In medieval theology, the term person was generally conceived in ontological terms. It defined, for example, the ongoing relations of the members of the Trinity to one another; Father, Son and Holy Spirit exist as one God paradoxically in virtue of their personal differences, their subsistent relations to one another.1 Likewise, Jesus of Nazareth as…
For most life scientists, the processes of evolution are essentially mechanistic–they operate without allowing for any ideas of causality or teleology. Organisms and species are essentially passive, acted upon by external evolutionary forces rather than able to actively promote their own survival. As Joseph Bracken points out, however, “[T]here are some hardy individuals who have…
“As Whitehead and Peirce each in his own way has made clear, it is time to set aside the ontological dualism which has bedeviled philosophers from the time of Plato onwards and encouraged natural scientists and others of a more empirical bent simply to write off the reality of spirit and to focus exclusively on…