Alfred North Whitehead
Alfred North Whitehead
Alfred North Whitehead OM FRSwas an English mathematician and philosopher. He is best known as the defining figure of the philosophical school known as process philosophy, which today has found application to a wide variety of disciplines, including ecology, theology, education, physics, biology, economics, and psychology, among other areas...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionMathematician
Date of Birth15 February 1861
Alfred North Whitehead quotes about
angel science games
Without deductive logic science would be entirely useless. It is merely a barren game to ascend from the particular to the general, unless afterwards we can reverse the process and descend from the general to the particular, ascending and descending like angels on Jacob's ladder.
nature anticipation surprise
Nature, even in the act of satisfying anticipation, often provides a surprise.
discovery weapons facts
The paradox is now fully established that the utmost abstractions are the true weapons with which to control our thought of concrete fact.
dark self age
...the self-satisfied dogmatism with which mankind at each period of its history cherishes the delusion of the finality of existing modes of knowledge.
views two justice
There is a tradition of opposition between adherents of induction and of deduction. In my view it would be just as sensible for the two ends of a worm to quarrel.
music numbers use
Through and through the world is infested with quantity: To talk sense is to talk quantities. It is no use saying the nation is large. . . . How large? It is no use saying the radium is scarce. . . . How scarce? You cannot evade quantity. You may fly to poetry and music, and quantity and number will face you in your rhythms and your octaves.
creativity reality growth
But harmony is limitation. Thus rightness of limitation is essential for growth of reality. Unlimited possibility and abstract creativity can procure nothing.
development derivatives medieval
Faith in the possibility of science, generated antecedently to the development of modern scientific theory, is an unconscious derivative from medieval theology.
determination opinion preservation
An unflinching determination to take the whole evidence into account is the only method of preservation against the fluctuating extremes of fashionable opinion.
half theoretical consequence
The consequences of a plethora of half-digested theoretical knowledge are deplorable.
numbers poetry-and-music may
You cannot evade quantity. You may fly to poetry and music, and quantity and number will face you in your rhythms and your octaves.
philosophy science justify
Science repudiates philosophy. In other words, it has never cared to justify its truth or explain its meaning.
inspirational humble ideas
Some of the finest moral intuitions come to quite humble people. The visiting of lofty ideas doesn't depend on formal schooling.
faces doe spirit
Religion will not regain its old power until it can face change in the same spirit as does science.