Science and the Modern World
Alfred North Whitehead's Science and the Modern World critiques scientific materialism's reductionist worldview, arguing that 17th-century mechanistic frameworks (e.g., Newton’s "simple location" of matter) birthed the fallacy of misplaced concreteness—mistaking abstract models (like particles) for concrete reality. He proposes organic mechanism, blending mechanistic analysis with holistic prehension (entities’ relational interdependence), dissolving the bifurcation of nature (Cartesian mind-matter divide) by framing nature as an experiential continuum where even electrons exhibit proto-creativity. Whitehead highlights rhythms of education—cycles of romance, precision, and generalization—as key to integrating scientific and humanistic thought, while eternal objects (timeless potentials) structure emergent novelty. By redefining time as epochal becoming—discrete experiential pulses rather than linear flow—he bridges quantum indeterminacy and lived experience. This work laid groundwork for process philosophy, inspired ecological holism (e.g., Bateson’s systems theory), and reshaped critiques of scientism, remaining pivotal in debates about science’s cultural role and interdisciplinary epistemology.
