Andrew M. Davis, Metaphysics of Exo-Life: Toward a Constructive Whiteheadian Cosmotheology (Grasmere: SacraSage Press, 2023). Pp. 195 + xvii. $24.99 (Pbk). ISBN 978-1-958670-04-0.
Year: 2024
Type: book-review
Abstract: This ambitious monograph outlines and defends an overarching philosophical and theological account of the universe and life within it based on the thought of the process philosopher and theologian Alfred North Whitehead .The author, Andrew M. Davis, however, does this in a novel way by taking six cosmotheological principles first put forward by the scientist and historian Steven J. Dick and then inverting them into metaphysical exemplifications using Whitehead.Thus, Davis's goal is to bring two distinguished thinkers (one historical and one living) into a constructive dialogue in order to develop and deepen our cosmotheological thinking.After setting the scene in the preface and introduction, Davis begins in chapter one by distinguishing between cosmology and metaphysics.Davis, following Whitehead, explains that cosmology 'consists of the effort to formulate a system of ideas applicable not to any and all epochs of the universe, but to the particular epoch in which we find ourselves, and the manifold contingencies associated with it' (p.20).Metaphysics, in contrast, attempts 'to identify the necessary principles of conditions that underlie and are exemplified in our experience as expressions of a particularly ordered evolutionary cosmos … These principles "can never fail of exemplification"' (p.25).The first three of Dick's cosmotheological principles are cosmological negations.Chapter two examines the first of these, namely that 'Humanity is not physically central to the universe.'Davis inverts this into 'Humanity exemplifies metaphysical principles that are utterly central to the universe.'Davis's strategy to justify this claim, following Whitehead, is best summarized using an analogy.Davis writes 'we have not dropped into the cosmos from elsewhere, but have grown out of it like a flower out of soil' and, thus, just as 'The flower is intrinsically connected to the nature of the soil from which it has grown' (p.37) so too are we intrinsically connected to the cosmos and its metaphysical foundations.Therefore, it should not surprise us if we exemplify the same metaphysical principles that underpin the universe as a whole.Davis's strategy of inverting Dick's principles is clear here.We have gone from the claim that humanity is not the physical centre of the universe, to the claim that humanity does exemplify metaphysical principles utterly central to it.Chapter three examines the second of Dick's cosmological negations, namely that 'Humanity is not central biologically, mentally, or morally in the universe', inverting this into 'Humanity exemplifies biological, mental and moral antecedents that are metaphysically central to the universe.'Davis does this utilizing Whitehead's thesis that there are
Source: Religious Studies
Author: Richard C. Playford
Institution: Leeds Trinity University
Language: English
Subfield: Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4405039583