Rethinking Whitehead’s Symbolism

Roland Faber is the Kilsby Family/John B. Cobb Jr Professor of Process Studies at Claremont School of Theology and Founder of the Whitehead Research Project. His research and publication is in Whitehead's philosophy, Process Philosophy and Process Theology; De/constructive Theology; Poststructuralism (Gilles Deleuze); Transreligious Discourse and interreligious applications (e.g., Christianity, Buddhism, Baha'i Faith); Comparative Philosophy and Mysticism; and Theopoetics. His publications include The Becoming of God (Cascade Books, 2017), The Divine Manifold (Lexington Books, 2014) and God as Poet of the World (Westminster John Knox Press, 2008). Jeffrey A. Bell is Professor of Philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University. He has recently been a Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professor in Philosophy at Royal Holloway, University of London, during which time much of this book was written. He is the author of numerous books and articles on Deleuze and Deleuze and Guattari, including Deleuze and Guattari's What is Philosophy?: A Critical Introduction and Guide (Edinburgh University Press, 2016), Deleuze’s Hume (Edinburgh University Press, 2008), Philosophy at the Edge of Chaos (University of Toronto Press, 2006) and The Problem of Difference: Phenomenology and Poststructuralism (University of Toronto Press, 1998). Bell is co-editor with Paul Livingston and Andrew Cutrofello of Beyond the Analytic–Continental Divide: Pluralist Philosophy in the Twenty-First Century (Routledge, 2015) and with Claire Colebrook of Deleuze and History (Edinburgh University Press, 2009). Joseph Petek is the Director of Research and Publication of the Whitehead Research Project of Gonzaga University and Executive Editor of The Edinburgh Critical Edition of the Complete Works of Alfred North Whitehead. He has co-edited three books on Whitehead: Rethinking Whitehead’s Symbolism (2017), Whitehead at Harvard, 1924–1925 (2020), and The Harvard Lectures of Alfred North Whitehead, 1925–1927: General Metaphysical Problems of Science (2021). His latest book is Unearthing the Unknown Whitehead (2022), which examines the significance of Whitehead's Harvard lectures and other previously unknown archival materials.

Rethinking Symbolism contributes to the emergence of a "new" Whitehead fundamental to rethinking the humanities, social sciences, and the sciences. With essays by major figures in the revitalization of Whitehead Studies, it brilliantly highlights Whitehead’s thought while bringing animal studies; ethics; climate change; creatures and theology; Confucianism; and Jung into the orbit of Whiteheadian speculative thought.

• Notes on the ContributorsAbbreviationsIntroductionJoseph PetekPart I: Perception and Paradox1. Whitehead on Causality and PerceptionSteven Shaviro2. Originary Symbolism: Whitehead, Deleuze, and the Process View on PerceptionKeith Robinson3. Uniting Earth to the Blue of Heaven Above: Strange Attractors in Whitehead's SymbolismRoland FaberPart II: Adventures in Culture and Value4. The Inhumanity of SymbolismMichael Halewood5. Reverence, Revision, and Creaturely Life: Whitehead’s Political Theology of EnjoymentBeatrice Marovich6. Ren and Causal Efficacy: Confucians and Whitehead on the Social Role of SymbolismHyo-Dong Lee7. Avoiding a Fatal Error: Extending Whitehead's Symbolism Beyond LanguageSheri KlingPart III: Misplaced Concreteness in Ethics and Science8. A Dog’s Life: Thought, Symbols, and ConceptsJeffrey Bell9. From Manipulation to Co-Creation: Whitehead on the Ethics of Symbol CreationLuke Higgins10. On Symbols, Propositions, and Idiocies: Toward a Slow TechnoscienceAdam Nocek11. Of Symbolism: Climate Concreteness, Causal Efficacy, and the Whiteheadian CosmopolisCatherine KellerNotes on the ContributorsIndex