Abstract

Recent books on Whitehead have shown a marked tendency to use Whiteheadian notions in ways not strictly compatible with Whitehead's own explicit views. This fact may suggest either the fecundity of Whitehead's ideas, or a general dissatisfaction with the fully developed cosmological scheme as outlined in Process and Reality. In any case, Ross's book continues in the recent tradition of "neo-Whiteheadian" as opposed to "strictly Whiteheadian" interpretations of Whitehead's thought. The purpose of the book is to isolate a single theme in the Whiteheadian system, and then to use this theme as a tool for the analysis, interpretation, and evaluation of Whitehead's metaphysics. The theme chosen by Ross is what he calls the "principle of perspective," which expresses the notion that being is at bottom perspectival. It should be noted that although the theme of perspectivity is being used by Ross as a hermeneutic fulcrum, the theme is not among Whitehead's basic categoreal principles.