A venture into ideas
January 8, 2026
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Introducing the process philosophy of A N Whitehead
Introducing the philosophy of process
in development
Where do ideas come from?
One thing I know is that they are not my ideas
we cannot own them
Ideas occur to us
When we venture into the world of ideas
we know there is nothing new under the sun
“There is only the fight to recover what has been lost and found and lost again and again”
Yet when we read for the first time
ideas that have shaped us
we experience a moment
as fresh as the dawn
and as ancient as the earth
I feel this way when I read about Alfred North Whitehead and process philosophy
I recommend This video introduction
The first 45 minutes is an excellent background to the history of philosophy
after that Matt Segall launches into a passionate and inspiring introduction to Whitehead’s work.
Here are a few moments that caught my attention…
‘Actual occasions of experience’ – moments – are the fundamental constituents of the universe
Each moment inherits the past and anticipates the future
Who I am is a gift from others that I have entered into a relationship with.
In each moment I inhale the experience of others and exhale my own unique integration of that experience
The universe is an orchestra
full of many different kinds of instruments
Over the course of cosmic evolution new musical scores are produced
as the orchestra gradually intensifies the beauty of the music that is playing.
Human consciousness is an expression of this cosmic music
Our experience of actuality is a value experience
When we experience a moment we are conscious of a vague sense
that there is ‘something that matters’
when we attend to this experience
the meaning in the universe is revealed
Consciousness emphasises by abstraction
There is a three – fold character to the ‘something that matters’
internality
externality
totality
our sense of this three-fold character can guide us into rising clarity through:
the internality of our experiencing
the externality of many facts
the totality of actual fact
Each moment has intrinsic importance
for itself
for others
for the whole
Creativity (Whitehead’s ultimate principle) is the expression of harmony in these three fields of experience.
Introducing the process philosophy of A N Whitehead
The turning of the year reminds us that each moment – each step on the journey of life – is both an ending and a beginning and we cannot begin anything without letting go.
To be in development is to engage in a world in which every moment matters
Remember a walk in development In the Autumn stillness a blackbird’s whistle echoes childhood voices and the crunch of broken glass while the steam from
When we walk in development the moments we experience inform our long-term development
How can we foster interaction?
All life has its own pace
Let’s take our time
