Process Philosophy Reloaded

Abstract

This introduction presents the issue dedicated to process philosophy and argues for its renewed relevance in addressing contemporary challenges that strain substance-based ontologies. In light of the ecological crisis, technological transformation, and systemic interdependence, it proposes process thought as a conceptual framework centered on temporality, relationality and creativity. Bringing together Alfred North Whitehead with Henri Bergson, William James, Charles S. Peirce, John Dewey, and phenomenological approaches, it reconstructs a constellation of thinkers who conceive reality as becoming rather than as a set of enduring substances. The introduction also situates the volume within the distinctive Italian reception of process philosophy – shaped by the dialogue between process thought, phenomenology and pragmatism – and outlines its tripartite structure, devoted to categorial investigations, historical analyses, and applications.