[MD] Sneddon's Whitehead

[david buchanan]

This comment was taken from the "Chaos" thread...

Case said to Chin:
I do not have as much time as I would like to analyze the Sneddon Thesis but 
from what I have read so far he is presenting an alternative to the mystical 
view widely held in this forum. I have tried many times to present similar 
notions although I was and still am very unfamiliar with Whitehead....

dmb says:
I'm psyched about Sneddon's thesis, although I haven't read it yet, and most 
of what I know about Whitehead is the stuff I learned yesterday. Despite 
these profound disadvantages, I had a hunch. My instincts told me that your 
assertion was very unlikely, that Whitehead couldn't or shouldn't be used as 
"an alternative to the mystical view". Hopefully, I will be able to re-visit 
this issue when I'm armed with a little more information. But let me tell 
you what I've found so far....

"If you like to phrase it so, philosophy is mystical. For mysticism is 
direct insight into depths yet unspoken. But the purpose of philosophy is to 
rationalize mysticism; not by explaining it away, but by the introductions 
of novel verbal characterizations, rationally coordinated." Alfred North 
Whitehead in Modes of Thought (1938) p. 237.

Also, his process philosophy has been adopted by theists and transformed 
into a thing called "process theology". Basically, Whitehead is used to 
defend an abstract theism by some of the more philosophically-minded 
theologians. And apparently this is not too much of a reach. Whitehead's 
background was heavily influenced by the Church of England. His father and 
uncles were vicars and his brother was a bishop in the church.

Also, I was investigating the origins of phenomenology because I'm taking a 
class next semester. Apparently Whitehead and Husserl were working 
independently on the same problems at the same time. One could even make a 
case that Whitehead, Husserl and the Radical Empiricism of William James 
were all working the same turf, they were all working that area where 
epistemology begins to explore mystical regions of consciousness.

But, like I said, at this point I'm just an ignorant dude following his 
hunches. Much to my surprize, I've found that following hunches usually pays 
off quite well. It's almost a magical kind of fun and recommmend it highly.

Thanks,
dmb

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