The Unifying Moment: The Psychological Philosophy of William James and Alfred North Whitehead

Craig Eisendrath reinterprets and unifies the writings of the late-nineteenth-century psychologist William James and the twentieth-century philosopher Alfred North Whitehead. Jamess psychology achieves greater depth by its grounding in philosophic doctrine, and Whiteheads abstract and frequently abstruse philosophy gains greater specificity through the concrete illustrations provided by a wealth of psychological evidence. The result is an extension of James and an exegesis of Whitehead. The merging of Jamess theory of will and Whiteheads theory of concrescence and organism is the central pivot of the book. Eisendrath discusses as well the philosophical traditions behind both men and analyzes their theories on perception, time, space, causality, the nature and role of ideas, the laws of nature, God and civilization. Before turning to writing full-time, Craig Eisendrath taught at Northeastern University and MIT.