Thinking with Whitehead about Existential Risk

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Burton, James. 2019. Thinking with Whitehead about Existential Risk. In: Roland Faber; Michael Halewood and Andrew M. Davis, eds. Propositions in the Making: Experiments in a Whiteheadian Laboratory. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books (Rowman and Littlefield), pp. 115-134. ISBN 9781793612564 [Book Section]

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Abstract or Description

This article argues that the conceptual framework of “existential risk” (Bostrom), while heuristically valuable for thinking and making concrete speculations regarding possible human-eradicating future events, nevertheless entails certain pitfalls and blindspots arising from its in-built probabilistic and categorial biases. A process-oriented (Whiteheadian) may prove a valuable supplement, able to counterbalance some of these (ultimately potentially disastrous) effects.

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