Whiteheadian Transitions for the Future: A Meditative Exercise in Reading ‘Whitehead’s Universe’ from Back to Front with Andrew M. Davis
Event Type:
- Discussion, Presentation
- (Online)
Program:
- Process Explorations
Theme:
- Compassion, Creativity, and Global Citizenship
Featuring:
- Andrew M. Davis
Organizers:
- Center for Process Studies
My new book, Whitehead’s Universe: A Prismatic Introduction, has hit the shelves! In the course of writing it, I was fortunate to receive helpful feedback from several scholars, not least Jay McDaniel, who offered the intriguing (and admittedly striking) suggestion that I “consider beginning the book with Chapter 20, ‘Transitions for the Future,’ and then proceeding with the rest.” While I did not ultimately follow Jay’s suggestion, this presentation will do just that.
Through a meditative exercise in reading Whitehead’s Universe “from back to front,” we will begin at the end—with Chapter 20, “Ten Transitions for the Future”—and reflect upon the positive ideological, existential, and even spiritual transitions that Whitehead’s philosophy invites at both individual and collective levels. Participants will be invited simply to listen, breathe, and contemplate these transitions as possibilities for their own lives and for our shared future.
An open discussion will follow, offering an opportunity to share reflections, raise questions, and explore the implications of these transitions together. My hope is that by meditating upon some of the practical ends of Whitehead’s Universe, participants will be inspired to return to the beginning and explore the philosophical journey that give rise to them.
Featuring
Dr. Andrew M. Davis is an American process philosopher, theologian, and scholar of the cosmos. He is Research and Academic Director for the Center for Process Studies, where he researches, writes, teaches, and organizes conferences on various aspects of process-relational thought. An advocate of metaphysics and meaning in a hospitable universe, he approaches philosophy as the endeavor to systematically think through what reality must be like because we are a part of it. He is author, editor, and co-editor of over a dozen books, including Mind, Value, and Cosmos: On the Relational Nature of Ultimacy (2020); Process Cosmology: New Integrations in Science and Philosophy (2022); Metaphysics of Exo-Life: Toward a Constructive Whiteheadian Cosmotheology (2023); and Whitehead’s Universe: A Prismatic Introduction (2026). Follow his work on YouTube and at andrewmdavis.info.
