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An Unabridged, Digitally Enlarged Printing Of Volume I of III: Part I - MATHEMATICAL LOGIC - The Theory Of Deduction - Theory Of Apparent Variables - Classes And Relations - Logic And Relations - Products And Sums Of Classes - Part II - PROLEGOMENA TO CARDIANL ARITHMITIC - Unit Classes And Couples - Sub-Classes, Sub-Relations, And Relative Types - One-Many, Many-One, And One-One Relations - Selections - Inductive Relations ... Read more

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1910-13 Edition!
Just to note that this is the 1910-13 Edition, so you're missing the introduction to the 1927 Second Edition, which can be found though in The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell (Routledge Classics), and 2 new appendixes: Appendix A replacing *9 and an all-new Appendix C.

A landmark book
Principia Mathematica is a landmark book on the elements of mathematics.This edition is the best price I have seen in decades.

Both Whitehead and Russell are known for their insights into philosophy and mathematics. This book, although a mathematics book, is based upon their philosophy of how the universe works. The basic assumption of this book is that symbolic logic can be used to describe the universe. From that starting point they develop the elements of modern mathematics.

This book is meant for those of us nerds who want to understand why mathematics works and how it relates to a philosophy of the universe. Note that this book is heavy on mathematical symbols (which are explained).It can be slow reading, but Whitehead and Russell's insights are stunning. ... Read more

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Craig Eisendrath reinterprets and unifies the writings of the late-nineteenth-century psychologist William James and the twentieth-century philosopher Alfred North Whitehead. James’s psychology achieves greater depth by its grounding in philosophic doctrine, and Whitehead’s abstract and frequently abstruse philosophy gains greater specificity through the concrete illustrations provided by a wealth of psychological evidence. The result is an extension of James and an exegesis of Whitehead. The merging of James’s theory of will and Whitehead’s theory of concrescence and organism is the central pivot of the book. Eisendrath discusses as well the philosophical traditions behind both men and analyzes their theories on perception, time, space, causality, the nature and role of ideas, the laws of nature, God and civilization. Before turning to writing full-time, Craig Eisendrath taught at Northeastern University and MIT. ... Read more

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General Books publication date: 2009Original publication date: 1911Original Publisher: H. Holt and companySubjects: MathematicsEducation / Teaching Methods ... Read more

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The first three chapters are personal history, highly picturesque and amusing, illumined by flashes of his lively humor....From here the chapters go on into Philosophy, Education, and Science. covering a span of thrity years though these writings do, they are surprizingly unified. Atlantic ... Read more

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Whitehead's ten American essays in social philosophy are here reprinted in their original form, although not in chronological sequence. They have been rearranged to present first Whitehead's statement of general social principles and are followed by those essays in which he discusses problems of internal social reform and the factors which influence human societies. Next come those essays in which Whitehead is primarily concerned with international relations and last are the essays dealing specifically with educational problems. ... Read more

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First published in 1953, this volume collects in one place a number of works by the mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947). The works included in this anthology were selected by F. S. C. Northrop and Mason W. Gross, who omitted only the major early works which were readily available elsewhere. For each selection, an introduction has been supplied by Dr Gross, and a glossary illuminating Whitehead's unique terminology has been appended to the end of the volume. This book will be as an indispensable resource for anyone wishing to research the enduring ideas and philosophy of A. N. Whitehead. ... Read more

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This book is devoted to establishing the criteria by which a theodicy may be judged both logically and ethically adequate, and to a comprehensive analysis of Whitehead's theodicy in terms of those criteria. Aside from his position on the inevitability of genuine evil, Whitehead provides a theodicy which is superior to many others and which shows immense promise for the future of philosophical theology and theological ethics. Contents: The Theoretical Dimension of Theodicy; The Practical Dimension of Theodicy; Towards an Ethical Theodicy; Alfred North Whitehead; Whitehead's Process Metaphysic; Whitehead on Evil; Whitehead on Omnibenevolence; Whitehead on Omnipotence; The Theodicy of Alfred North Whitehead. ... Read more

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This volume is produced from digital images from the Cornell University Library Historical Mathematics Monographs collection. ... Read more

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Publisher: Cambridge The University pressPublication date: 1920Subjects: Knowledge, Theory ofNatureScience -- PhilosophyNotes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be numerous typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there. ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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Symbols and the subconscious
Here Whitehead discusses emotion, epistemology, instinct, perception, action, Burke, Hume, Kant in a rather challenging read. When one examines how a society shapes its individual members to function in conformity with its needs, it emerges that the primary agency must be our vast system of inherited symbolism. Symbols evoke loyalty to vague notions that are fundamental to humanity's spiritual nature.

He pursues the thesis that symbolism is a key factor in the way we function as a result of direct knowledge. Distinguishing 'Direct Recognition' from 'Symbolic Reference,' he shows that all symbolism may be reduced to trains of reference which connect percepts in alternative modes of direct recognition.

Immediate perception of the external world is defined as 'presentational immediacy' whilst the other purely perceptive mode of experience is 'causal efficacy'. Conceptual analysis as third mode of experience introduces analyzable components into actual things in the real world, plus abstract attributes, qualities and relations.

Whitehead identifies the flaws of Hume & Kant in their objections to the notion of the direct perception of causal efficacy. Both schools find causal efficacy to be an importation into the data, a way of thinking about or evaluating the data. Hume's assumption that time is merely the generic notion of pure succession is an example of the Fallacy of Misplaced Concreteness. Where Hume errs with time, the Kantians err with space and time.

He also astutely assesses the best and the worst of Burke's thought with reference to his writings on the American & French revolutions, showing that Burke's revulsion at the excesses of the French one played a part in his subsequent regrettable opposition to all progressive reform and his embrace of the "prejudice" concept.

In order to appreciate the function of symbolism in the life of society one must scrutinize the binding and disruptive forces at work. The advantages of social cohesion and the contrary stimulus of heterogeneity bestowed by freedom are equally important and need to be balanced. Whereas the force of instinct suppresses individuality, symbols simultaneously preserve the health of the community and the freedom of the individual. Symbolic expression preserves society by tying instinct to emotion thus assisting reason to dissect the particular instinct.

Symbolism makes space for the individual within society and at the same time promotes stability and an environment for co-operation between individuals. Whitehead carefully categorizes action as instinctive, reflexive and symbolically conditioned. Pure instinctive action is the response of an organism to pure causal efficacy. Reflex action is a relapse towards a more complex type of instinct by those who have experienced symbolically conditioned action.

The great process philosopher argues that symbolism needs to be constantly pruned and modified by new forms of expression. Old symbols must be remolded in accordance with changes in social structure. The rituals and ceremonies associated with symbolic concepts tend to remain unchanged or become frozen in time while their interpretations are in constant flux. When instinct is not expressed, it becomes toxic as it festers underground, unknown and unexamined by the force of reason.

Linguistic change is a good example; new words appear, old ones fall into disuse and others undergo shifts of meaning. Language is a living process built on layers of dead metaphor. Sounds and expressions participate in this process of change so in a way, expression is symbolism. A language unites a nation whilst permitting individual opinion including those contrary to the consensus.

Symbolic transference may involve arbitrary and malevolent attributions. Whitehead's analysis reminded me of Chantal Delsol's observation on the current intellectual climate in Europe. Without a sense of purpose, mankind embraces the fatuous as revealed in banal and clichéd discourse. Delsol calls it the "clandestine" ideology of our time, overt ideology having become taboo. This black market substitute is sickly sentimental, arbitrary and intolerant despite furious claims to the contrary.

With reference to the band Rammstein whose act is a particularly grotesque example of what Delsol terms "black market nationalism", Claire Berlinski reveals what the repression of profound instincts leads to. This brilliant analysis, simultaneously hilarious and horrifying, encompasses translations of their lyrics, their use of Leni Riefenstahl footage, their album cover imagery, videos of their songs and the nature of their live performances.

As a community changes, rules and cultural norms need to be revised in the light of reason. When old symbolic systems are rapidly discarded as in the case of the 20th century's secular salvationist ideologies or "isms", violent revolution, oppression and mass murder ensue. Stagnation which leads to regression brings about the same toxic fruits of tyranny and terror that we are witnessing today in the Jihad.

Both rigidity and disruption lead to human sacrifice. Preserving a free society thus requires respect for tradition combined with the constant reappraisal and revision of symbolic codes. Michael Polanyi's view of the role of tradition in his little classic Science, Faith and Society is quite enlightening in this regard. I also recommend Eric Hoffer's The True Believer, a seminal study of the nature of mass movements.
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This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

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Why Einstein might be wrong.
It is a delight to have this volume back in print again. For anyone with an interest in Whitehead's philosophy, this is an essential work that requires very little discussion. Whitehead is, here and in all of his work, a marvelous writer. But this is a technical piece, not necessarily of interest to the broadest audience imaginable. So, very briefly, what I want to do here is suggest to physicists, physics enthusiasts, and philosophers of science why they need to be interested in this book.

In the physics community, it is well known that Whitehead's theory of relativity is "wrong." Evidence presented by Clifford Will in 1971 articles in the "Astrophysical Journal," which were later summarized in his _Theory and Experiment in Gravitational Physics_ (available at Amazon), "demonstrate" that Whitehead's theory makes predictions that are violations of observational data. Very convincing, and as nearly as I can tell, Will's arguments have only one (or two, depending on how you count) problem(s):

They are predicated on two assumptions, one that is so limited it grossly misconstrues the aims of Whitehead's theory, while the other is demonstrably false.

Will's arguments against Whitehead (which come from the work of J.L. Synge) state up front that Whitehead's theory is based upon a "(1)non-dynamical (2)flat metric." #2 is the limited approach that grossly misconstrues Whitehead's argument, while #1 is the demonstrable falsehood.

It is true that, in the explicit mathematical treatments of the second half of the book, Whitehead is using Euclidean geometry. But the idea that the "flat-metric" plays any central role in Whitehead's theory is explicitly repudiated on the VERY FIRST PAGE of text in Whitehead's book. Whitehead makes it absolutely clear that he is only using "flat" geometry for purposes of mathematical convenience; it plays no essential role in his larger theory. Indeed, in 1923, G. Temple actually generalized Whitehead's program to a non-flat system of mathematics. But, despite the fact that everyone mentions Temple, no one actually looks at his work, or addresses Whitehead's larger arguments in that light.

The claim that Whitehead's theory is "non-dynamical" is demonstrably false. Unfortunately, Whitehead put this demonstration in a book that had been published three-years earlier, his _Enquiry into the Principles of Natural Knowledge_. This, along with _Concept of Nature_ and the finally republished _Principle_ form what might be thought of as the "triptych" of Whitehead's philosophy of nature. All of these books are the results of a common line of inquiry. But, unfortunately (again), Whitehead's argument for the dynamical nature of his theory is only implicit in _The Principle of Relativity_; he assumed people read his other books.

Now, the centerpiece of Whitehead's argument -- the part that Synge explicitly ignores and which Will (following Synge) doesn't even acknowledge -- is the *philosophical* critique of Einstein's theory. This philosophical critique is seldom enough noticed in the philosophical literature; as far as I know, has never been addressed within physics. The criticism is this: if the geometry of space is altered by every last particle of matter and energy which influences space, then there is no possibility of meaningful measurement. In order to measure a piece of space, my unit of measure must have some kind of uniform meaning, such that I can legitimately move my "yardstick" from "here to there." Einsteinian General Relativity undercuts this possibility, by denying the existence of any such uniformity. The structure of space is absolutely dependent upon the contingent distributions of matter and energy.

As a result, before we can engage in meaningful measurements, we must know how matter and energy is distributed throughout the universe so as to know how to interpret our measurements. In other words, if Einstein is right, we're boxed into a situation where the only way we can know anything, we must first know everything.

Clearly, I have the space here for neither a careful nor a detailed examination of Whitehead's argument. There are some interesting responses to this criticism that can be developed from the claim that space exhibits "maximal symmetry" in the abstract. This claim is rarely mentioned even in the orthodox physics literature -- Weinberg and Carroll are the only major texts on the subject which I know that talk about the subject at all. In any case, Whitehead's work is more than deserving of examination, examination that is *NOT* dominated by the narrowest consideration of nothing beyond the mathematical treatments at the end of the book. These, too, are of interest, though by now it would seem more for their historical worth than their direct connection to cutting edge cosmology. Still, even this part is worthy of serious attention, since it is the basis of Whitehead's rejection of the "geometrical metaphors" which so dominate the field. ... Read more