03.02 Process Thinking – Beyond Networks: The Evolution of Living Systems

Module 3 of "Beyond Networks" explains what it means to take a process perspective on scientific inquiry, knowledge, and reality itself. In this second lecture of the module, I present the basic concepts and an ultra-short history of process philosophy as a minority view in Western Philosophy. In particular, I focus on why it is so difficult to for us to think in process terms even though change is all around us. We will use the concepts introduced in this lecture throughout the rest of the course.

Nicholas Rescher's "Process Metaphysics" provides a short and very accessible introduction to process philosophy.

Before you tackle Whitehead's "Process and Reality," maybe get started with his "Science and the Modern World," a much more accessible taster of his deep and systematic process thinking.

Lakoff & Johnson's "The Metaphors We Live By" explains why we're all substance-based thinkers at heart.

Johannes Seibt introduces a modern form of process philosophy in her 1996 "The Myth of Substance and the Fallacy of Misplaced Concreteness."

The example about process-based language is from Jorge Luis Borges' brilliant short story "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius." I not only highly recommend this, but also the rest of Borges' stories, should you ever feel the need to stimulate your imagination.