This course consists
of an historical survey of process philosophy. By "process
philosophy"
is meant those philosophical positions in which change, movement,
temporality,
and/or dialectics feature prominently. Readings will include
selections
from the following philosophical authors: Heraclitus, Plato,
Leibniz,
Hegel, Marx, James, Bergson, and Whitehead. The purpose of the
course
will be to examine the way in which process thought seeks to answer
perennial
philosophical dilemmas: the relationship between the one and the
many,
the relationship between the individual and society, the relationship
between
permanence and change, the nature of temporality, the debate between
modernism
and postmodernism, etc. We will also use the process view to
engage
contemporary issues in environmental science, medicine, physics,
psychology,
and social-political theory.