MacTutor
Alfred North Whitehead
Times obituary
A CAMBRIDGE PLATONIST
Dr. A. N. Whitehead, Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University from 1924 to 1937, died yesterday at Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the age of 86.
Alfred North Whitehead was born at Ramsgate on February 15, 1861, the son of Canon Alfred Whitehead. He went to Sherborne School and in 1880 entered Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1883 he was bracketed fourth Wrangler, and in the following January was placed in the first class of Part III of the Mathematical Tripos (Part III, which was for Wranglers only, was discontinued in 1887. He was elected a Fellow in the same year by his college and, in the course of time, became a senior mathematical lecturer. He left Cambridge in 1911, while retaining his fellowship, to become a lecturer in applied mathematics and mechanics at University College, London, and later became a reader in geometry there. About that time, a major reorganization was taking place at the Imperial College of Science, and in 1914, Whitehead was invited to become a Professor of Applied Mathematics. He held the post until 1924, when he accepted an invitation to the chair of philosophy at Harvard. America became to him a second home.
Even in his earliest works, it was apparent that his main interest was in the "no-man's land" between mathematics and philosophy. His first great contribution to this field was his Universal Algebra, published in 1898. The name was taken from a paper published by Sylvester 14 years earlier, and the avowed purpose of the book was to present a thorough investigation of the various systems of symbolic reasoning allied to ordinary algebra. In 1900, Whitehead took a young man of conspicuous talents, who had a little earlier been elected a Fellow of Trinity, with him to a mathematical congress in Paris; this association with Mr. Bertrand (now Earl) Russell was to lead to a fruitful epoch in the history of logic. At the congress, their eyes were opened to the splendid work being done in Italy on the foundations of mathematics by Peano. They made a study of Peano's works and themselves began to prepare their "Principia Mathematica," which appeared in three volumes between 1910 and 1913. So many encomiums have been heaped on this justly lauded work that it is almost superfluous to point out its dominating position in the history of both logic and mathematics.
In 1917 Whitehead wrote "The Organization of Thought," in which he tilted at the examination system; much of it was republished in 1929 in "The Aims of Education." He was naturally devoting much thought to the theory of relativity, and in 1922, in "The Principle of Relativity," gave an alternative rendering. The metrical formulas were those of Einstein, but the meanings ascribed to the algebraic symbols were quite different. He believed experience required a basis of uniformity, and that in the nature of space-time relations this basis was provided by the uniformity of spatial-temporal relations. This conclusion cut at the root of the "casual heterogeneity" of these relations in Einstein's later theory.
By this time Whitehead had begun to adumbrate, in "An Inquiry Concerning the Principles of Natural Knowledge" and "The Concept of Nature," the philosophy in which he was to spend the rest of his life working out. It was most fully given in "Process and Reality," his Gifford Lectures of 1927-28, with which "Science and the Modern World" (Lowell Lectures, 1925) and "Adventures of Ideas" (1934) formed a trilogy. Aspects of his philosophy were also dealt with in "Religion in the Making," "Symbolism," "The Function of Reason," and "Nature and Life." The physical world of Whitehead's philosophy, like that of contemporary science, is a complex of events. But these events are not the point-events of physics. Conformably with his "endeavor to base philosophic thought upon the most concrete elements in our experience," his events are concrete "slabs of duration," the perceived entities of the physical world extended in space and persisting in time. The event which includes all other events is designated the "passage of nature," where the emphasis is on "pa passage" no less than on nature. This is a recognition of the flux in nature of which Bergson and the emergent evolutionists, in their different ways, have made this generation so conscious. But in Whitehead's philosophy there is also due recognition of "eternal objects" which have "ingress" into events.
There is a great resemblance here to Plato's theory of ideas. His cosmology also bears striking resemblance to that of the "Timaeus." But the most significant feature of Whitehead's metaphysics is that which leads him to term it a "philosophy of organism." "Creativity," an Aristotelian conception, is another dominant feature of Whitehead's philosophy, and God is the "non-temporal actuality which has to be taken into account in every creative phase." He finds four constitutive factors in religion—ritual, emotion, belief, and rationalization. Whitehead invented a whole new vocabulary for the expression of his philosophical ideas. His terms, often based on etymology, are generally added to the cultity of his writings No man ever clothed such profound thoughts in language. Nevertheless, that which is in such obscure "the philosophy of organism" will find a worthy place in histories as a magnificent reconciliation of old antagonisms of classical metaphysics with modern science, of rest with motion, of the one with the many, of thought with feeling. Whitehead will be remembered for bringing the spirit of Locke to life when it was thought to be dead. But above all he will be remembered as the latest and greatest of the Cambridge Platonists.
Whitehead was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1903, and in 1925 received the society's Sylvester Medal for his work on the foundations of mathematics and his analysis of physical concepts. He was president of the Mathematical Association in 1915–16 and of Section A of the British Association in 1916. In 1922 he was the first recipient of the James Scott Prize from the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and in 1930 was awarded the Butler Medal from Columbia University. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1931. The universities of Manchester, St. Andrews, Wisconsin, Harvard, Yale, and Montreal honored him with doctorates, and two years ago he received the coveted Order of Merit.
He married Evelyn, daughter of the late Captain A. Wade. His wife, to whom he was greatly devoted, bore him two sons and a daughter. His younger son, 2nd Lieutenant Eric Alfred Whitehead, R.F.C., was killed while flying on patrol duty in France in March 1918.
A CAMBRIDGE PLATONIST
Dr. A. N. Whitehead, Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University from 1924 to 1937, died yesterday at Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the age of 86.
Alfred North Whitehead was born at Ramsgate on February 15, 1861, the son of Canon Alfred Whitehead. He went to Sherborne School and in 1880 entered Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1883 he was bracketed fourth Wrangler, and in the following January was placed in the first class of Part III of the Mathematical Tripos (Part III, which was for Wranglers only, was discontinued in 1887. He was elected a Fellow in the same year by his college and, in the course of time, became a senior mathematical lecturer. He left Cambridge in 1911, while retaining his fellowship, to become a lecturer in applied mathematics and mechanics at University College, London, and later became a reader in geometry there. About that time, a major reorganization was taking place at the Imperial College of Science, and in 1914, Whitehead was invited to become a Professor of Applied Mathematics. He held the post until 1924, when he accepted an invitation to the chair of philosophy at Harvard. America became to him a second home.
Even in his earliest works, it was apparent that his main interest was in the "no-man's land" between mathematics and philosophy. His first great contribution to this field was his Universal Algebra, published in 1898. The name was taken from a paper published by Sylvester 14 years earlier, and the avowed purpose of the book was to present a thorough investigation of the various systems of symbolic reasoning allied to ordinary algebra. In 1900, Whitehead took a young man of conspicuous talents, who had a little earlier been elected a Fellow of Trinity, with him to a mathematical congress in Paris; this association with Mr. Bertrand (now Earl) Russell was to lead to a fruitful epoch in the history of logic. At the congress, their eyes were opened to the splendid work being done in Italy on the foundations of mathematics by Peano. They made a study of Peano's works and themselves began to prepare their "Principia Mathematica," which appeared in three volumes between 1910 and 1913. So many encomiums have been heaped on this justly lauded work that it is almost superfluous to point out its dominating position in the history of both logic and mathematics.
In 1917 Whitehead wrote "The Organization of Thought," in which he tilted at the examination system; much of it was republished in 1929 in "The Aims of Education." He was naturally devoting much thought to the theory of relativity, and in 1922, in "The Principle of Relativity," gave an alternative rendering. The metrical formulas were those of Einstein, but the meanings ascribed to the algebraic symbols were quite different. He believed experience required a basis of uniformity, and that in the nature of space-time relations this basis was provided by the uniformity of spatial-temporal relations. This conclusion cut at the root of the "casual heterogeneity" of these relations in Einstein's later theory.
By this time Whitehead had begun to adumbrate, in "An Inquiry Concerning the Principles of Natural Knowledge" and "The Concept of Nature," the philosophy in which he was to spend the rest of his life working out. It was most fully given in "Process and Reality," his Gifford Lectures of 1927-28, with which "Science and the Modern World" (Lowell Lectures, 1925) and "Adventures of Ideas" (1934) formed a trilogy. Aspects of his philosophy were also dealt with in "Religion in the Making," "Symbolism," "The Function of Reason," and "Nature and Life." The physical world of Whitehead's philosophy, like that of contemporary science, is a complex of events. But these events are not the point-events of physics. Conformably with his "endeavor to base philosophic thought upon the most concrete elements in our experience," his events are concrete "slabs of duration," the perceived entities of the physical world extended in space and persisting in time. The event which includes all other events is designated the "passage of nature," where the emphasis is on "pa passage" no less than on nature. This is a recognition of the flux in nature of which Bergson and the emergent evolutionists, in their different ways, have made this generation so conscious. But in Whitehead's philosophy there is also due recognition of "eternal objects" which have "ingress" into events.
There is a great resemblance here to Plato's theory of ideas. His cosmology also bears striking resemblance to that of the "Timaeus." But the most significant feature of Whitehead's metaphysics is that which leads him to term it a "philosophy of organism." "Creativity," an Aristotelian conception, is another dominant feature of Whitehead's philosophy, and God is the "non-temporal actuality which has to be taken into account in every creative phase." He finds four constitutive factors in religion—ritual, emotion, belief, and rationalization. Whitehead invented a whole new vocabulary for the expression of his philosophical ideas. His terms, often based on etymology, are generally added to the cultity of his writings No man ever clothed such profound thoughts in language. Nevertheless, that which is in such obscure "the philosophy of organism" will find a worthy place in histories as a magnificent reconciliation of old antagonisms of classical metaphysics with modern science, of rest with motion, of the one with the many, of thought with feeling. Whitehead will be remembered for bringing the spirit of Locke to life when it was thought to be dead. But above all he will be remembered as the latest and greatest of the Cambridge Platonists.
Whitehead was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1903, and in 1925 received the society's Sylvester Medal for his work on the foundations of mathematics and his analysis of physical concepts. He was president of the Mathematical Association in 1915–16 and of Section A of the British Association in 1916. In 1922 he was the first recipient of the James Scott Prize from the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and in 1930 was awarded the Butler Medal from Columbia University. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1931. The universities of Manchester, St. Andrews, Wisconsin, Harvard, Yale, and Montreal honored him with doctorates, and two years ago he received the coveted Order of Merit.
He married Evelyn, daughter of the late Captain A. Wade. His wife, to whom he was greatly devoted, bore him two sons and a daughter. His younger son, 2nd Lieutenant Eric Alfred Whitehead, R.F.C., was killed while flying on patrol duty in France in March 1918.
You can see the original newsprint at THIS LINK
