Passage Of Nature

The concept of Process is often used but seldom, if ever, discussed. In this book, Dorothy Emmet looks at how a process differs from a succession of events, facts, or even just things changing. She delineates three kinds of process, or 'goings on' artificial, as in the building of a house; natural, as in physiological changes; and, social, as in human political activities. Emmet claims that Causation is best seen in terms of processes. She describes the general characteristics of what it is to be a process as well as the special characteristics of organic and social processes, and explains why it is profitable to think of them as processes. Finally, she explores the possible significance of the notion of process for morals and religion and proposes what might be called 'providential processes'.As her title suggests, the author acknowledges the influence of an early interest in Alfred North Whitehead's philosophy of process and she critically discusses some of his views. But this is not an exegesis of Whitehead; it is an original metaphysics in which the passage of nature is seen as carried on through the activities, sometimes creative, of things and persons sustaining processes, while at the same time some of them form a distinct kind of particular called a 'thing-in-process'. Author note: Dorothy Emmet is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Manchester.