Whitehead» s religiously - guided education might have been unsuited for modern times, yet it is fair to say that his
profound philosophical development had its beginning in some very early insights, for example, the concept of the consequent nature of God and the evidence of God's presence in the pattern of beauty in mathematics.
There is another factor involved, in Whitehead's view, in
the philosophical development of a doctrine of God.
agree in distinguishing three periods in Whitehead's
philosophical development, dated according to the publication of his books.
Nathaniel Lawrence (Lawrence, Whitehead's
Philosophical Development, p. xix.)
But, as a genetic study of Whitehead's
philosophical development would show even more clearly, this is precisely the point at which his system does need modification.
These questions take us far beyond the present state of our discussion, and I suspect that the present stage of
philosophical development is not yet prepared to answer or even perhaps properly to formulate such questions.
This interpretation of Whitehead's conception of error can be found in Nathaniel Lawrence, Whitehead's
Philosophical Development (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1956), p. 343.
Co-author Henry of this article examined
the philosophical development of Whitehead in terms of his reaction to mathematics in an article (WPRM) written over twenty years ago.
Although it may be agreed that «Gnosticism» is a name later given to a general, multifaceted movement that became more prominent during the infancy of Christianity, but which grew out of a rich milieu of
philosophical development.
My Philosophical Development (London: George Allen & Unwin.
I think we would all be wise to recognize this process in our own theological and
philosophical development.
(Cf. Lowe, Understanding Whitehead, p. v; and Lowe, «Whitehead's
Philosophical Development,» Schilpp, ed., The Philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead, p. 124.
Critics says this represents a return for Labour to the seventies and early eighties, ignoring
the philosophical developments of New Labour.