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17 - Participation Revived and Revised

The Speculative Metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2024

By
Jacob Holsinger Sherman
Edited by
Douglas Hedley  and
Daniel J. Tolan
Douglas Hedley
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Daniel J. Tolan
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

As the other contributions to this volume demonstrate, the notion of participation has not only enjoyed a long history but has been central to many of the greatest philosophical and spiritual achievements of previous centuries (Sherman 2008; Davison 2019; Annice 1952). Indeed, participation and its various linguistic cognates (μέθεξις, κοινωνία, μίμησις, participatio, etc.) arguably constitute the symbolic and conceptual center of the broadly Platonic tradition that lies behind so much of Western thought and culture. From Plato’s initial exploration of the concept to the great Neoplatonic syntheses, Patristic speculative theologies, the theological metaphysics of Anselm and Aquinas, or Nicholas of Cusa’s theocosmology, alongside so many others, the doctrine of participation has enjoyed a career long and venerable enough to make almost any philosophical concept envious. Accordingly, participation will always be of interest to the history of philosophy and theology, but how does the concept of participation fare in the century nearest our own?

Type
Chapter
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Participation in the Divine
A Philosophical History, From Antiquity to the Modern Era
 , pp. 364 - 381
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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