The Concept of Evolution in the Philosophy of Organis

Abstract

The recent publication of A. N. Whitehead’s Harvard Lectures has turned scholars’ attention to the important role the concept of “evolution” may have played in the formation of his cosmology . Following this discovery, this paper aims to identify a “philosophy of evolution” as a general study on the modes of becoming of various types of entities, which underlies his well-known “philosophy of organism.” In light of his emphasis on change over stability, the paper argues that the concept of evolution in Whitehead’s system points to the way in which the various orders of nature co-become from the chaotic flux of events as emergent “values,” forming what he calls “societies.” Although this idea clearly differs from the nineteenth century theories of social evolution, the paper further suggests that Whitehead’s incorporation of a theory of value realization into the concept of evolution nevertheless ends up putting the latter in an ambiguous position in relation to the idea of progress. Finally, the paper considers the implications of the “philosophy of evolution” for the question of philosophical method. A close reading of the 1936 discussion between Whitehead and John Dewey shows how Whitehead ’s notion of “aesthetic enjoyment” corresponds with Dewey’s idea of “enrichment of life,” both of which are inseparable from their respective philosophical responses to the evolutionary worldview.