Process Studies

In contrast to temporal asymmetry stressed in process philosophy, symmetry prevails in Mahayana Buddhism and East Asian philosophy formed under its influence. The paper clarifies the meaning of symmetry from the perspectives of Kitaro Nishida and Dogen, it explores similar or overlapping ideas in Whitehead’s philosophy oforganism, and it suggests that the differences among them are much smaller than commonly believed.

John Milbank’s theology argues for a return to the participatory ontology of the pre-moderns in which actuality is understood as rooted in intimate relation to the divine. He rejects modernity’s notion that finite reality can be understood as occupying its own space independent of God. In this context he develops the notion of finite “making” as coincident with the finite realization of the divine. This paper develops how the notion of “coincidence” can be applied to Whitehead’s thought, allowing for an identification of God with creativity and finite “making,” seeking to provide a more theologically satisfying account of God’s relation to creativity.

This article explores the relationship between Wittgenstein (both early and late) andWhitehead, specifically regarding the different views of the relationship between language and reality in these two thinkers.

This article supplements the article by Fubin Yang in vol. 39 (2010) of this journal. The goal is to account for the recent surge of interest in process thought in China.

These seven short essays record several recent explorations together with some corrections to earlier views which need revision in the light of further evidence. Topics considered include temporal atomism, a critique of nontemporal concresence, divine subjectivity and conceptual activity, a reexamination of physical purpose and negative prehension, and an alternate theory of life and mind.

In this article I briefly respond to Rem Edwards’ recent defense of Marjorie Suchocki’s article on “The Dynamic God.”