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Bringing together the ideas of many philosophers, this book aims to give a coherent synthesis of ideas about change and aims to see how one can take a process view of various features of humanity, such as knowledge, relations between people, language and morality, and how, vice versa, that might contribute to process philosophy. Beginning with evolution and moving on to consider knowledge in its dynamic aspect of learning, the book takes a process view of the individual and society. Generalised Darwinism is discussed not only in terms of biology but also in economics, organisation, language and science in terms of interactors and replicators. The key processes of variety generation, selection and transmission are fundamentally different from those in biology. Therefore, a theory of knowledge and its change is presented that in some ways is similar to evolution but also different in important ways. The discussion explains and applies the notions of entropy and organisational focus. Recognising that absolute, objective truth is problematic, it discusses the notion of warranted assertion. The notions of sense and reference are discussed in an explanation of meaning, and the notions of order and variety in terms of langue and parole, and the role of parole in poetry. The change of meaning is further developed in terms of the hermeneutic circle to deal with order and change of meaning. Ethics and morality are explored by how the individual constructs their identity and develops in their tension between authenticity and conformity in society. Aristotle's multiple causality of action is employed to discuss power and sources of dependence and ways to deal with them. Networks as a source of identity and the decentralisation of governance to communities are discussed along with the notion of restorative justice.

Process and the Escape from Nihilism -- Relation and Substance in Whitehead's Metaphysics -- Process as a Categorical Concept -- William James on the Nature of Time -- Space in Leibniz and Whitehead -- Process Philosophy, a Categorial analysis -- A Crossroads for Process Philosophy -- On Whitehead, Marx, and the Nature of Political Philosophy -- The Process Philosophy of Sir Muhammad Iqbal.

A Process View of Causality -- Heraclitus and the Future of Process Philosophy -- The Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Theory and Whitehead's Philosophy of Organism -- Why Whitehead is not a "Process" Philosopher -- Whitehead's Doctrine of Eternal Objects and its Interpretations -- Process and Pragmatism -- On De-Mythologizing Whitehead's Actual Entity.

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- 1. Introduction: The Process Sign -- 2. The Independent Life of Signs -- 3. Biology and the Design of Signs -- 4. Process Signs and the Process Philosophy of Biology -- 5. The Sign -- 6. The Process Sign, Structuralism and Semiology -- 7. The Process Sign After Deleuze and Whitehead -- 8. The Process Sign is Political -- 9. Conclusion -- Notes -- Index

Argues for political liberalism as a process-oriented view and process philosophy as a politically liberal view Argues for the processual, historical qualities of Rawlsian political liberalismShows the inadequacies of certain illiberal political tendencies on both the political right and the political leftExplicates why the processual method of reflective equilibrium is crucial in a just societyExplores the implications of process liberalism for issues in animal rights and environmental ethicsDaniel A. Dombrowski brings together the thought of the 20th-century philosophy's greatest political liberal, John Rawls, with the thought of the great process philosophers, Alfred North Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne. He shows that political liberalism is intimately linked with process philosophy, renaming it 'process liberalism'. He justifies this process liberalism in contrast to four potentially troublesome sources or influences: metaphysics, religion, right-wing politics and left-wing politics.Dombrowski engages a series of interlocutors and alternative positions including Franklin I. Gamwell, Timothy D. Snyder, Martin Heidegger and Karl Marx. In conclusion, he offers a compelling, intricate and resourceful argument for nonhuman animal rights based on Rawlsian principles, which in turn forms the basis of a future environmental ethics

AbstractProcess philosophy can contribute with alternative perspectives and views to traditional strategic management theory. The Western tradition of thinking, the metaphysics of Being as presence, based upon the binary separation between transcendental ideas and appearances in the real world, has been challenged by process philosophy, from Hellenic and classical philosophy through contemporary philosophy and modern physics. Process philosophy is increasingly relevant for strategic management as everyday strategic management practice has to deal with fluid, changing and complex realities. The aim of this paper is to discuss the notion of process philosophy as being a unifying label for theoretical models that emphasize change over stability, novelty over uniformity, and becoming over being. The contribution of process philosophy to strategic management theory is not primarily 'theoretical' but conceptual, and aims at providing alternative perspectives on the concept of strategy. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.