Whitehead, Quantum Theory, and Serial Order - Part II
by M Epperson ● August 3rd, 2008 ●UPDATED AND CORRECTED - 8/30/08
In his latest post, Henry writes:
“Mike’s position has been that W’s full scheme does entail an absolute serial order. My position is that W’s words do not entail such an absolute serial order of the coming into being of the occasions (or of their initiation and termination “dates”), and implicitly that Nobo’s supersessional ordering involves adding essential content to what W said (at least in PR). Whitehead’s words permit, I believe, a “relativistic” notion of coming into beingness in which the ordering of the parts of occasions whose standpoints are wholly spacelike is not ontologically or metaphysically or logically significant.”
I believe this to be an accurate summary of our respective views. More accurately, my position is that Whitehead’s metaphysics and cosmology do imply a fundamental serial ordering of concrescences, as described above–but not one that is spatiotemporal. The serial ordering is strictly mereological-logical and described fully in Whitehead’s Theory of Extension (Part IV of Process and Reality).
NB: This post has been converted into a paper pending publication in Process Studies, and in the forthcoming book Whiteheadian Physics, eds. David Ray Griffin, Michael Epperson & Tim Eastman. The pre-publication version can be read here:
Download PDF - v8.30-Logical Causality in Whitehead’s Theory of Extension
Reading the dialogue of Henry, Jorge and Mike’s postings is like reading a follow-up volume to Whitehead’s Process and Reality - outstanding efforts in “philosophical cosmology” with strong grounding in the “physical cosmology.” At the present time, I find all parties quite persuasive and am uncertain about the outcome but look forward to the coming Workshop and follow-on efforts to work out this issue.