Slow Reading of Process and Reality

[Jeff]

We are about 4 weeks away from completing our first year online together. I’ve been thinking about some Year-2 Projects that we might undertake. One of them is a slow reading of Whitehead’s Process and Reality. Next to the Bible, it’s my favorite book. If even one or two of you are interested, I’d probably pour all kinds of effort into typing up notes and ideas. But if no one is, then I have lots of other things I could be doing.

Here are some links to help you decide. Please give me some feedback in the next couple of weeks.

www.brlsi.org/proceed02/philosophy018.htm
plato.stanford.edu/entries/process-philosophy/
www.angelfire.com/md2/timewarp/whitehead.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Process_philosophy
plato.stanford.edu/entries/whitehead/
pweb.sophia.ac.jp/~yutaka-t/process/context.htm

[Thanin]

I'm still waiting for D2 to start.

[Jeff]

Wasn't this it? I kinda feel like I can start thinking about D3, which we'll be starting in 2015. I hope we all make it another 10 years.

Seriously though, we've had the same kinds of seminal conversations. For example, I think of the Christian Politics Board as roughly the equivalent of The Cave from D1. We've written music, cartoons, poetry, and Chris has even put his ideas about film here. Rick and Cory climbed mountains and talked about it. We've covered most of the bases and updated our old ideas, too.

What I would do for D2 is to archive the site April 8th 2005-April 8th 2006 and work it over with our best HTML skills. The aim would be to produce a CDROM or DVDROM, so we could include all the songs and all the art and anything else we wanted. It would be a digest, a year in the life...

[Tyler]

ha HA!
...seminal...

[chris]

This is a tangent, but I can imagine us in our 70s and 80s, trying to figure out Disjunction VII. They'll probably have "thought disks" or some other ethereal medium that we'd use. Or else Maddie, Emily, Nick and their generation will usurp it and turn Disjunction V into a thinking-person's pornographic publication.

[Jeff]

I hope that I can make it through D6, which we should complete in 2045.

[jtmx1]

I don't know why I didn't post these two links about process philosophy last time. They are the most important ones!

The Center for Process Studies: www.ctr4process.org/
Religion Online: www.religion-online.org/ which has most of the back issues of the scholarly journal, Process Studies: www.religion-online.org/listbycategory.asp?Cat=109

[jtmx1]

www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=2519

A nice description of Whitehead's religious development.

[Guest Justin]

Jeff, as you know, I finally bought "P&R" a few weeks ago. I've made it as far as the prologue so far, but I've had to put it down. The book "1491" and the various theories therein kept coming up over and over again here at work, so I've been reading it. As of last night, I'm a wee bit past 2/3 of the way done with it. Then I can devote more attention to Whitehead. That said, I have a stack of books that my new coworker Linda has left with me to get me up to speed with her on a few critical issues:

"The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" (Kuhn)
"Systems of Consanguinity & Affinity of the Human Family" (Morgan)
"Ceremonies of Possession in Europe's Conquest of the New World, 1492-1614" (Seed)
"Siouan Kinship" (Lesser)
"Light of the Feather" (Fedullo)
"Beginning Lakhota" (Rood & Taylor)
"A Grammar of Assiniboine" (Cumberland)

Plus, my other coworker Bob has temporarily loaned me the following:
"The Osage, an Ethnohistorical Study of Hegemony on the Prairie Plains" (Rollings)
"The Osage in Missouri" (Wolferman)

So..... while I'll be happy to start reading Whitehead soon, I'm going to hope that your promise of a slooooooooooow reading holds true.

[jtmx1]

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is the only book from that list that I've read. I wonder what she thinks you need to know from it?

The reading would be very very very slow. I plan to read 350 pages in a year, so less than a page a day. Is that acceptable?

[Jeff]

Here is the schedule for the slow reading of Whitehead’s Process and Reality. I don’t have any time to discuss it right now, except to say that it is quite leisurely. For the next two weeks I’ll post whatever comments I have about the front matter and maybe a word of introduction concerning Whitehead, the man—as pretentious as that sounds. We won’t really start digging in till May 5th. So, if you wanted to do this reading with Justin and I, you have better than two weeks to get your book. Really, you have longer than that. Since we are reading so slowly, I think you could even wait till June 16th to jump in, i.e., the week we move on to Part II.

Here are some places you can get your copy of P&R: Corrected Edition (ISBN: 0-02-934570-7).
1. Half.com, which has copies for as little as $6: product.half.ebay.com/_W0QQcpidZ13088QQprZ18876

2. Powells, my favorite used book store: www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=65-0029345707-1

3. Bamm: www.booksamillion.com/ncom/books?id=3455442622503&isbn=0029345707

4. Amazon, view TOC and most of chapter 1: www.amazon.com/gp/product/0029345707/ref=sib_rdr_dp/103-4718085-2155805?me=ATVPDKIKX0DER&no=283155&st=books&n=283155

5. Barnes and Noble: search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ISBN=0029345707&pdf=y

* * * * *

Reading Schedule:

April 21st, 2006 Front matter: Editors’ Preface/Preface/TOC. Pp i-xxxi.
May 5th Part I: The Speculative Scheme. Chapter 1: Speculative Philosophy. Pp 3-17.
May 19th Part I. Chapter 2: The Categoreal Scheme. Pp 18-30.
June 2nd Part I. Chapter 3: Some Derivative Notions. Pp 31-36.
June 16th Part II: Discussion and Applications. Chapter 1: Fact and Form. Pp 39-60.
June 30th Part II. Chapter 2: The Extensive Continuum. Pp 61-82.
July 14th Part II. Chapter 3: The Order of Nature. Pp 83-109.
July 28th Part II. Chapter 4: Organisms and Environment. Pp 110-129.
August 11th Part II. Chapter 5: Locke and Hume. Pp 130-143.
August 25th Part II. Chapter 6: From Descartes to Kant. Pp 144-156.
September 8th Part II. Chapter 7: The Subjectivist Principle. Pp 157-167.
September 22nd Part II. Chapter 8: Symbolic Reference. Pp 168-183.
October 6th Part II. Chapter 9: The Propositions. Pp 184-207.
October 20th Part II. Chapter 10: Process. Pp 208-215.
November 3rd Part III: Theory of Prehensions. Chapter 1: The Theory of Feelings. Pp 219-235.
November 17th Part III. Chapter 2: The Primary Feelings. Pp 236-243.
December 1st Part III. Chapter 3: The Transmission of Feelings. Pp 244-255.
December 15th Part III. Chapter 4: Propositions and Feelings. Pp 256-265.
December 29th Part III. Chapter 5: The Higher Phases of Experience. Pp 266-280.
January 12th, 2007 Part IV: The Theory of Extension. Chapter 1: Coordinate Division. Pp 283-293.
January 26th Part IV. Chapter 2: Extensive Connection. Pp 294-301.
February 9th Part IV. Chapter 3: Flat Loci. Pp 302-309.
February 23rd Part IV: Chapter 4: Strains. Pp 310-321.
March 9th Part IV. Chapter 5: Measurement. Pp 322-333.
March 23rd Part V: Final Interpretation. Chapter 1: The Ideal Opposites. Pp 337-341.
April 13th Part V. Chapter 2: God and the World. Pp 342-352.

[Betterout]

Wow, Jeff... I guess I needed to check the schedule. I see we've already started, so I need to get cracking.

[Jeff]

I will post something about the readings this weekend, but really all the reading for this week could be skipped. Should I move this thread over to "Reading"?