August 27, 2019 - August 30, 2019

€150

Process as Creativity–Process as Concern



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Process philosophy has championed the idea that the universe is in the making. There is no ultimate controlling body or ruling set of laws that can make justice to what is concrete. As Whitehead put it in Modes of Thought, concrete reality is not to be reduced to a barren tautological absolute where life and motion are nothing but dreams. As a consequence, creativity is placed by Whitehead as the ultimate behind all forms, inexplicable by forms, and conditioned by all its creatures.



1. Creativity is arguably what makes process distinctive and what introduces an ever-growing complexity into what exists. Tied to satisfaction and to a sense of purpose, creative capacities are what enable us to see actuality as embedded with organism-like entities. Further, a creative universe is a mark of the presence of God in the system of Whitehead: replace creation by creativity and God becomes an element in a world in permanent adventure. A process universe is a creative one where each entity enhances the fabric of things through their own endeavors intimately circumscribed by their surroundings.



Creativity, however, is often conceived in terms of self-interest, the guiding of an aim and the sense of importance. It is associated to a valuation, to an orientation and ultimately to an agenda. Steven Shaviro has recently diagnosed a tension between satisfaction and concern.

2. 0ne can further find a friction between concern, in particular the sort of interruption in one’s agenda that is required to respond properly to an other independently of one’s valuation and agenda, and the drive towards creativity. To be sure, concern with the others brings about motion and life as responses are needed from everywhere and one’s responsibility is seemingly infinite – a topic that authors like Jabès, Levinas and Derrida have explored. One could indeed consider process as driven by concern; one’s response to the other as something that engages with a demand that itself contrasts with one’s self-interest. Process can be driven by responses that drive entities away from their own purpose. Considering concern is a way to understand the ability to shift away from one’s creative trajectory. Interestingly, and in line with how Shaviro builds on his remark, the contrast between creativity and concern leads to the perhaps broader contrast between ethics and aesthetics. One can build a metaphysics on aesthetic agents – or on purpose-guided agencies – as much as one can draw on concern and responsibility. Is there a way to bring together, from the point of view of process philosophy, these two apparently diverging efforts? Is there a process approach that could deal equally well with the exigencies of creativity and the requirements for concern with the other?

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The conference will address these issues in the framework of broader discussions of Whitehead’s philosophy and its impact. Following from the 11th IWC which focused on Nature in Process, this conference will welcome contributions dealing with creativity and concern with the planet – and how the two intertwine. In general, the focus is the contrast between self-interested lush and the lure for responsibility. The first IWC in Latin America – a continent plagued by disastrous colonial endeavors – intends to reverberate the local tension between the expansion of a mode of life and the covering-up of the other, in the apt phrase of Enrique Dussel.

Invited key speakers:



HERMAN F. GREENE JD, DMin – Bio

Herman Greene is Founder and President of the Center for Ecozoic Studies in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a thought, imagination and dialogue center for an ecological-cultural age. He serves on the Boards of the Institute for Ecological Civilization and the International Process Network, and on the Advisory Boards of the Center for Process Studies and the Institute for the Post-Modern Development of China. He is a retired business lawyer. He holds degrees in Spirituality and Sustainability, DMin, United Theological Seminary 2004; Law, JD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 1979; Ministry, MTh and MDiv, University of Chicago Divinity School 1969 and 1970; Political Science, MA, Stanford University 1967; and Political Science, BA, University of Florida 1966 www.ecozoicstudies.org



JOHN B.COBB Jr.

(born 1925) is an American theologian, philosopher, and environmentalist. Cobb is often regarded as the preeminent scholar in the field of process philosophy and process theology, the school of thought associated with the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead.[3] Cobb is the author of more than fifty books.[4] In 2014, Cobb was elected to the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[5]

A unifying theme of Cobb's work is his emphasis on ecological interdependence—the idea that every part of the ecosystem is reliant on all the other parts. Cobb has argued that humanity's most urgent task is to preserve the world on which it lives and depends,[6] an idea which his primary influence, Whitehead, described as "world-loyalty".[7]



KEITH ROBINSON

Keith Robinson researches at the UALittle Rock. He has taught at the University of South Dakota,at universities in Michigan and in the UK and Europe. Originally from London, he completed his Ph.D. at the University of Warwick. Keith Robinson’s teaching and research have been concerned primarily with three main areas, the first being the European traditions of thought that emerge from Kant and post-Kantian philosophy – especially 19th and 20th century Continental thinkers (Nietzsche, Foucault, Deleuze). Secondly, he has strong interests in modern process philosophy (James, Bergson, Whitehead). Finally, he is interested in the interconnections between these two areas. This last area of research has revolved around a critical exchange between phenomenology and perspectives drawn from poststructuralist and process thinkers. It has centered principally on temporal themes, especially the concepts of ‘event’ and ‘process’, across a range of contexts and problems. Dr. Robinson has published one book (with a second in preparation), two edited book collections, two special journal issues, and some 20 published articles and chapters in books along with several invited conference presentations.



KURIAN KACHAPPILLY

Prof. Dr. Kurian Kachappilly CMI

-Philosopher, Psychologist and Author-

Dr. Kurian Kachappilly is the professor of philosophy and religion at the DVK Bangalore, Christ University (Bangalore); and a Visiting Faculty at the University of Bangalore (India), NIAS, Bangalore, K.U. Leuven (Belgium), FHWS, Wurzburg, Germany, La Trobe, Melbourne, Australia, and Santo Tomas (the Philippines).

He holds Master’s Degree in English Literature (M.Lit) and another in Psychology (M.A), and a Licentiate and Doctorate in Philosophy from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL), Belgium.

Dr. Kachappilly is a prolific writer with several books and many scientific articles to his credit. His book ‘God of Love’ and ‘Between Partners’ are well known in the field of philosophy/psychology, both among his friends and critics. He has travelled more than 75 countries for Colloquium, Conferences and Seminars at the Universities/Institutes, etc.

Besides over 25 years of teaching experience, he is a well-known organizer of International Conferences, like “Process, Religion and Society” (2009), “Mysticism without Bounds” (2011), ‘Bounds of Ethics in a Globalized World’ (2014), in which His Holiness Dalai lama was the Chief Guest; “Harmony: Interface of Cosmic, Ethical and Religious Orders (2019)”!

At present, Fr. Kurian Kachappilly is the President of the DVK, Bangalore, India; and President-elect of the International Process Network (IPN), and he who would assume office at the 12th IPN, Brasilia, Brazil, in August 2019.

Fr. Kurian Kachappilly CMI

Dharmaram College

Bangalore – 560 029, Karnataka, India

E-mail: frkurian@christuniversity.in

Mob: (91) 99864 96561

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MARIA-TERESA TEIXEIRA: The ONTOLOGY of ECOLOGY (abstract)

Maria-Teresa Teixeira currently researches at Universidade de Coimbra. She holds a PhD in contemporary philosophy from Universidade de Lisboa and is the author of two books, Ser, Devir e Perecer A criatividade na filosofia de Whitehead and Consciência e Acção Bergson e as neurociências. She has translated Process and Reality by A. N. Whitehead into Portuguese. She has also published many papers in international journals and book chapters. She serves as the International Process Network executive director; and she was the organizer of the 2017 International Whitehead Conference.

Her overlapping interests include metaphysics and process thought and focus mainly on the philosophies of Henri Bergson and Alfred North Whitehead.

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MICHEL WEBER: WHITEHEAD, PROCESS and CONCERN (abstract)

Dr. Michel Weber is Director of the Centre for Philosophical Practice (Brussels) and Adjunct Professor at the Department of Educational Foundations of the University of Saskatchewan. His current research program mainly deals with political philosophy, the philosophy of psychiatry, and Ayurvedic medicine. Dr. Weber is the author of fifteen monographs (e.g., The Political Vindication of Radical Empiricism, 2016) and the (co-)editor of thirty books (e.g., with Will Desmond, Handbook of Whiteheadian Process Thought, 2008). His publications are sampled here: http://chromatika.academia.edu/MichelWeber.

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