From Time to Action: the contribution of Whitehead's philosophy to a theory of action

Although many authors in the field of sociology and social theory have integrated temporal features into their theories, there is still a lack of theories based on time. This is mostly due to the complexity of the phenomenon of time, which not only produces a number of paradoxes, but also spans the complete realm of the natural and social sciences. Moreover, time is often conceptualised in its common sense, Newtonian shape, thus ignoring major theoretical developments of the last 100 years. One philosopher who has attempted to address these shortcomings is A.N. Whitehead. The present contribution draws on his philosophy in order to develop a theory of action based on a post-relativity concept of time.