ARTICOLI / 9 / Luca Vanzago /
In this paper I address the problem of discussing if and to what extent could Whitehead’s philosophy be compared to, and even derived from, Bergson’s work. The aim of such an undertaking is however not so much to ascertain some similarities and differences between the two thinkers, but rather to address a specific theoretical question, related to Whitehead’s metaphysics of process. Such question consists in evaluating Whitehead’s philosophical perspective in the light of a general approach to reality in terms of the notions of process, event and time. In this perspective, Whitehead’s philosophy is discussed according to a genetic framework, starting from his mathematical, logical and epistemological writings, then focusing on the two key-notions of his philosophy of nature, namely, events and objects, and finally articulated into five fundamental concepts belonging to his metaphysics, that is, actuality, potentiality, relationality, processuality, finitude. These concepts provide us with Whitehead’s most accomplished theoretical notions concerning his approach to reality. A comparison between Bergson and Whitehead, who knew and appreciated one another, should take into consideration these notions in order to see that Whitehead was an original thinker, but at the same time that his questions were quite similar to those raised by Bergson.
