Pierfrancesco Basile is a lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Bern, Switzerland.

• PrefaceAcknowledgementsAbbreviationsPart I. In Search of a New Metaphysics1. Introduction: Metaphysics, Science, Common Sense2. Speculative Metaphysics: Defining the IdealPart II. From Permanence to Process3. Deconstructing Tradition: Substance Revisited4. The Flowing Self: From Monads to Actual Occasions5. Overcoming the Cartesian Legacy: The Process Concept of SubstancePart III. From Process to Permanence6. Changing Shapes of Reality: Understanding Nature under a Social Analogy7. Theological Afterthoughts: A Neo-Platonic God for a Darwinian Universe?8. Conclusion: The Ethics of Creativity - A Deweyan CritiqueAppendix: The Making of a Metaphysician – a Biographical NoteBibliographyIndex

Whitehead’s speculative cosmology and willingness to reform language in its service set him against the philosophical trends of his time. Pierfrancesco Basile’s discerning study eschews adulation, revealing a carefully revolutionary Whitehead grappling with matter, mind and metaphysics, a tempered rationalist indebted to Leibniz, whose philosophy "escapes any easy judgment."

Pierfrancesco Basile is a lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Bern, Switzerland.

• PrefaceAcknowledgementsAbbreviationsPart I. In Search of a New Metaphysics1. Introduction: Metaphysics, Science, Common Sense2. Speculative Metaphysics: Defining the IdealPart II. From Permanence to Process3. Deconstructing Tradition: Substance Revisited4. The Flowing Self: From Monads to Actual Occasions5. Overcoming the Cartesian Legacy: The Process Concept of SubstancePart III. From Process to Permanence6. Changing Shapes of Reality: Understanding Nature under a Social Analogy7. Theological Afterthoughts: A Neo-Platonic God for a Darwinian Universe?8. Conclusion: The Ethics of Creativity - A Deweyan CritiqueAppendix: The Making of a Metaphysician – a Biographical NoteBibliographyIndex

Whitehead’s speculative cosmology and willingness to reform language in its service set him against the philosophical trends of his time. Pierfrancesco Basile’s discerning study eschews adulation, revealing a carefully revolutionary Whitehead grappling with matter, mind and metaphysics, a tempered rationalist indebted to Leibniz, whose philosophy "escapes any easy judgment."

Pierfrancesco Basile is a lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Bern, Switzerland.

• PrefaceAcknowledgementsAbbreviationsPart I. In Search of a New Metaphysics1. Introduction: Metaphysics, Science, Common Sense2. Speculative Metaphysics: Defining the IdealPart II. From Permanence to Process3. Deconstructing Tradition: Substance Revisited4. The Flowing Self: From Monads to Actual Occasions5. Overcoming the Cartesian Legacy: The Process Concept of SubstancePart III. From Process to Permanence6. Changing Shapes of Reality: Understanding Nature under a Social Analogy7. Theological Afterthoughts: A Neo-Platonic God for a Darwinian Universe?8. Conclusion: The Ethics of Creativity - A Deweyan CritiqueAppendix: The Making of a Metaphysician – a Biographical NoteBibliographyIndex

Whitehead’s speculative cosmology and willingness to reform language in its service set him against the philosophical trends of his time. Pierfrancesco Basile’s discerning study eschews adulation, revealing a carefully revolutionary Whitehead grappling with matter, mind and metaphysics, a tempered rationalist indebted to Leibniz, whose philosophy "escapes any easy judgment."