The Whitehead Research Project (WRP) is dedicated to research and scholarship on the texts, philosophy, and life of mathematician and philosopher

Alfred North Whitehead Alfred North Whitehead (15 February 1861 – 30 December 1947) was an English mathematician and philosopher. He is best known as the defining figure of the philosophical school known as process philosophy, which today has found applicat ...

. It explores and analyzes the relevance of Whitehead's thought in dialogue with contemporary philosophies in order to unfold his

philosophy of organism Process philosophy, also ontology of becoming, or processism, is an approach to philosophy that identifies processes, changes, or shifting relationships as the only true elements of the ordinary, everyday real world. In opposition to the classic ...

and its consequences for our time and in relation to emerging philosophical thought.

Early history

The WRP was conceived and founded in 2005 by

Roland Faber Roland Faber (born 1960) is an author and Kilsby Family/John B. Cobb, Jr., Professor of Process Studies at Claremont School of Theology and Professor of Religion and Philosophy at Claremont Graduate University. He is Executive Co-Director of the C ...

, who serves as its executive director. In February 2005, Faber proposed and installed WRP as a project of the Center for Process Studies, a faculty research center of the

Claremont School of Theology Claremont School of Theology (CST) is an American graduate school focused on religion and theology and located in Claremont, California. CST is fully recognized and approved as one of thirteen official theological schools of the United Methodis ...

since 1973, and of which Faber is a co-director. In March 2006, Faber invited Brian G. Henning to serve as the WRP's Director of Research. In July 2006, the project established an International Board of Academic Advisors.

Conferences

The WRP has held eleven conferences since December 2007 on topics ranging from Whitehead’s intersection with

Badiou Alain Badiou (; ; born 17 January 1937) is a French philosopher, formerly chair of Philosophy at the École normale supérieure (ENS) and founder of the faculty of Philosophy of the Université de Paris VIII with Gilles Deleuze, Michel Fouca ...

and

Deleuze Gilles Louis René Deleuze ( , ; 18 January 1925 – 4 November 1995) was a French philosopher who, from the early 1950s until his death in 1995, wrote on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art. His most popular works were the two volu ...

, with

Judith Butler Judith Pamela Butler (born February 24, 1956) is an American philosopher and gender theorist whose work has influenced political philosophy, ethics, and the fields of third-wave feminism, queer theory, and literary theory. In 1993, Butler ...

, and with

Pragmatism Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition that considers words and thought as tools and instruments for prediction, problem solving, and action, and rejects the idea that the function of thought is to describe, represent, or mirror reality. ...

. Most of the papers delivered at these conferences have been subsequently published in edited books in the Contemporary Whitehead Studies series.

Contemporary Whitehead Studies

In 2009, WRP founded Contemporary Whitehead Studies (CWS), an interdisciplinary book series that publishes manuscripts from scholars with contemporary and innovative approaches to Whitehead studies. As of December 2022, it includes sixteen books.

Critical Edition of Whitehead

In February 2009, the WRP announced the inauguration of the Critical Edition of Whitehead (CEW), a long-term initiative of the WRP that aims to make available the complete published and unpublished writings of Alfred North Whitehead in a single, critical edition. The early focus of the project has been to collect and publish previously unknown Whitehead materials, including the notes of Whitehead’s students taken during his classes at Harvard from 1924–1937. In March 2014, the WRP reached an agreement with

Edinburgh University Press Edinburgh University Press is a scholarly publisher of academic books and journals, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. History Edinburgh University Press was founded in the 1940s and became a wholly owned subsidiary of the University of Edinburgh ...

(EUP) to publish the Critical Edition. Subsequently the first volume of student notes, which focuses on his first year teaching at Harvard, was published in 2017 as ''The Harvard Lectures of Alfred North Whitehead, 1924-1925: Philosophical Presuppositions of Science'', edited by Paul Bogaard and Jason Bell. The second volume of lecture notes – ''The Harvard Lectures of Alfred North Whitehead: The General Metaphysical Problems of Science, 1925-1927'', edited by Brian G. Henning, Joseph Petek, and George R. Lucas, Jr. – focuses on Whitehead’s second and third years teaching at Harvard, and was published in 2021. The Critical Edition of Whitehead is led by General Editor George R. Lucas, Jr., Founder and Executive Editor Brian G. Henning, and Associate Editor Joseph Petek, in addition to an editorial advisory board.

Whitehead Research Library

In February 2019, the WRP established the Whitehead Research Library (WRL) as a digital platform for sharing archival materials related to Whitehead. Parts of Whitehead’s nachlass – donated to the project by his grandson in January 2019 – are freely available on the platform, with more set to be added as the collection is cataloged.

References

External links

* {{official website, http://www.whiteheadresearch.org/
Whitehead Research Library
Philosophy organizations