Halewood, M (2015) 'Death, Entropy, Creativity and Perpetual Perishing: Some Thoughts from Whitehead and Stengers.' Social Sciences, 4 (3). pp. 655-667. ISSN 2076-0760

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Abstract

In this paper, I argue that we need to rethink how we conceive of death as ?inevitable?. There are two main strands to my analysis. First, I use the work of Stengers to trace the complex and, occasionally, contradictory ways in which the concept of entropy was developed within physics in the 19th and 20th century. I argue that this has led to a general but ill-conceived notion of the universe as wasting away, as dying. This is a form of inevitability which has infected our understanding of what constitutes the death of individual humans. I then turn to the contrast that Whitehead draws between creativity and ?perpetual perishing?. I suggest that this contrast might help us to develop a wider, more coherent, approach to thinking about the status of death, and its supposed inevitability. In the final section, I reflect upon my father?s death in 2013 in light of some of the concepts and problems raised throughout the paper.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	entropy; creativity; Whitehead; Stengers; inevitability; death
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology, Department of
SWORD Depositor:	Elements
Depositing User:	Elements
Date Deposited:	03 Nov 2015 10:29
Last Modified:	06 Jan 2022 13:28
URI:	http://repository.essex.ac.uk/id/eprint/15384

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