The Whitehead Research Project invite scholars to submit abstracts that explore the significance of the two recently published volumes of Whitehead’s Essays and Articles (EA1 and EA2). What do these essays and articles, some of which have been published for the first time, reveal about Whitehead’s philosophy and its development?
Papers presented at the conference will be eligible for consideration for inclusion in a planned anthology of essays on the significance of the Essays and Articles volumes (similar to previous anthologies devoted to HL1 and HL2).
The conference will take place via Zoom on June 21–23, 2027, 8am–11am PDT (3pm–6pm UTC)
Topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:
- What does the chronological ordering of EA1 and EA2 reveal about the development of Whitehead’s thought that was previously obscure?
- How do brand new essays like “Freedom and Order” and “The Religious Psychology of the Western Peoples” fit in with Whitehead’s previous corpus?
- Is there philosophical significance to Whitehead’s early writings for the Cambridge Review, such as “A Celebrity at Home: The Clerk of the Weather” and “Davy Jones”?
- What does the newly discovered draft of Whitehead’s 1899 article “Sets of Operations in Relation to Groups of Finite Order” tell us about his mathematical work?
- What can be gleaned of Whitehead’s politics from addresses such as “Science and Economic Liberty” and “Governor Alfred Smith”?
- We also encourage papers that explore connections between EA1/EA2 and the first and second volumes of Harvard Lectures (HL1 and HL2), or between both of them and other publications by Whitehead or his influences.
Abstracts of no more than 250 words are due by April 1, 2027.
Full papers are due by June 7, 2027; participants will be given a maximum of 20 minutes to present.
Submissions should be made by email to <jpetek@whiteheadresearch.org>.
Joseph Petek
Dr. Joseph Petek is the Director of Research and Publication for the Whitehead Research Project and Executive Editor for the Critical Edition of Whitehead at Gonzaga University. He has co-edited three books on Whitehead: Rethinking Whitehead’s Symbolism (2017), Whitehead at Harvard, 1924–1925 (2020), and The Harvard Lectures of Alfred North Whitehead, 1925–1927: General Metaphysical Problems of Science (2021). His latest book is Unearthing the Unknown Whitehead (2022), which examines the significance of Whitehead’s Harvard lectures and other previously unknown archival materials.