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Schedule for A Century of Process Thought: Commemorating Whitehead’s Legacy at Harvard and Beyond

*Times listed in local timezone—Eastern Daylight Time (UTC−04:00)*

This is a working draft of the schedule for the conference. A final schedule for the event will be distributed to all attendees in the days leading up to the conference. Additional information will be added to this webpage in the coming weeks. 

Friday, September 27th

9:30 AM – 10:00 AM: Registration and Welcome Coffee

10:00 AM – 10:30 AM: Opening Ceremony (Session Chair: Dr. Wm. Andrew Schwartz)

  • Welcome Addresses from Representatives of Organizing Units (Dr. John Cobb, Dr. Jay McDaniel, President Zhi Chen, Professor Tao Tang, George Whitehead, Juncheng Zhuang)

 

10:30 AM – 11:00 AM: Keynote Speech

  • Dr. Ronny Desmet:Whitehead at Harvard: A Century of Process Philosophy

 

11:00 AM – 11:10 AM: Coffee Break

11:10 AM – 12:35 PM: Session 1 | The Development of Whitehead’s Thought in Harvard (Session Chair: Dr. Matthew Segall)

  • Dr. Joe Petek: “Waves on a Beach: The Advancing Tide of Whitehead’s Harvard Classroom”
  • Dr. Haipeng Guo: “The Rhythm and Yin-Yang of Whitehead’s Speculative Adventure of Ideas”
  • Dr. George Lucas: “The Significance of Whitehead’s First Harvard Lecture, 1924”
  • Dr. Matthew Segall: “‘No thinker thinks twice’: On the Attempt to Catch Whitehead in the Act of Philosophizing”

 

12:35 AM – 13:35 PM: Lunch Break @ Caspersen Student Center (Harvard Law School)

13:35 PM – 15:00 PM: Session 2 | Whitehead’s Chinese Disciples at Harvard (Session Chair: Dr. Kun Wang)

  • Dr. Wang Kun: “Whitehead’s Chinese disciples at Harvard
  • Dr. Zhihe Wang: Whitehead and the Second Enlightenment
  • Dr. Li Yang: “Organic Education in China
  • Dr. Jianhui Li: The debate between Einstein and Bergson and its impact on Whitehead

 

15:00 PM – 15:10 PM: Coffee Break

15:10 PM – 16:35 PM: Session 3 | Whitehead and China (Session Chair: Dr. Fubin Yang)

  • Dr. Fubin Yang: A Comparison of the Process Concepts of Marx and Whitehead
  • Dr. Tzeki Hon: Yijing and Process Cosmology
  • Dr. Philip Clayton: “Whitehead on Civilizations, Ecological and Otherwise”
  • Dr. John Becker: “The Harmonies of Harmony: The Chinese Tradition and Whitehead on Harmony”

 

16:35 PM – 16:45 PM: Coffee Break

16:45 PM – 17:45 PM: Session 4 | Roundtable: The Future of Process Philosophy (Chair: Dr. Zhihe Wang and Dr. Wm. Andrew Schwartz)

  • Dr. Catherine Keller
  • Dr. Randy Auxier
  • Dr. Mary Elizabeth Moore
  • Dr. Meijun Fan
  • Dr. Andrew M. Davis


Closing Remarks by the Conference Chair
Dr. Haipeng Guo