Time Inheres in Process Correlating Organic Marxism, Whitehead & Zhouyi by Roger Coe Teacher Trainer, Whitehead International School, Beijing

Dealing with Reality – What is Really Real

Practitioner, not professional Philosopher As teachers we convey knowledge and information to our students. But I am somewhat different. I am a teacher of teachers, so I have a special sort of task. I must not only convey the knowledge and information of my discipline – the “how to's” - I must step back behind the knowledge and speak about knowledge & reality itself, what it is, how it works, and what may happen if we don't approach it from within a framework that bears a close approximation to reality.

Education is about development It is the nurturing of a human being, and the development and expression of that student's own reality – their Li.

Education as Development Because we're talking about something so deep, and serious, and consequential in the lives of all human beings we need to understand as much about this task as possible – thus, the importance of philosophy to our discipline.

Philosophy Frames our View of Reality Philosophy is about reality. How we frame our view about the world makes a significant difference to the effectiveness of our work as teachers.

Zhouyi – my Guide This reality was brought home to me 45 years ago when Zhouyi became an important guide for my own spiritual and psychological development.

Zhouyi – My companion for 45 years

Zhouyi – Inner life, External World Zhouyi helped me to understand that I had to confront the world as it happens to exist, that I had a choice in how to approach the reality of the world, and that what I did had consequence, both in the world external to me and within my own inner world.

Following the Tao, the Way Essentially, Zhouyi put my feet firmly on the Path of Truth, urged-on my curiosity and said Be Here Now with full consciousness of all reality.

From Zhouyi to Whitehead Ten years after beginning my daily practice of the use of Zhouyi I got the opportunity to enter graduate school in the study of a scientific system of education that was explicitly based in the Organismic Philosophy of A.N. Whitehead. Because my mind had now become “more Chinese” - more process-oriented because of my devotion to the use of Zhouyi, I recognized at once the value of this approach to education that had been developed by my professors.

Zhouyi * Whitehead * Organic Marxism They put words to what I had already come to understand from Zhouyi about development. From Whitehead's philosophical framework of organism they had derived a Theory of Development, that, as I understand it, also finds resonance within the philosophical framework of Organic Marxism.

Development – our definition Development is the Translation of Potentiality into Actuality; and the actualization of potentiality is sustained by Interaction with the Environment.

Underlying Assumptions Each of these three philosophies takes the entire universe as its data. We exist, and we have experiences. We posit that the experiences we have as human beings are of a different order within the entire scheme – bringing consciousness and will - qualities that seem to be absent at other levels. Each focuses on process, as opposed to substance, as ultimate. Process, as being, becoming something different in the next moment, is taken as inexorable. Process presupposes potentiality. And the translation of that potentiality into actuality – thesis interacting with antithesis becoming synthesis – represents the creative advance into the future for each creature.

Principles common to each Life is motion / Motion is life The essential vector, or thrust, of the universe is creativity, that is: All beings transform or become somewhat different from the previous moment; The potential to become something different exists in each being; Actualizing potentiality is this creative advance into the future.

Reality is Process The ultimate then is that Reality is Process. The Present Time is the only place where Potentiality is Actualized Development then is process Time “appears” to exist because of our perception of the continuity of events from one present time to another present time. Time has conceptual reality, but no actuality.