Description
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewCrosby provides a wonderfully lucid and carefully balanced metaphysical account of efficient causation and novelty, both of them necessary but neither by itself sufficient for explaining the character of our constantly changing universe. His book lives up to its title: he has sketched in an imaginatively fresh way a metaphysics of novelty that is well-rooted in traditional understandings while transforming those understandings boldly and insightfully. -- George Allan, Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, Dickinson College
In this rich and provocative book, Crosby offers a wide-ranging defense of the centrality of novelty. Working with thinkers from Bergson to Berlin and Whitehead to E.O. Wilson, he exposes the flaws in determinist positions and crafts a compelling argument for the metaphysical reality of novelty. Crosby acknowledges its complex interweaving with causal conditions, developing a nuanced contextual view of novelty as it functions in the universe at large, in biological evolution, in human freedom, and in an evocative education that contributes to a dynamic open society. -- Patrick Shade, Associate Professor and Chair of Philosophy, Rhodes College
Novelty is a refreshing book, as pleasing in the beauty of its prose as it is inspired in its case for metaphysical emergentism and its practical applications. This is philosophical theorizing at its best. -- Donald Wayne Viney, Professor of Philosophy, Pittsburg State University (Kansas)
Novelty would make a good textbook, and not only for undergraduates. It is concise, easily intelligible, and marshals its arguments well. Its treatment of fundamental problems in process philosophy makes it profitable reading, especially since it offers a challenge to many currently accepted models of process. * The Pluralist, March 2008 *
This is an essay in the great tradition by a thoughtful and highly competent philosophical thinker — a strong, confident and accessible statement of process metaphysics, exploring the pervasiveness and diverse aspects of novelty in the worlds of nature and human activity. -- John J. Compton, Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, Vanderbilt University
This is a book that challenges the reader to think in alternative categories to those most commonly maintained. For that reason alone, it is worth thorough consideration. * American Journal of Theology and Philosophy *
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Roles of Novelty Chapter 2 Time's Tooth Chapter 3 Changing Possibility Chapter 4 Protean Matter Chapter 5 Profuse Life Chapter 6 Purposive Mind Chapter 7 Evocational Education Chapter 8 Open Society
