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
zero math needs
The point about zero is that we do not need to use it in the operation of daily life. No one goes out to buy zero fish.
math spirit madness
The pursuit of mathematics is a divine madness of the human spirit.
learning past errors
Learning preserves the errors of the past as well as its wisdom.
invention nineteenth-century method
The greatest invention of the nineteenth century was the invention of the method of invention.
expression feelings desire
Life is complex in its expression, involving more than percipience, namely desire, emotion, will, and feeling.
math development may
The science of pure mathematics, in its modern developments, may claim to be the most original creation of the human spirit.
learning science being-different
It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious.
imagination experience tragedy
The tragedy of the world is that those who are imaginative have but slight experience, and those who are experienced have feeble imaginations.
majority morality given
What is morality in any given time or place? It is what the majority then and there happen to like and immorality is what they dislike.
time tragedy definitions
The deepest definition of youth is life as yet untouched by tragedy.
errors may chance
Error itself may be happy chance.
religion human-nature reactions
Religion is the reaction of human nature to its search for God.
doctrine copernicus atoms
The physical doctrine of the atom has got into a state which is strongly suggestive of the epicycles of astronomy before Copernicus .
peace self personality
Peace is self-control at its widest-at the width where the "self" has been lost, and interest has been transferred to coordinations wider than personality.