 Cobb was convinced that Alfred North Whitehead was right in viewing both nature and human beings as more than just purposeless machines . Rather than seeing nature as purely mechanical and human consciousness as a strange exception which must be explained away , Whiteheadian naturalism went in the opposite direction by arguing that subjective experience of the world should inform a view of the rest of nature as more than just mechanical . In short , nature should be seen as having a subjective and purposive aspect that deserves attention . 
