Knowledge and process in Whitehead’s philosophy of organism

Abstract

The aim of this article is to expound the whiteheadian conception of knowledge as a process. It requires explaining previously the core of his metaphysics, known as the «speculative scheme». All knowledge is essentially a process, not only in a subjective but also in an objective sense, for the British philosopher. Process has to be part of the known object, because sense, relevance and therefore understanding only appear in the process, in creative advance. In accordance with the speculative scheme structure (eternal objects») presupposes a process. The traditional classification of knowledge (sensuous and intellectual) ignores the root of all kinds of knowledge: the paradoxical concept of a «non-sensuous perception». This concept emphasizes the «biological» constituent of all act of knowledge, and connects consciousness to reality. Finally I explain the culmination of this gnoseology, known as Reformed Subjectivist Principle. This principle leads to a peculiar realism, far from both Greek and medieval realism and from modern subjectivism likewise.