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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Mystery of Life What Does Whitehead Tell Us? A Critique of a Book Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1948) is one of the greatest intellectuals of our time. He and Bertrand Russell co-wrote the famous 3-volume Mathematical Principia. Whitehead did not confine himself to abstract issues in philosophy; his ideas cover a vast range including culture, civilization, aesthetics, art, moral ethics and social issues. He wrote The Adventures of Ideas in 1932.

“The book, in fact,” he said, “is a study of the concept of civilization and an effort toward understanding how developed beings develop. Along with Science and the Modern World and Process and Reality, it endeavors to understand the nature of objects and show how such a way of understanding can be illustrated by means of studying the developments of human experience.” Whitehead is one of the greatest thinkers the West has ever seen. His ideas are greatly profound.

Whitehead had a vast knowledge of the history of human thoughts. His information on Islam, unfortunately, is insufficient, which is probably why he fell into wrong ideas about it. However, Whitehead had profound thoughts on the supernatural, which is quite rare for a scholar of mathematics, logic and physics. His thoughts in the fields of anthropology and human development are also quite significant.

One of his great qualities is that he does not limit himself to theoretical wisdom, and considered acquiring philosophy as highly important in providing man with knowledge about himself and the universe. His “chaste, elegant writing style,” was another quality of Whitehead's that contrasted with Russell. Unlike other Western philosophers like Hume, Freud, Sartre, and Camus whose ideas on mankind were incorrect, many of Whitehead's ideas are quite correct.

If we regard some of the Western ideas as the errors of civilization, Whitehead's ideas - this book in particular - provide the right answers.” Now let us take into consideration some of the issues we disagree with Whitehead concerning the history of thought, philosophy, the truth, God, religion, the ultimate reason, man, moral ethics, freedom, art, human civilization and Islam.

The History of Ideas Whitehead believes that the history of ideas has had a dual progress, for it has been influenced both by the fatalistic factors of history and also man's self-conscious ideals.