Science and the Modern World
Alfred North Whitehead 1925
These lectures trace the growth of modern science and its changing picture of nature. One chapter turns to Wordsworth and Shelley for a poetic response to scientific views of the world.
274 pages 5h 18m reading time
- A classic of 20th-century philosophy and one of the most widely read books on how science shapes our view of reality.
- Argues that modern science grew out of the medieval belief that nature is orderly and can be understood, and that the 17th-century picture of the world as bits of dead matter moving in space left out much of real experience.
- Names the "fallacy of misplaced concreteness," the mistake of treating useful abstractions (like points, particles, or measurements) as if they were the full, concrete reality.
- Lays the groundwork for "process philosophy," the view that the world is made of events and change rather than fixed things, which Whitehead built on in his later work.
- Helped inspire process theology, a school of religious thought that pictures God as taking part in an unfolding, changing world.
A late career turn
Whitehead gave these talks within a year of moving to Harvard at 63, after decades teaching mathematics in England.
Born as public talks
The book grew from the Lowell Lectures, a series of free public talks given in Boston in early 1925.
More than the lectures
For the book, Whitehead added new chapters, including ones on religion and on what helps societies move forward.
Readers beyond universities
It found many readers outside universities, which was rare for a demanding book of philosophy.