A Study On Whitehead's Event Theories

Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) is a great mathematician, logician and philosopher of England. With the organic theory and the process philosophy, he became a British and American philosopher that had affected greatly to the first half leaf of 20 centuries. The process philosophy is a developing philosophy in the modern world. And it is the background of the constructive post-modernism. Abroad, the process philosophy of Whitehead was seen as all the origins of the new thought. Whitehead put forward an open, active, creative and infinite cosmos view in its main work process and reality. He said:"The ultimate unit that constitutes the actuality is not" substance" but" event", the event is the initial element, and the whole cosmos is an organic system, linked mutually by various entities, various actual occasions.This paper summarizes about the background of the process philosophy of Whitehead, the formation and transformation of the event theories, the content of the event theories, the meaning and effect of the event theories etc. The put forward of the event theories can not get away from the development of the natural science since modern age .The theory of relativity and quantum theory provided the theories resources for the event theories. The event theories provided a kind of new cosmos view for the people who broken through Newton's classic physics. Namely the world is formed by the event, flowing, connecting and disappearing suddenly. Studying along with Whitehead, he replaced the concept of"event"with"actual entity", but the event theories became more system and perfect. The event theories put forward the standpoint that "the event is the ultimate factor of the cosmos", which abandoned the traditional substance idea and created condition for the development of the new thoughts. It is the theories foundation of the constructive post-modernism, and affect the ecosystem ethics, religious theology etc.