Title: Process-relational theory primer « immanence
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Process-relational theory primer
What is process-relational thought?
Bibliographic starting points
Process-relational theory on this blog
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Content: The term “process-relational” is most closely associated with the metaphysics developed by philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, and Whitehead’s influence on contemporary process-relational thought is undeniable. But so are the influences of others mentioned including, especially in recent thinking, the ideas of Henri Bergson, Gilles Deleuze, and C. S. Peirce. All of these philosophers (though less frequently Deleuze) are sometimes included in the broader category of “process philosophers,” but this term alone does not adequately capture the centrality of relations in process-relational ontology. Similarly, the term “relationalism,” frequently understood to be opposed to various kinds of atomism, individualism, “essentialism,” and to recent “object-oriented” philosophies (such as those of Graham Harman and Levi Bryant, “speculative realists” frequently discussed on this blog), fails to adequately emphasize the processual nature of any and all relations. “ Process-relationalism” is thus intended to highlight the temporal dynamism, emergent relational systematicity, and inherently creative openness of a living universe composed of interactive events characterized by some measure of perception, responsiveness, “mind,” or subjectivity (or subjectivation). What the different kinds of processes are that characterize and make up the world (as examined, for instance, in DeLanda’s work on meshworks and hierarchies, Wilber’s work on holons and holarchies, etc.), and what the implications of a process-relational view may be for ethics and politics, are among the questions debated by contemporary process-relational thinkers. Bibliographic starting points
For general accounts of process-relational themes, see Nicholas Rescher, Process Metaphysics: An Introduction to Process Philosophy (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1996);