
Language and Process
Words, Whitehead and the World
Michael Halewood(Author)
Edinburgh University Press
Published on 7. January 2020
Book
Hardback
176 pages
978-1-4744-4910-6 (ISBN)
Description
Michael Halewood uses ideas from analytic philosophy and continental philosophy as well as social theory to look at how language relates to the world, and the world to language. He addresses important questions such as whether words are able to capture the world (nouns); whether the properties of things, such as colours, are real (adjectives); and how we can think about the world as process (verbs). Primarily using the work of Alfred North Whitehead, but also incorporating the ideas of Gilles Deleuze, John Dewey and Luce Irigaray, he argues that viewing both the world and language as 'in process' can help reframe and move beyond some enduring problems and shed new light for future research.
Reviews / Votes
We use language all the time without worries; but when we try to actively think about how words relate to the world, we are immediately perplexed. In this book, Michael Halewood deftly winds a way through these difficulties, showing us how language is part of the world, rather than something that comments upon it from outside. * Steven Shaviro, DeRoy Professor of English, Wayne State University *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 221 mm
Width: 145 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
318 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4744-4910-6 (9781474449106)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
02/2023
1st Edition
Edinburgh University Press
€25.99
Available for download

E-Book
01/2020
1st Edition
Edinburgh University Press
€0.00
Available for download
Person
Michael Halewood is Professor in Sociology at the University of Essex. He is the author of Language and Process: Words, Whitehead and the World (EUP, 2020), Rethinking the Social through Durkheim, Marx, Weber and Whitehead (Anthem Press, 2014) and A. N. Whitehead and Social Theory: Tracing a Culture of Thought (Anthem Press, 2011). He is co-editor of Butler on Whitehead (Rowman & Littlefield, 2012). He is the translator of The Lure of Possibilities by Didier Debaise (Duke University Press, 2017).
Content
Preface
Introduction: The Problem of Words and Things
Nouns, Names and Signs: From Frege to Saussure
Adjectives: The Properties of the World and the 'Bifurcation of Nature'
Verbs: Deleuze on Infinitives, Events and Process
Adverbs: Dewey on the Qualities of Existence
Prepositions: Whitehead on the Withness of the Body
Gender and Personal Pronouns: She, He, It and They
Tone, Force and Rhetoric: Capitalism, Theology and Grammar
Conclusion
Bibliography
Introduction: The Problem of Words and Things
Nouns, Names and Signs: From Frege to Saussure
Adjectives: The Properties of the World and the 'Bifurcation of Nature'
Verbs: Deleuze on Infinitives, Events and Process
Adverbs: Dewey on the Qualities of Existence
Prepositions: Whitehead on the Withness of the Body
Gender and Personal Pronouns: She, He, It and They
Tone, Force and Rhetoric: Capitalism, Theology and Grammar
Conclusion
Bibliography