Process philosophy rejects the materialist view of the world according to which the nature of things is comprised of unchanging substances. Instead, he proposes an entirely new idea, according to which, everything that exists around is a sum of events or experiences, and for this this reason, everything around changes in time, being subject to influences of all kinds. The world is not only changing but it is interrelated, because beings and objects change as a result of the interaction with their environment. This was a highly influential philosophical direction in American thought of the twentieth century, which found applications in many different domains, from biology to economics and from politics to education. The proponents of process philosophy and particularly Alfred Whitehead, who articulated many of its fundamental concepts, argued in favor of human designs which reflected the changing and interconnected nature of things, and rejected the hierarchical order and capitalism, which creates clusters of power, further used to oppress the majority.
This kind of thinking may be traced in socialist thinking ideas of economic equality and fraternity (Morris 1991), although “the application of Whitehead’s metaphysics to social theory leads one in the direction of Marxism only as far as the “Liberal Socialism” of the new liberals”, Morris (1991, p.214) argues. A liberal himself, Whitehead did not believe that a socialist state would be more efficient than a capitalist one in protecting the people against power abuse. Another idea drawn from process philosophy with applications in education and not only, is the notion of equality among all things, human or not, based on the fact that everyone, and everything is equal, and there are no superior beings or things (Allan 1991). Socialist thought also believes that all people are equal. The difference between the way this message was interpreted in different communities is illustrated by USA and Russia. Whereas the American capitalist society uses this principle to encourage the race towards acquiring as much power as possible, socialism uses this idea to promote collective work lack of private property.
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"The Process of Philosophy on Education".
Further, Whitehead’s philosophical idea that a human is the sum of the cultural and societal influences he or she is subject to in a particular moment in time, and in a particular location, extent to education which, he thinks, should be individualized, and should reflect the individual’s social and historical context rather than being fixed and applicable for everyone the same way (Brumbaugh 1982). Teaching, Brumbaugh (1982) explains, must stop considering the students blank pages, able to absorb information the same way, and the classroom should not be considered as an entity which exists in a vacuum. This Brumbaugh (1982) further argues, may lead to indoctrinating the students with a misguided type of individualism Based on the idea of equality, the Whitehead’s educational model rejects the hierarchical organization of the classroom, which labels some children as less smart than others (Allan 1991). The existence of an education ‘canon’ implies the existence of a hierarchy, and of values which in their essence are patriarchal, exclusionary, and hegemonistic, which should be rejected by a society that claims to pursuit equal opportunity for all (Allan 1991). The purpose of American education should instead be that that of promoting multiculturalism and democracy.
This is an emerging trend in contemporary education, which aims to avoid ‘creating’ poor students by constantly highlighting their incompatibility with the standardized curriculum and tries to individualize teaching for each individual. Further, Whitehead believed that education should have a practical dimension, and that useless knowledge should be eliminated from the curriculum. Instead, it should be replaced with essential and universally applicable concepts that should further be used by students in practical applications. Socialist ideology also comprised a view of education as having a practical purpose of creating ‘contributors’ to the economy, and dismissed purposeless education, highlighting the importance of intellectuals and diminishing that of intellectuals.
Therefore, as shown above, socialism derives from process philosophy because many of the political ideas of socialism have their roots in Whitehead’s concepts of equality, interconnectivity and collective action. They were further used in education, which was considered too much based on the traditional education ‘canon’ and much less on individualized practical knowledge which could be used in daily activities.
