Alfred North Whitehead — Questions and answers
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What did Alfred North Whitehead suggest about the universe?
Choices
- It is made of fixed, unchanging bricks.
- It is a continuous dance of unfolding events. ✓
- It is a static, unchanging substance.
- It is a big, quiet library.
Answer: It is a continuous dance of unfolding events.
From page 1
What does 'prehension' describe in Whitehead's universe?
Choices
- How everything exists in isolation.
- How every actual occasion actively 'feels' or 'grabs' aspects of others. ✓
- How a simple electron can be very lonely.
- How different lines influence each other on a holographic model.
Answer: How every actual occasion actively 'feels' or 'grabs' aspects of others.
From page 4
What does 'creativity' mean in Whitehead's philosophy?
Choices
- Only humans can be creative.
- Every new actual occasion makes something genuinely new, not just copying the past. ✓
- Reality is always stuck in the past.
- Digital murals are always reconfiguring abstract forms.
Answer: Every new actual occasion makes something genuinely new, not just copying the past.
From page 5
How does Whitehead's philosophy describe God?
Choices
- As an external creator who intervenes from outside.
- As an internal, dipolar entity providing initial aims and absorbing experiences. ✓
- As a concept that guides only concrescence.
- As a diagram showing interconnected cycles.
Answer: As an internal, dipolar entity providing initial aims and absorbing experiences.
From page 6
Why can Whitehead's philosophy seem abstract or complex at first?
Choices
- Because it prefers stable, quantifiable categories.
- Because it demands a fundamental shift in how we think about reality. ✓
- Because G.E. Moore wrote a quote about it.
- Because it focuses on enduring 'whatness' instead of dynamic 'how-ness'.
Answer: Because it demands a fundamental shift in how we think about reality.
From page 7
How does Whitehead's philosophy help with the tension between subjective experience and objective observation?
Choices
- It denies the validity of subjective experience.
- It sees both as integral and dynamically related parts of reality. ✓
- It focuses only on quantitative reality of physics.
- It makes quantum events and human minds completely separate.
Answer: It sees both as integral and dynamically related parts of reality.
From page 8
What ethical idea does Whitehead's philosophy support for environmental thinking?
Choices
- That humans are isolated individuals who manipulate the environment.
- That harming any part of the intricate web of life diminishes the whole. ✓
- That only sustainable architecture matters for the cosmos.
- That our actions have no implications for the future.
Answer: That harming any part of the intricate web of life diminishes the whole.
From page 9
What does Dr. Thorne say is the ultimate message of Whitehead's vision?
Choices
- Reality is a static picture to be observed.
- We are vital participants in a dynamic symphony of the cosmos. ✓
- We should only focus on mechanistic reductionism.
- Novelty and value are rare exceptions in existence.
Answer: We are vital participants in a dynamic symphony of the cosmos.
From page 10