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Born in Kent, England
Alfred North Whitehead was born in Ramsgate which is in Kent county, England. He was the youngest of four children in the family and didn't attend school until 14 years old.
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Started education
Started education by learning Latin and Greek ages 10-12 but didnt start formal education until age 14 at Sherborne School, an all boys school in Dorset County, England.
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Accepted to Cambridge
Took entrance exam for Trinity College, Cambridge in 1879 and obtained a scholarship. Started attending in 1880.
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Graduation
Graduated from Cambridge and was elected to the Cambridge Fellowship and Apostle due to his achievements and knowledge in mathematics.
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Start of his teaching career
He started his career as a Fellow at Cambridge at 1884 but started teaching as a Lecturer of Mathematics.
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Treatise on Universal Algebra
In 1891, his first major work began but took him about seven years to finish. In this work, focused on Universal Algebra and how it is a primary tool for study and investigation. Soon after he published, he linked up with a Bertrand Russell.
Desmet, Ronald and Irvine, Andrew David, "Alfred North Whitehead", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2018 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2018/entries/whitehead/. -
Joint effort
While he was working on his second volume of his first work, he began working with Bertrand Russell on a collaborated effort for a separate piece. He ended up starting to move to Paris and London in the early 1900's, traveling back and forth with Russell to further there research.
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‘Principia Mathematica’, the first volume
This work, published by Whitehead and Russell after he moved to London, described a set of axioms, rules in symbolic logic so that all mathematical truths could be proven. This was a combination of Whiteheads mathematical logic and Russel'ls symbolic logic.
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Relocation to London
Whitehead resigned from Cambridge and moved to London without knowing what the next adventure would entail.
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Continued collboration
1912-1913 Whitehead and Russell published there second and third volume of Principia Mathematica.
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Invitation
In 1914, he got an invite to join the Imperial College of London, where he stayed for a few years as a Professor of Applied Mathematics. In this time, he published four more works, was elected as Dean of Faculty of Science, became a member of the University of London's Senate and then the Chairman of the Senate's Academic Council.
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Other works
In 1917, published The Organization of Thought, Educational and Scientific, 1919 An Enquiry Concerning the Priniciples of Natural Knowledge, and 1920 The Concept of Nature.
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The Principle of Relativity with Applications to Physical Science’
Whitehead acknowledged Einsteins General Theory of Relativity but thought to disagree with his work of a few accounts. Whitehead actually got to meet Einstein to discuss and then published his counter act, The Principle of Relativity which was, to some, thought equal.
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Invite to Harvard
Whitehead got another invite that would soon prove just as worthy. This invitation however was to Harvard University a 5 years to lecturer Philosophy.
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Other works
While at Harvard, Whitehead spoke about Philosophy but soon began to venture into Metaphysics which was greatly excepted and compared to top experts in the field. This was the start of his Journey into one of his best known work, Process and Reality, or better known as Process Philosophy. In between he also published Religion in the Making in 1926, and Symbolism, Its Meaning and effect in 1927.
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Process and Reality
Process and Reality is Whiteheads most notable published work but it also the most difficult to understand. One of the topics mentioned in this theory is the philosophy of organism. Attached is a video to explain.
https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video;_ylt=A0geK9cpCvpbwy0AUiVXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTB0N2Noc21lBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNwaXZz?p=alfred+north+whitehead+youtube&fr2=piv-web&fr=mcasa#id=7&vid=f4b3eee243b227dde194a1a2ae9f4add&action=view -
Adventures of Ideas
A more reader friendly piece that was among one of his last published works that explained his philosophical views and ideas on metaphysics with explanations about beauty, truth peace, art and adventure.
https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/alfred-north-whitehead-179.php
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Remaining years, Death and summary
Whitehead was noted as a British mathematician and philosopher who was best known for his mathematical logic and process philosophy of science. His influence was most dominant with his major works in Principia Mathematia and Process and Reason. Whitehead lived an exciting life, changing the gears of thought and process. He spent his last years continuing his work until his passing on December 30th, 1947.
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