Propositions in the Making

How do we make ourselves a Whiteheadian proposition? This question exposes the multivalent connections between postmodern thought and Whitehead’s philosophy, with particular attention to his understanding of propositions.

Edited by Roland Faber, Michael Halewood, and Andrew M. Davis, Propositions in the Making articulates the newest reaches of Whiteheadian propositions for a postmodern world. It does so by activating interdisciplinary lures of feeling, living, and co-creating the world anew. Rather than a “logical assertion,” Whitehead described a proposition as a “lure for feeling” for a collectivity to come. It cannot be reduced to the verbal content of logical justifications, but rather the feeling content of aesthetic valuations. In creatively expressing these propositions in wide relevance to existential, ethical, educational, theological, aesthetic, technological, and societal concerns, the contributors to this volume enact nothing short of “a Whiteheadian Laboratory.”

Contents

Abbreviations

Editor’s Preamble

Part I. The Making of Propositions

1 For a Whiteheadian Laboratory: How Do you Make Yourself a Propostion?

Erin Manning and Brian Massumi

Part II. Thinking Propositions

2 Knowing Whitehead?

Michael Halewood

3Space, Time, and the Deity of Peace

Roland Faber

4Designing Propositions

A.J. Nocek

5 An Internet of Actual Occasions: Notes Toward Understanding 21st Century Tendencies in Media, Communications, and World

Andrew Murphie

6 Thinking with Whitehead about Existential Risk

James Burton

7 Witness at the Slaughterhouse: Seeking Conflicting Propositions for Alternate Futures

Brianne Donaldson

8 Communities Keep the Dream Alive as Proposition?

Timothy Murphy

9 Geology Not Chronology: Problems of Naming in Education

Matthew Goulish

Part III. Experimenting With Propositions

10 The Question: How Do We Make Ourselves a Proposition?

Susanne Valerie [Granzer]

11. Choreographic Propositions: Grasping the environmental excess that feels like nothing, yet

Diego Gil

Notes on Contributors

Index