Alfred North Whitehead
Alfred North Whitehead
Alfred North Whitehead OM FRSwas an English mathematician and philosopher. He is best known as the defining figure of the philosophical school known as process philosophy, which today has found application to a wide variety of disciplines, including ecology, theology, education, physics, biology, economics, and psychology, among other areas...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionMathematician
Date of Birth15 February 1861
Alfred North Whitehead quotes about
philosophy numbers people
There will be some fundamental assumptions which adherents of all the variant systems within the epoch unconsciously presuppose. Such assumptions appear so obvious that people do not know what they are assuming because no other way of putting things has ever occurred to them. With these assumptions a certain limited number of types of philosophic systems are possible, and this group of systems constitutes the philosophy of the epoch.
numbers poetry-and-music may
You cannot evade quantity. You may fly to poetry and music, and quantity and number will face you in your rhythms and your octaves.
teaching ideas numbers
The result of teaching small parts of a large number of subjects is the passive reception of disconnected ideas, not illumed with any spark of vitality.
brutal courage firm force rather resolve true virtue vulgar
True courage is not the brutal force of vulgar heroes. Rather the firm resolve of virtue and reason.
analysis common-sense mind seldom simple solutions takes undertake unusual
Simple solutions seldom are. It takes a very unusual mind to undertake analysis of the obvious.
bother familiar mankind mind requires undertake unusual
Familiar things happen, and mankind does not bother about them. It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious.
achievement english-mathematician periods seldom
Periods of tranquility are seldom prolific of creative achievement. Mankind has to be stirred up.
matter subject-matter manifestation
There is only one subject matter for education, and that is Life in all its manifestations
imagination experience tragedy
The tragedy of the world is that those who are imaginative have but slight experience, and those who are experienced have feeble imaginations.
may coats seamless
You may not divide the seamless coat of learning,
writing animal interesting
Many a scientist has patiently designed experiments for the purpose of substantiating his belief that animal operations are motivated by no purposes. He has perhaps spent his spare time in writing articles to prove that human beings are as other animals so that 'purpose' is a category irrelevant for the explanation of their bodily activities, his own activities included. Scientists animated by the purpose of proving that they are purposeless constitute an interesting subject for study.
philosophy effort romance
Philosophy is the product of wonder. The effort after the general characterization of the world around us is the romance of human thought.
passionate unions facts
It is this union of passionate interest in the detailed facts with equal devotion to abstract generalisation which forms the novelty in our present society .
home america safety
Democracy...is a society in which the unbeliever feels undisturbed and at home. If there were only a half dozen unbelievers in America, their well-being would be a test of our democracy.