​The Whiteheadian Ethos and the Evolution of Human Consciousness

I write these reflections in the context of the Fourteenth International Whitehead Conference, held in Zhuhai, China, July 17–20, 2026. The conference brings together approximately 250 participants from around the world in both on-site and online sessions; and provides an occasion to reflect on the aspirations that presenters and participants bring to the gathering. I suggest that these aspirations are different yet complementary.

The first is the most obvious: to advance scholarship in Whitehead studies in disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary ways. Represented disciplines include philosophy, science, education, sociology, psychology, the arts, and many other fields.

A second aspiration is to demonstrate the relevance of Whitehead's philosophy to the polycrises of the twenty-first century: ecological, social, technological, economic, political, and spiritual. This, in fact, is the stated aim of the conference:
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Under the theme “Process Philosophy in a Time of Polycrisis: Science, Meaning, and Civilization”, the conference engages Alfred North Whitehead’s philosophy in dialogue with the pressing challenges and transformative possibilities of the twenty-first century. At a time of converging ecological, technological, social, spiritual, and geopolitical crises, process thought offers resources for understanding an interdependent world and imagining transitions toward more sustainable, creative, compassionate, and harmonious forms of life.

A third is to explore and promote the broader relevance of Whitehead's thought to cultural evolution and the evolution of human consciousness. The third aspiration is related to the second but is also broader. Whereas the second is focused on urgent historical challenges, the third concerns the long-term cultivation of a civilizational ethos that would remain valuable even in the absence of those crises. 

This third aspiration does not necessarily imply continual reference to Whitehead's philosophy as such, but rather to what I will call a Whiteheadian ethos that comes with, but is not limited to, a Whiteheadian point of view.

By an ethos I mean a collectively felt cultural mood. Such is more than a way of thinking. I mean a way of perceiving and valuing, of interacting with others, of participating in civic society, and of seeking to help create a better world.

I borrow this motion of a "mood" from a lecture by Professor Marci Shore on Western intellectual history and, more particularly, her discussion of the Western Enlightenment and, in response to it, the Romantic movement. The Enlightenment, she says, was not simply a set of specific ideas advanced by philosophers such as Voltaire, John Locke, and Immanuel Kant. It was also a mood that permeated much of Western European society: a mood of optimism, of trust in reason, and of confidence in the possibility of progress through the use of reason. [1] 

The Romantic movement, too, was more than the poetic and philosophical writings of figures such as William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Friedrich Schlegel, and Friedrich Schelling. It was also a mood: one that emphasized feeling as well as reason, imagination as well as analysis, nature as a living presence rather than a mere mechanism, individuality and creativity, reverence for mystery, and a sense of the sacred woven into the natural world. 

It is noteworthy that Whitehead's philosophy is an attempt to combine these moods into a single sensibility - a single attitude toward life - that respects reason and feeling, truth and beauty, science and spirituality. 

My suggestion is that many participants at the International Whitehead Conference carry with them a hope, whether explicit or implicit, that something of the mood or ethos of a Whiteheadian approach to life might become part of the twenty-first century and beyond, thereby contributing in a positive way to the evolution of human consciousness.

This ethos will include within its spirit aspects of both Enlightenment and Romantic ways of thinking, but it will by no means be grounded exclusively in Western European or American traditions, philosophical or otherwise. Aspects of what Wang Zhihe and Fan Meijun call a "Second Enlightenment," one that includes Chinese ways of thinking, have already been articulated in their influential book, Second Enlightenment (第二次启蒙) (Beijing: Peking University Press, 2011). Their vision moves beyond the limitations of the first Enlightenment by integrating process philosophy, Chinese traditions, ecological civilization, and an aesthetic appreciation of the world.

Certainly, given China's emergence as one of the world's leading economic, scientific, technological, and cultural powers, the prominence of Chinese sensibilities is rightly understood as an essential feature of any Whiteheadian ethos that might become part of world history. References to Confucius, Lao Tzu, Zhuangzi, Chinese Buddhism, and other Chinese traditions may one day become as common within the Whiteheadian world as references to Whitehead himself. Indeed, Whitehead's philosophy will itself be reframed, interpreted, and further developed in distinctively Chinese ways.

Still, for this ethos to become genuinely influential, it must involve much more than a synthesis of Chinese and Western sensibilities. It must also be shaped by African, South Asian, Latin American, Middle Eastern, Oceanian, and Indigenous ways of seeing and inhabiting the world, and it must be communicated through diverse cultural expressions, each carrying its own distinctive feel. They will be, as it were, variations on a shared theme.

If such an ethos does emerge, it will not belong to Whiteheadians alone. It will belong to all who find in it a way of perceiving, valuing, and living that helps foster a more compassionate, creative, ecological, and life-giving future. Whitehead's philosophy may remain one of its deepest intellectual sources, but the ethos itself will take on a life of its own, continually renewed through its embodiment in diverse cultures and communities around the world.

[1] This ethos is one that emphasizes awakening and cosmopolitanism, It is well reflected in Immanuel Kant's essay An Answer to the Question: What Is Enlightenment? (1784), in which he argues that enlightenment consists in humanity's emergence from self-imposed immaturity through the courageous public use of reason. It is reflected as well in his essay Toward Perpetual Peace (1795), which advances the ideal of a cosmopolitan world order grounded in republican government, international law, and peaceful cooperation among nations.

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