ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD

En este lúcido ensayo, Whitehead medita sobre la función de la razón. La historia del cosmos revela una tendencia descendente, ejemplificada por la degradación de la energía, y otra ascendente, que caracteriza al progreso de la evolucion biologica. En este ambito se inscribe la Razon, cuya funcion es promover el arte de la vida.Los griegos vieron el simbolo de esa funcion en la doble figura de Platon y Ulises, Ulises simboliza la razon practica, agente creador que contribuye pragmatica y eficazmente a satisfacer los intereses de la vida. Y Platon es emblema de la razon especulativa, facultad que los griegos consideraban de origen divino y que, dejandose inspirar por la imaginacion creadora, elabora teorias matematicas y fisicas y construye la imagen cientifica y filosofica del universo.

Whitehead presented these three lectures at Princeton University in 1929. Although 85 years have passed, his central thesis and his analysis remain remarkably current. The scientific materialism that Whitehead opposed with such vigor continues to dominate in academic circles, and even now those who question that worldview are often accused of being anti-scientific. This is especially true in discussions of the nature of the human mind and its relation to the body (particularly the brain). It is hard to find a contemporary thinker with a better perspective on the nature and role of natural science than Whitehead who, with Bertrand Russell, published the "Principia Mathematica" in 1910; who taught logic and mathematics at Trinity College of Cambridge University; who taught philosophy of science at University College London; and who was professor of philosophy at Harvard University beginning in 1924. Whiteheads cosmology is far from anti-scientific, but he does explain why scientific method and technological practice alone are not able to provide a comprehensive understanding of the full range of human thought and experience. This work explains what we must do to achieve such a comprehensive understanding.

One of the major philosophical texts of the 20th century, Process and Reality is based on Alfred North Whiteheads influential lectures that he delivered at the University of Edinburgh in the 1920s on process philosophy.Whiteheads master work in philsophy, Process and Reality propounds a system of speculative philosophy, known as process philosophy, in which the various elements of reality into a consistent relation to each other. It is also an exploration of some of the preeminent thinkers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, such as Descartes, Newton, Locke, and Kant. The ultimate edition of Whiteheads magnum opus, Process and Reality is a standard reference for scholars of all backgrounds.