Science as Process and Perspective – 08. Process Thinking

This lecture asks the fundamental question: what is reality made of? I argue that it is made of processes (all the way down), and provide a number of thinking tools for process metaphysics.

First of all, I discuss why it is both obvious that change is everywhere, but at the same time, it is extremely difficult to think and speak in process terms. We are born as substance-based thinkers. It is much easier for us to perceive of reality as a hierarchy of things, than to take change seriously. But this does not mean that our substance-based view of reality is accurate. Whitehead called this the fallacy of misplaced concreteness. We often mistake our abstractions for fundamental experiential truths.

While there is no thing that does not engage in some kind of process, there are plenty of processes that are not based in any kind of thing. These are called subject-less processes. The existence of such processes can be used as an argument for a processual approach to reality. While you do not have to accept the idea that everything is a process, it implies that at least some phenomena in the world require a process-based approach to be understood.

To conclude the lecture, I provide a definition of what a process is and a few criteria for identifying, delimiting, and classifying processes.

Nicholas Rescher's Process Metaphysics provides an excellent and accessible introduction to process philosophy.

Whitehead's Science and the Modern World is a highly recommendable introduction into this famous philosopher's particular style of process thinking.