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This little book could do its small part in changing all that, though I doubt it. I envision philosophers world over reading the book and saying, "Oh, THAT'S what he meant!" Whitehead studies will take the fore, and we usher in a new age of creative speculation in philososphy. Until that happens (and I am not holding my breath), read this book so that you'll be ahead of the game. Because, I assure you, if you are new reader of Whitehead or an old hand, you too will have at least one "So THAT'S what he meant" moment in the course of reading this book.
If you are a student looking for textbooks, buy this one if you are reading Whitehead, and read this book before (long before, actually) you try to plow into Process and Reality. Hosinski will not steer you wrong, and, unless your prof read this book too, you might actually understand better than she does. You have probably come across Sherburne's Key to Process and Reality. That is the standard intro, but I actually like Hosinski's better. He explains the concepts, the "why," of Whitehead, and once you have that, you don't need a "key." Once you have figured out Whitehead's language, like that of Hegel or Heidegger or Derrida, reading him is a joy and actually not that difficult. Like all good philosophy, it is poetry; it has its own language, and you have to know how to read it.
If you are a professor teaching Whitehead and have not read this book, shame on you. If you are a professor not teaching Whitehead because you think you know what Whitehead was all about ("oh, he was the last metaphysician, a ultra-modernist system builder like Hegel without Hegel's staying power), maybe you should read it again. Then read any of the play-ful postmodern or even deconstructionist philosophers, and see if Whitehead's event-ontology (like Heidegger's, its closest relative) and his "fallacy of misplaced concrescence" seem familiar. If it does, you have understood well. As this book makes very clear, in formulating his thoughts Whitehead emphasized play, not rule; action not stasis; fallability not airtight systems; creativity not tradition (except where that tradition serves as a lure for creative transformation); objective uncertainties (to use Kierkegaard) not wretched complacency (to use Nietzsche); and above all revisability not dogmatism. Speculative philsophy is just that--imaginative construction. It must always pass the test of adequacy. After all, since Heidegger announced the death of metaphysics and Derrida buried it, speculation for the sake of speculation is useless. Whitehead's philosophy--and Hosinski's wonderful book, which I cannot recommend more highly--is useful. Read it, then use it.
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This started our group on the pathway of all the "Requisites" series, with a common trait of easy to use good clinical information in all of them.
Byron Faber MD
Silverdale, Wa