Process philosophy

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Process philosophy is a term for metaphysical conceptions that represent events and processes as the fundamental elements of reality . This is usually associated with the rejection of a metaphysics that cites stable substances as basic elements. The latter, so-called substance metaphysics, has dominated the discussion in Western philosophy and partly in other disciplines since ancient Greece.

history

The first process philosopher in Western history is likely to be Heraclitus , even if his approach is still on the border between myth and theory (in the modern sense). His famous dictum “ panta rhei ” (“Everything flows”), however, already makes the essential basic decision of the assertion of a primacy of becoming over static being.

Among the great philosophical authors, Aristotle , Friedrich Nietzsche , Leibniz , Hegel and Spinoza are also assigned to the process philosophy.

The Aristotelian philosophy shows strong process-philosophical elements - and it is precisely in this that it differs significantly from its Platonic roots - when, in reverse of the so-called Platonic doctrine of ideas, it claims that all things develop towards a metaphysically predetermined goal ( telos ). Their development therefore does not proceed by chance, but on a path given as their formal goal, that is, their defined perfection ( entelecheia ). On the way there, each object moves to the extent that its entelechy has not yet been realized, in a kind of possible context , the so-called dynamis . The respective realized state is his energeia , which literally means “the work-related” and can be interpreted as what has already been realized in him. In terms of process philosophy, this approach is extraordinarily developed because it already outlines a consistent connection between becoming and being.

The philosophers of Romanticism and German Idealism , who - inspired by the newly emerging chemical knowledge in the 18th century - developed an idea of ​​the world as an organism, triggered a great leap in process-philosophical thinking . For example Friedrich Schlegel , who characterized the process as the central concept of science, but above all Schelling , for whom process and organization are mutually related and who finally spoke of the "absolute process". In this way of thinking, Hegel has a special meaning. His conception of dialectics is by no means just a method of thinking, but expressly claims ontological validity. Hegel explains this as a whole in his Science of Logic . The world is therefore a huge development process. However, Hegel sees a goal of this development, if it is achieved, the development process he described ends, at least in theory. He presents this goal as the self-consciousness of the objective spirit, which already expresses itself in germ in every concept. The goal of the Hegelian world process is still - similar to Aristotle and his conception of the entelecheia - a kind of ideal final state of any development. For him, too, the process is only a means to a metaphysical end.

Karl Marx transferred the thinking of processes to social conditions by speaking of "life processes". “The totality of these relations of production forms the economic structure of society, the real basis on which a legal and political superstructure rises and to which certain forms of social consciousness correspond. The mode of production of material life determines the social, political and spiritual life process in general. It is not people's consciousness that determines their being, but, conversely, their social being that determines their consciousness. "Of this, the economic processes of production, distribution, exchange and consumption make up an essential part, as they are" in every organic whole " can be found again.

“ Work is first of all a process between man and nature, a process in which man mediates, regulates and controls his metabolism with nature through his own deeds. [...] By acting on nature outside of him through this movement and changing it, he also changes his own nature. "

In his early work On The Use and Disadvantage of History for Life , Friedrich Nietzsche turned decisively against Eduard von Hartmann's (and indirectly also against Hegel) idea of a “world process” to which man is subject. Man is not at the mercy of the “power of history”.

“Just look at the religion of historical power, watch out for the priests of the mythology of ideas and their broken knees! Are not all virtues in the wake of this new belief? Or is it not selflessness when the historical man lets himself be blown to the objective mirror glass? Is it not generosity to renounce all violence in heaven and on earth by worshiping violence itself in every violence? "

On the other hand, Nietzsche later clearly expressed his conception of an organic ontology of the world. He interpreted the process of becoming as a cycle, as an eternal return . He saw the view of organic processes as an interpretation and value in which the will to power is expressed.

“The will to power interprets: [...] it delimits, determines degrees, power differences. Mere power differences could not yet perceive themselves as such: there must be something there that wants to grow, which interprets every other something that wants to grow in terms of its value. Same in that - - In truth, interpretation is a means itself to become master of something. (The organic process presupposes constant interpretation). [...] One must not ask: “who is interpreting?” rather, interpreting itself, as a form of the will to power, has Dasein (but not as a "being," but as a process, a becoming) as an affect. "

This also applies to the rejection of scientific ideas about substances:

“Struggle of atoms, like individuals, but with a certain difference in strength, two atoms become one and two individuals become one. Likewise, conversely, one becomes two when the inner state brings about a disgregation of the power center.— So against the absolute concept of “atom” and “individual”! The atom struggles for its state, but other atoms attack it to increase their power. To understand both processes: that of dissolution and that of compression as effects of the will to power. It has the will to condense down to its smallest fragments. But it is forced to condense somewhere, to thin out elsewhere, etc. World bodies and atoms only differ in size, but have the same laws. "

In the twentieth century, the Philosophy of Organism of the English mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead and his student Charles Hartshorne influenced the characterization of process philosophy today. Henri Bergson , Charles Peirce , John Dewey , William James , and Nicholas Rescher are also part of a process-philosophy tradition .

Nicholas Rescher

In contemporary philosophy, Nicholas Rescher is the most prominent representative of process philosophy. He describes process philosophy as a general metaphysical theory about reality and human knowledge about it. The fundamental ontological category of process philosophy is the process, the thesis that nature primarily consists of processes and changes and that things are already derived abstractions in the course of knowledge. Things are nothing more than a stable order of processes for a limited period of time. Rescher particularly emphasizes three characteristics of processes:

  • A process is a complex - a unit made up of several stages or phases
  • This complex has a certain temporal connection and unity, so that corresponding processes indispensably have a temporal dimension.
  • A process has a structure, its own generic form, through which every concrete process receives a certain order or form.

Important categories are therefore time, change, emergence, flow, activity or innovation. In contrast to the traditional philosophy, which is characterized by substance-based thinking, Rescher names the following theses, which are to be connected with the process philosophy:

  • Substance cannot be thought of without reference to a process.
  • Rigorous substance metaphysics has no explanation for action and change.
  • Processes have a natural dynamic of their own, which leads to new processes.
  • A process approach can be successfully combined with a theory of substances.
  • The identity and identification of substances is inevitably linked to the existence of processes.
  • The process approach avoids or minimizes the problem of universals .
  • The process approach can be more easily linked to the modern empirical sciences (physics, biology, social sciences).
  • The process approach gives a more natural view of people and personality.
  • The process approach provides a superior explanation for the creation, development and handling of information .
  • The process approach provides a more effective framework for understanding the process and results of rational research.
  • Process theology avoids a number of contradictions that arise with the idea of ​​God as substance.
  • With the process approach, there is easier access to philosophy and philosophizing.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Friedrich Schlegel: Philosophische Lehrjahre III (1796–1806), Critical Edition 1958ff, Volume XVIII, 148
  2. ↑ Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling: Ideas for a Philosophy of Nature, 2nd ed. 1803, all works, ed. by KFA Schelling, Volume I / 2, 41
  3. ^ Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling: General Deduction of the dynamic process or the categories of physics, in: Zeitschrift für speculative Physik I (1800), 100 - 142, here 101, new edition Meiner, Hamburg 2002
  4. ↑ On the Critique of Political Economy (1858-59), in: Karl Marx / Friedrich Engels - Works, (Karl) Dietz Verlag, Berlin. Volume 13, 7th edition 1971, unchanged reprint of the 1st edition 1961, Berlin / GDR, 8–9
  5. ^ Karl Marx: Das Kapital, Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1972, vol. 1, p. 192
  6. ↑ Friedrich Nietzsche: Untimely Considerations II. On the benefits and disadvantages of history for life, KSA 1, 309
  7. ↑ Friedrich Nietzsche: postponed fragment autumn 1885 - autumn 1886, KSA 12, 2 [148] + 2 [151] ( online )
  8. ↑ Friedrich Nietzsche: Postponed fragment autumn 1885, KSA 11, 43 [2]
  9. ↑ See Seibt, Johanna 2013: " Process Philosophy ", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2013 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.); Murarca, Barbara 2013: " Process Philosophy [Version 1.0]". In: Basic Concepts of Natural Philosophy.
  10. ↑ Nicholas Rescher: Process Philosophical Deliberations, ontos, Heusenstamm 2006, 2 ( ISBN 978-3-938793-37-4 )
  11. ↑ Nicholas Rescher: Process metaphysics: an introduction to process philosophy, SUNY Press, 1996, 173 ( ISBN 978-0-7914-2817-7 )