Lexington Books Whiteheads Radically Temporalist Metaphysics: Recovering the Seriousness of Time (Contemporary Whitehead Studies)

In Whitehead's Radically Temporalist Metaphysics: Recovering the Seriousness of Time, George Allan argues that Whitehead's introduction of God into his process metaphysics renders his metaphysics incoherent. This notion of God, who is the reason for both stability and progressive change in the world and who is both the infinite source of novel possibilities and the everlasting repository for the finite values, inserts into a reality that is supposedly composed solely of finite entities an entity both infinite and everlasting. By eliminating this notion of God, Allan draws on the temporalist foundation of Whitehead's views to recover a metaphysics that takes time seriously. By turning to Whitehead's later writings, Allan shows how this interpretation is developed into an expanded version of the radically temporalist hypothesis, emphasizing the power of finite entities, individually and collectively, to create, sustain, and enhance the dynamic world of which we are a creative part. Review By arguing on the basis of Whitehead's own temporalist commitments against his position regarding eternal objects and a divine entity (an entity at once eternal and everlasting), and then revising the Whiteheadean approach in light of this twofold rejection, George Allan has more fully achieved what Whitehead himself aimed, but failed, to accomplish: a logically coherent, empirically adequate, and humanly relevant understanding of becoming in its full sweep and bottomless depths. No one has done more to show, in detail, his relevance to our time. George Allan has done so with a philosophical rigor and hermeneutic sensitivity matched by an eloquence hardly ever encountered in philosophical writing.--Vincent Colapietro, Pennsylvania State UniversityIn this work Allan mounts an unrelenting protest on behalf of the 'ragged edges' and 'shadows' that Whitehead's temporalized metaphysics should more consistently embrace in its description of contingent, particular, perishing processes of coming-to-be. Leveraging Whitehead's own creative ambiguities, Allan offers illuminating reflections on the role of metaphor and myth in Whitehead's later work that will move readers towards both a deeper appreciation of consistency in metaphysical propositions and a healthy skepticism about excess exactitude in speculative philosophy--Judith Jones, Fordham UniversityThe appearance of any new book from George Allan is cause for celebration, but this one is particularly important for the way it distills the wisdom of a lifetime. Beautifully written and closely reasoned, Whitehead's Radically Temporalist Metaphysics accomplishes exactly what its subtitle suggests: Recovering the Seriousness of Time. If everything that comes to be also perishes, what, then, is the ultimate meaning of life? Allan's concluding meditations on totality, tragic beauty, and peace strike me as better Whitehead than Whitehead himself.--Nancy Frankenberry, Dartmouth CollegeWithout doubt, this is absolutely the best book to make the case that Whitehead should have left God out of his system. This book is a beautifully crafted expression of Allan's view of Whitehead without God, or, simply, a completely temporal process philosophy. Allan writes with such clarity that the most complex notions are explained and illustrated perfectly. Allan shows, conclusively, that Whitehead can be interpreted completely temporally.--Robert Cummings Neville, Boston University, emeritus About the Author George Allan is professor of philosophy emeritus at Dickinson College.