Space-time structure concerns relations between and sustained by the actual occasions of the universe it is not an actual thing in which the real events of the world occur. First, the theory of space-time structure in the Whiteheadian cosmology is a relational theory as opposed to the "receptacle-container" theory in the Newtonian cosmology (PR 108f, 441). Whitehead makes quite explicit the fact that his theory of space-time structure differs in two major respects from the Newtonian theory. The focus of the investigation is on Whitehead’s analysis in Process and Reality, although important features of this analysis are derived from his earlier analysis in The Principle of Relativity. In this article, the extent of ‘Whitehead’s opposition to the Newtonian theory is investigated. 1 In general, Whitehead constructs a theory that is reactionary in its analysis when compared with the theories of space-time structure in the special theory of relativity (STR) and in the general theory of relativity (GTR), 2 and that is in opposition to the theory of absolute space and absolute time in the Newtonian cosmology (see PNK 1-8 and PB part II, chapters II, III, and IV). There are important modifications in Whitehead’s theory in his later, more metaphysical, writings but these modifications only serve to emphasize that the development of such a theory remains a major task in his attempts at philosophical analysis (see especially chapters IV and VII in SMW and part IV in PR). The construction of a theory of space-time structure is clearly a fundamental concern of Alfred North Whitehead in his early writings in the philosophy of natural science (see, for example, the "Prefaces" to PNK, CN, and R).
His theory is “relational” with regard to the fundamental nature of space-time and is “absolutist” with regard to a structure exhibited within and sustained by the extensional relations of events. Whiteheadian cosmology embraces the notion of a uniform metric structure for the space-time continuum that is independent of the material objects commonly said to be “in” space-time and also that is independent of the material objects appropriated as standards of spatio-temporal measurement. This material was prepared for Religion Online by Ted and Winnie Brock. Process Studies is published quarterly by the Center for Process Studies, 1325 N. The following article appeared in Process Studies, pp. Llewellyn is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Southwestern at Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee.
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