Process philosophy

Process philosophy (also ontology of becoming or processism) is an approach in philosophy that identifies processes, changes, or shifting relationships as the only real experience of everyday living. In opposition to the classical view of change as illusory (as argued by Parmenides) or accidental (as argued by Aristotle), process philosophy posits transient occasions of change or becoming as the most fundamental things of the ordinary everyday real world.

Since the time of Plato and Aristotle, classical ontology has posited ordinary world reality as constituted of enduring substances, to which transient processes are ontologically subordinate, if they are not denied. If Socrates changes, becomes sick, Socrates is still the same (the substance of Socrates being the same), and change (his sickness) only glides over his substance: change is accidental, and devoid of primary reality, whereas the substance is essential.

In physics, Ilya Prigogine distinguishes between the "physics of being" and the "physics of becoming". Process philosophy covers not just scientific intuitions and experiences, but can be used as a conceptual bridge to facilitate discussions among religion, philosophy, and science.

Process philosophy is sometimes classified as closer to continental philosophy than analytic philosophy, because it is usually only taught in continental philosophy departments. However, other sources state that process philosophy should be placed somewhere in the middle between the poles of analytic versus continental methods in contemporary philosophy.

History

Ancient Greek thought

Heraclitus proclaimed that the basic nature of all things is change; he posits strife, ἡ ἔρις (hē eris), as the underlying basis of all reality, which is itself thus defined by change.

The quotation from Heraclitus appears in Plato's Cratylus twice; first, in 401d:

τὰ ὄντα ἰέναι τε πάντα καὶ μένειν οὐδένTa onta ienai te panta kai menein oudenAll entities move and nothing remains still.and, second, in 402a:

πάντα χωρεῖ καὶ οὐδὲν μένει καὶ δὶς ἐς τὸν αὐτὸν ποταμὸν οὐκ ἂν ἐμβαίηςPanta chōrei kai ouden menei kai dis es ton auton potamon ouk an embaies

Everything changes and nothing remains still ...