Abstract

After introductory remarks concerning Hartshorne’s contribution to contemporary thought, Gragg takes on the task of exposition of Hartshorne’s work, both as an original thinker and as an interpreter of Whitehead. He does this by a three-step analysis of Hartshorne’s metaphysics, moving from the question of the really real to that of man to that of the supreme reality. Dealing with the central metaphysical question—What is really real?—Gragg summarizes Hartshorne’s method, his position of panpsychism and his social conception of the universe. He then moves to a description of Hartshorne’s ideas about man through a discussion of the issues which usually become central whenever process philosophy is contrasted with the classical tradition: self-identity, volition, personal immortality. The Hartshornian doctrines of sociality and altruism are also given some attention here. Chapter IV completes Gragg’s unpacking of the scheme. He elaborates on the supreme reality as established by Hartshorne’s "metaphysics of love." Here the dipolar God, a pantheistic deity with categorical supremacy, emerges as the resolution of the tension between classical theism on the one hand and atheistic humanism on the other.