Chromatikon Vi

Le réseau « Chromatiques whiteheadiennes » a pour objectif premier de fédérer les recherches sur les différents aspects,

Le réseau « Chromatiques whiteheadiennes » a pour objectif premier de fédérer les recherches sur les différents aspects, nuances et implications de la pensée du philosophe et algébriste britannique Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947). C'est dans ce cadre qu'ont été créés en 2002 à l'Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne des séminaires de recherche sur la philosophie organique whiteheadienne. L' « Annuaire de la philosophie en procès » publie les principaux résultats de ces travaux et offre complémentairement des études critiques et des comptes rendus récents dans les domaines whiteheadiens et connexes. The « Chromatiques whiteheadiennes » network intends to bring together research on the different aspects, nuances and implications of Alfred North Whitehead's (1861-1947) thought. Since 2002, the network has fostered in Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne research seminars on his organic philosophy. The Chromatikon yearbook publishes the main results of this work and also offer critical studies and reviews in Whiteheadian and related fields. The Chromatikon yearbooks are complementary to the works published in ontos' « Chromatiques whiteheadiennes » and« Process Thought » series.

Le réseau « Chromatiques whiteheadiennes » a pour objectif premier de fédérer les recherches sur les différents aspects, nuances et implications de la pensée du philosophe et algébriste britannique Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947). C'est dans ce cadre qu'ont été créés en 2002 à l'Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne des séminaires de recherche sur la philosophie organique whiteheadienne. L' Annuaire de la philosophie en procès publie les principaux résultats de ces travaux et offre complémentairement des études critiques et des comptes rendus récents dans les domaines whiteheadiens et connexes.

What is technology? Why does it have such power in our lives? Why does it seemingly progress of its own accord, and without regard to social or environmental well-being? The quest for the essence of technology is an old one, with roots in the pre-Socratic philosophy of ancient Greece. It was then that certain thinkers first joined the ideas of technê and logos into a single worldview. The Greeks saw it as a kind of world-force, present in both the works of men and in nature itself. It was the very creative power of the cosmos. In the 20th century, German thinkers like Dessauer, Juenger, and Heidegger sought the metaphysical basis of technology, with varying success. French theologian Jacques Ellul argued persuasively that technology was an autonomous force of nature that determined all aspects of human existence, but he neglected the metaphysical underpinnings. Recent writers in the philosophy of technology have generally eschewed metaphysics altogether, preferring to concentrate on constructivist models or pragmatic analyses. In the present work, Skrbina returns to a classic metaphysical approach, seeking not so much an essence of technology but rather a deep and penetrating analysis of the entire technological phenomenon. Drawing on the Greeks, he argues for a teleological metaphysics in which increasing order in the universe is itself defined as a technological process. On this reading, all of reality constitutes a technical sphere, a "pantechnikon," of universal scope. This work — the first-ever book-length treatment of the topic — breaks new ground by providing an in-depth and critical study of the metaphysics of technology, as well as drawing out the practical consequences. Technology poses significant risks to humanity and the planet, risks that can be mitigated through a detailed philosophical analysis.

An updated edition of a comprehensive study of the theory that mind exists, in some form, in all living and nonliving things. In Panpsychism in the West, the first comprehensive study of the subject, David Skrbina argues for the importance of panpsychism—the theory that mind exists, in some form, in all living and nonliving things—in consideration of the nature of consciousness and mind. Panpsychism, with its conception of mind as a general phenomenon of nature, uniquely links being and mind. More than a theory of mind, it is a meta-theory—a statement about theories of mind rather than a theory in itself. Panpsychism can parallel almost every current theory of mind; it simply holds that, no matter how one conceives of mind, such mind applies to all things. After a brief discussion of general issues surrounding philosophy of mind, Skrbina examines the panpsychist views of philosophers from the pre-Socratics to the post-structuralists. The original edition of Panpsychism in the West helped to reinvigorate a neglected and important aspect of philosophic thinking. This revised edition offers expanded and updated material that reflects the growth of panpsychism as a subdiscipline. It covers the problem of emergence of mind from a non-mental reality and the combination problem in greater detail. It offers expanded coverage of the pre-Socratics and Plato; a new section on Augustine; expanded discussions of Continental panpsychism, scientific arguments, Nietzsche, and Whitehead; and a new section on Russellian monism. With this edition, Panpsychism in the West will be continue to be the standard work on the topic.

The notion of a personal self took centuries to evolve, reaching the pinnacle of autonomy with Descartes' 'I think, therefore I am' in the 17th century. This 'personalisation' of identity thrived for another hundred years before it began to be questioned, subject to the emergence of broader, more inclusive forms of agency. Simulated Selves: The Undoing Personal Identity in the Modern World addresses the 'constructed' notion of personal identity in the West and how it has been eclipsed by the development of new technological, social, art historical and psychological infrastructures over the last two centuries. While the provisional nature of the self-sense has been increasingly accepted in recent years, Simulated Selves addresses it in a new way - not by challenging it directly, but by observing changes to the environments and cultural conventions that have traditionally supported it. By narrating both its dismantling and its incapacitation in this way, it records its undoing. Like The Invention of the Self: Personal Identity in the Age of Art (to which it forms a companion volume), Simulated Selves straddles cultural history and philosophy. Firstly, it identifies hitherto neglected forces that inform the course of cultural history. Secondly, it highlights how the self is not the self-authenticating abstraction, only accessible to introspection, that it seems to be; it is also a cultural and historical phenomenon. Arguing that it is by engaging in cultural conventions that we subscribe to the process of identity-formation, the book also suggests that it is in these conventions that we see our self-sense - and its transience - best reflected. By examining the traces that the trajectory of the self-sense has left in its environment, Simulated Selves offers a radically new approach to the question of personal identity, asking not only 'how and why is it under threat?' but also 'given that we understand the self-sense to be a constructed phenomenon, why do we cling to it?'.

Ontological materialism, in its various forms, has become the orthodox view in contemporary philosophy of mind. This book provides a variety of defenses of mind-body dualism, and shows (explicitly or implicitly) that a thoroughgoing ontological materialism cannot be sustained. The contributions are intended to show that, at the very least, ontological dualism (as contrasted with a dualism that is merely linguistic or epistemic) constitutes a philosophically respectable alternative to the monistic views that currently dominate thought about the mind-body (or, perhaps more appropriately, person-body) relation.

This collection of epigrams encapsulates aspects of Dr. Brown's profound insights into the dynamics of the mind/brain, gained over decades of research and reflection. Ranging over diverse topics, the epigrams nonetheless represent a coherent understanding of how the brain shapes and reshapes its inner and outer worlds, from the blur of a nascent idea to its ultimate refined and "sculpted" definition and realization in action.