Original Article

Subjectivity (2008) 22, 90–109. doi:10.1057/sub.2008.4

A.N. Whitehead and Subjectivity

Paul Stenner1

1University of Brighton, Brighton, UK

Correspondence: Paul Stenner, School of Applied Social Science, University of Brighton, Falmer Campus, Mayfield House, Brighton BN9 1PH, UK. E-mail: P.Stenner@brighton.ac.uk

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Abstract

This paper comes at subjectivity from a Whiteheadian perspective. It argues that Whitehead provides us with a "deep" form of empiricism grounded in the notion of the "actual occasion" of experience and in the temporal and spatial co-assembly of multiplicities of such occasions. A deep empiricism that embraces process, affirms creativity, foregrounds value and refuses to bifurcate nature into irreconcilable subjective and objective aspects, it is argued, might serve as a useful corrective to current tendencies in social theory to avoid subjectivity and to elide the differences between forms of subjectivity.

Keywords:

Whitehead, subjectivity, deep empiricism, critical psychology, experience, process