofTheLibrary ofLivingPhilosopherscan in no sense take the place of the major writings of great and original thinkers. Students who wouldknowthe philosophiesof such men as John Dewey, George Santayana, Alfred North Whitehead, Benedetto Croce, G. E. Moore, Bertrand Russell, Ernst Cassirer, Leon Brunschvicg, Martin Heidegger, et al., will still need to read the writings of these men. There is no substitutefor first-handcontactwiththe originalthoughtofthe philosopherhimself. Leastofall doesthisLibrarypretendtobe such a substitute. The Library in fact, will spare neither effort norexpense inofferingtothestudent thebest possible guideto We thepublished writings of a given thinker. shall attempt to Thu General Introduction, setting forth the underlying conception of this Library, u purposely reprinted in each volume (with only very minorchanges). vn vm THE LIBRARY OF LIVING PHILOSOPHERS meetthisaimbyprovidingattheendofeachvolumemourseries acompletebibliographyofthepublishedworkofthephilosopher in question. Nor should one overlookthe factthat the essaysin each volume cannot but finally lead to this same goal. The in- terpretative and critical discussions of the various phases of a great thinker’s work and, most of all, the reply of the thinker himself,areboundtoleadthereadertotheworksofthephiloso- pherhimself. At the same time, there is no blinkingthe fact that different experts find different ideas inthewritings ofthe same philosopher.Thisisastrue oftheappreciativeinterpreterandgrateful discipleasitisofthecritical opponent Norcanitbedeniedthat such differences of reading and of interpretation onthepart of other experts often leave the neophyte aghast beforethewhole mazeofwidelyvaryingandevenopposinginterpretations. Who isrightandwhoseinterpretationshallheaccept? Whenthedoc- torsdisagreeamongthemselves,whatisthepoorstudenttodo? If,finally,in desperation,hedecides thatallofthe interpreters areprobably wrong andthatthe only thing for him to do isto goback to theoriginal writ—ings of the philosopher himselfand then makehis own decision uninfluenced (a—s ifthis were possible*) by the interpretation of any one else the result is not thathehasactuallycometothemeaningoftheoriginalphiloso- pherhimself,butrather that he has setup one moreinterpreta- tion, which may differ to a greater or lesser degree from the m interpretationsalready existing It is clear that this direction lieschaos,justthekindofchaoswhichSchillerhassographically andinimitablydescribed1 . It isstrange that until now no way of escapingthis difficulty has been seriouslyconsidered It has not occurredtostudentsof philosophythatoneeffectivewayofpartiallymeetingtheprob- lem is to put these varying interpretations and critiques before thephilosopherwhileheisstillaliveandtoaskhimtoactatone and the same time asboth defendant andjudge. Iftheworld’s greatlivingphilosopherscanbeinducedtocooperateinanenter- prisewherebytheirownworkcanatleastpartiallybesavedfrom JIn his essay on “Must Philosophers Disagree*” in the volume by the same title (Macmillan, London, 1934), from which the above quotations were taken. , , GENERAL INTRODUCTION ix becomingmerely“desiccatedlecture-fodder,” which ontheone hand “provides innocuous sustenance for ruminant professors,” and,onthe otherhand,gives an opportunityto such ruminants andtheirunderstudiesto“speculatesafely,endlessly,andfruit- lessly, about what aphilosopher must have meant,” (Schiller) theywillhavetakenalongstep towardmakingtheirintentions clearlycomprehensible. With this in mind The Library of Living Philosophers ex- pects to publish at more or less regular intervals a volume on each of the greater among the world’s living philosophers. In eachcaseitwillbethepurposeoftheeditorsof The Library to bring together in the volume the interpretations and criticisms of a wide range of that particular thinker’s scholarly contem- poraries, each ofwhomwill be given a free handtodiscuss the particular phase of the thinker’s work which has been assigned to him. All contributed essays will finally be submitted to the philosopher with whose work and thought they are concerned, for his careful perusal and reply. And, although it would be expectingtoomuchto imaginethatthephilosopher’sreplywill be able to stop all differences of interpretation and of critique, thisshould atleast servethe purpose of stoppingcertain ofthe grosser and more general kinds of misinterpretations. If no further gain than this were to come from the present and projected volumes of this Library, it would seem to be fully justified. Incarryingoutthisprincipal purpose oftheLibrary theedi- tor announcesthat (in so far as humanlypossible) eachvolume willconformtothefollowingpattern. First, a series of expository and critical articles written by the leading exponents and opponents of the philosopher’s thought, Second thereplytothecriticsandcommentatorsbythephiloso- pherhimself,* 9In the present volume there arc substituted for this feature two new essays fromthepenof ProfessorWhitehead The reasons forthissubstitution the reader will find both in a personal statement from Professor Whitehead, a statement which introduces “The Philosopher’s Summary” (cf pp 664 and 66j below), and also in the editor’sPreface tothisvolume Frontispiece Fscmg V General Introduction to The Library of Lwtng Philosophers Vil Editor’s Preface XJ11 Including a facsimile reproduction of a letter from Henn Bergson XIV I WHITEHEAD’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY Alfred North Whitehead Autobiographical Notes 1 II DESCRIPTIVE AND CRITICAL ESSAYS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF ALFRED NORTH WHITE HEAD i. Victor Lowe The Development of Whitehead’s Philosophy 15 2 Willard V. Quine Whitehead and the Rise of Mod ern Logic 125 3 Filmer S C Northrop Whitehead’s Philosophy of Science 165 4 Evander Bradley McGilvary: Space-Time, Simple Location, and Prehension 209 5 Joseph Needham A Biologist’s View of Whitehead’s Philosophy 241 6. Percy Hughes Is Whitehead’s Psychology Adequate? 273 7- Wilbur Marshall Urban Whitehead’s Philosophy of Language and Its Relation to His Metaphysics 301 8 A D. Ritchie Whitehead’s Defence of Speculative Reason 329 9- Arthur E Murphy Whitehead and the Method of Speculative Philosophy 351 10. William Ernest Hocking Whitehead on Mind and Nature 381 11 Roy Wood Sellars Philosophy of Organism and Physical Realism 405 12. John Goheen. Whitehead’s Theory of Value 435