Process Thinking and its application for a sustainable future

Abstract

This thesis cross-fertilises process philosophy and peace studies by exploring the ways in which process philosophers extend and strengthen peace scholars’ outlines of a paradigm of/for peace. The value of such a paradigm is illustrated through the example of the climate crisis, showing how process thinking and process metaphysics intervene at its roots. In making this argument, the “static-process framework” is developed as an inroad to process philosophy and a tool to assist with its application. This framework depicts tensions between two modes of thought—static and process thinking—according to five “basic orientations”: abstract/context, closed/open, isolating/relational; passive/generative; one/multi-dimensional. Process thought, as expounded here, resolves these dynamic oppositions by nesting static thinking within process thinking. Through a process lens, the climate crisis is established as symptomatic of a “global systemic crisis” connected to social and economic systems obscured by static-biased thinking and the assumptions of static metaphysics (epistemologies, ontologies and cosmologies) not nested in process contexts. This is seen, for example, in the elevation of abstract measures (such as “The Economy” and quantifiable aspects of life) over concrete real-world experiences, relationships and processes (such as feelings and non-quantifiable aspects of life). The research shows how process thinking depolarises left and right political ideologies, supplements the goal of GDP growth with improvements to human and planetary wellbeing, and unites science and religion through a narrative of cosmological, political and community participation. By drawing new connections between process philosophy and peace studies, and applying emerging insights to the climate crisis, this thesis sheds new light on modes of thought and metaphysics for building a peaceful, just and sustainable future.