Editing Process philosophy (section)

== Legacy and applications ==
=== Biology ===
In [[plant morphology]], [[Rolf Sattler]] developed a process morphology (dynamic morphology) that overcomes the structure/process (or structure/function) dualism that is commonly taken for granted in biology. According to process morphology, structures such as leaves of plants do not have processes, they ''are'' processes.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Sattler | first1 = R | year = 1990 | title = Towards a more dynamic plant morphology | journal = [[Acta Biotheoretica]] | volume = 38 | issue = 3–4| pages = 303–315 | doi = 10.1007/BF00047245 | s2cid = 84421634 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Sattler | first1 = R | year = 1992 | title = Process morphology: structural dynamics in development and evolution | journal = [[Canadian Journal of Botany]] | volume = 70 | issue = 4| pages = 708–714 | doi = 10.1139/b92-091 }}</ref>

In [[evolution]] and in [[Developmental biology|development]], the nature of the changes of biological objects are considered by many authors to be more radical than in physical systems. In biology, changes are not just changes of state in a pre-given space, instead the space and more generally the mathematical structures required to understand object change over time.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Montévil|first1=Maël|last2=Mossio|first2=Matteo|last3=Pocheville|first3=Arnaud|last4=Longo|first4=Giuseppe|date=2016-10-01|title=Theoretical principles for biology: Variation|url=https://www.academia.edu/27942089|journal=Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology|series=From the Century of the Genome to the Century of the Organism: New Theoretical Approaches|volume=122|issue=1|pages=36–50|doi=10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2016.08.005|pmid=27530930|s2cid=3671068 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Longo|first1=Giuseppe|last2=Montévil|first2=Maël|last3=Kauffman|first3=Stuart|title=Proceedings of the 14th annual conference companion on Genetic and evolutionary computation |chapter=No entailing laws, but enablement in the evolution of the biosphere |date=2012-01-01|chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/11720588|series=GECCO '12|location=New York, NY, USA|publisher=ACM|pages=1379–1392|doi=10.1145/2330784.2330946|isbn=9781450311786|arxiv=1201.2069|bibcode=2012arXiv1201.2069L|s2cid=15609415}}</ref>

=== Ecology ===
With its perspective that everything is interconnected, that all life has value, and that non-human entities are also experiencing subjects, process philosophy has played an important role in discourse on ecology and sustainability. The first book to connect process philosophy with [[environmental ethics]] was [[John B. Cobb, Jr.]]'s 1971 work, ''Is It Too Late: A Theology of Ecology''.<ref name="Is It Too Late">{{cite book | last1=Cobb | first1=John B. Jr. |title=Is It Too Late?: A Theology of Ecology |date=1971 |publisher=Macmillan Publishing Company |isbn=978-0028012803 }}</ref> In a more recent book (2018) edited by [[John B. Cobb, Jr.]] and Wm. Andrew Schwartz, ''Putting Philosophy to Work: Toward an Ecological Civilization''<ref name="Putting Philosophy to Work">{{cite book | last1=Cobb | first1=John B. Jr. |last2=Scwhartz |first2=Wm. Andrew |title=Putting Philosophy to Work: Toward an Ecological Civilization |date=2018 |publisher=Process Century Press |location=Minnesota |isbn=978-1940447339 }}</ref> contributors explicitly explore the ways in which process philosophy can be put to work to address the most urgent issues facing our world today, by contributing to a transition toward an ecological civilization. That book emerged from the largest international conference held on the theme of [[ecological civilization]] (''Seizing an Alternative: Toward an Ecological Civilization'') which was organized by the Center for Process Studies in June 2015. The conference brought together roughly 2,000 participants from around the world and featured such leaders in the environmental movement as [[Bill McKibben]], [[Vandana Shiva]], [[John B. Cobb, Jr.]], [[Wes Jackson]], and [[Sheri Liao]].<ref name="conferencereport">Herman Greene, [http://www.ecozoicsocieties.org/musings/2015/re-imagining-civilization-as-ecological-report-on-the-seizing-an-alternative-toward-an-ecological-civilization-conference/ "Re-Imagining Civilization as Ecological: Report on the 'Seizing an Alternative: Toward an Ecological Civilization' Conference"], last modified 24 August 2015, ''Center for Ecozoic Societies'', accessed 1 November 2016. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161104002603/http://www.ecozoicsocieties.org/musings/2015/re-imagining-civilization-as-ecological-report-on-the-seizing-an-alternative-toward-an-ecological-civilization-conference/ |date=4 November 2016 }}</ref> The notion of [[ecological civilization]] is often affiliated with the process philosophy of [[Alfred North Whitehead]]—especially in China.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Wang |first1=Zhihe |last2=Huili |first2=He |last3=Meijun |first3=Fan |title=The Ecological Civilization Debate in China: The Role of Ecological Marxism and Constructive Postmodernism—Beyond the Predicament of Legislation |url=https://monthlyreview.org/2014/11/01/the-ecological-civilization-debate-in-china/ |website=Monthly Review |date=November 2014 |access-date=23 August 2018}}</ref>

=== Mathematics ===
{{unreferenced section|date=May 2013}}
In the [[philosophy of mathematics]], some of Whitehead's ideas re-emerged in combination with [[Cognitivism (psychology)|cognitivism]] as the [[cognitive science of mathematics]] and [[embodied mind]] theses.

Somewhat earlier, exploration of [[mathematical practice]] and [[quasi-empiricism in mathematics]] from the 1950s to 1980s had sought alternatives to [[metamathematics]] in social behaviours around [[mathematics]] itself: for instance, [[Paul Erdős]]'s simultaneous belief in [[Platonism]] and a single "big book" in which all proofs existed, combined with his personal obsessive need or decision to collaborate with the widest possible number of other mathematicians. The process, rather than the outcomes, seemed to drive his explicit behaviour and odd use of language, as if the synthesis of Erdős and collaborators in seeking proofs, creating sense-datum for other mathematicians, was itself the expression of a divine will. Certainly, Erdős behaved as if nothing else in the world mattered, including money or love, as emphasized in his biography ''[[The Man Who Loved Only Numbers]]''.

=== Medicine ===
{{unreferenced section|date=May 2013}}
Several fields of science and especially [[medicine]] seem {{vague|date=May 2013}} to make liberal use of ideas in process philosophy, notably the theory of [[pain]] and [[healing]] of the late 20th century. The [[Philosophy of healthcare|philosophy of medicine]] began to deviate somewhat from [[scientific method]] and an emphasis on repeatable results in the very late 20th century by embracing [[Health system|population thinking]], and a more pragmatic approach to issues in [[public health]], [[environmental health]], and especially [[mental health]]. In this latter field, [[R. D. Laing]], [[Thomas Szasz]], and [[Michel Foucault]] were instrumental in moving medicine away from emphasis on "cures" and towards concepts of individuals in balance with their society, both of which are changing, and against which no benchmarks or finished "cures" were very likely to be measurable.

=== Psychology ===
{{See also|Process psychology}}
In [[psychology]], the subject of imagination was again explored more extensively since Whitehead, and the question of feasibility or "eternal objects" of thought became central to the impaired [[theory of mind]] explorations that framed postmodern [[cognitive science]]. A biological understanding of the most eternal object, that being the emerging of similar but independent cognitive apparatus, led to an obsession with the process "embodiment", that being, the emergence of these [[cognition]]s. Like Whitehead's God, especially as elaborated in [[J. J. Gibson]]'s [[perceptual psychology]] emphasizing [[affordance]]s, by ordering the relevance of eternal objects (especially the cognitions of other such actors), the world becomes. Or, it becomes simple enough for human beings to begin to make choices, and to prehend what happens as a result. These experiences may be summed in some sense but can only approximately be shared, even among very similar cognitions with identical DNA. An early explorer of this view was [[Alan Turing]] who sought to prove the limits of expressive complexity of human genes in the late 1940s, to put bounds on the complexity of human [[intelligence (trait)|intelligence]] and so assess the feasibility of [[artificial intelligence]] emerging. Since 2000, Process Psychology has progressed as an independent academic and therapeutic discipline: In 2000, [[Michel Weber]] created the Whitehead Psychology Nexus: an open forum dedicated to the cross-examination of Alfred North Whitehead's process philosophy and the various facets of the contemporary psychological field.<ref>Cobb, John B., Jr. "Process Psychotherapy: Introduction". ''Process Studies'' vol. 29, no. 1 (Spring–Summer 2000): 97–102; cf. [[Michel Weber]] and Will Desmond (eds.), ''[https://www.academia.edu/279955/Handbook_of_Whiteheadian_Process_Thought Handbook of Whiteheadian Process Thought]'', Frankfurt / Lancaster, ontos verlag, Process Thought X1 & X2, 2008.</ref>

=== Philosophy of movement ===
The [[Philosophy of motion|philosophy of movement]] is a sub-area within process philosophy that treats processes as ''movements''. It studies processes as flows, folds, and fields in historical patterns of centripetal, centrifugal, tensional, and elastic motion.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Being and motion|last=Nail, Thomas|isbn=978-0-19-090890-4|location=New York, NY|oclc=1040086073|date = 10 December 2018}}</ref> See [[Thomas Nail]]'s philosophy of movement and process materialism.