Language and Process

A process-inspired approach to understanding language and the world through the work of Alfred North Whitehead

• Develops a new approach to understanding language and the world by adopting a Whiteheadian perspective
• Uses a broad range of examples and literature, bringing together ideas and writers that have not been previously compared
• Presents a process-inspired investigation of the interrelations of language and the world, incorporating philosophy and social theory

Michael Halewood uses ideas from analytic philosophy and continental philosophy as well as social theory to look at how language relates to the world, and the world to language. He addresses important questions such as whether words are able to capture the world (nouns); whether the properties of things, such as colours, are real (adjectives); and how we can think about the world as process (verbs).

Primarily using the work of the innovative British philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, but also incorporating the ideas of Gilles Deleuze, John Dewey and Luce Irigaray, he argues that viewing both the world and language as ‘in process’ can help reframe and move beyond some enduring problems and shed new light for future research.