2020/01/14

Happy in Denmark - How Come?

Happy in Denmark - How Come?

17,701 viewsJun 28, 2011, 10:16am
Happy in Denmark - How Come?

I've just come back from a wonderful, relaxing two-week vacation in Denmark. So I know why I was happy there: spending lots of time with my husband; catching up on my sleep; exploring beautiful old buildings; walking on the beach; eating great seafood.

But why was everybody else so happy?

It turns out that the Danes are the self-reported happiest people in the world. A group called The World Values Survey Association asked people in over 50 countries around the world to rate their personal happiness and their overall contentment with life on a scale of 1-10, and the folks in Denmark scored themselves higher, on average, than people in any other country.

Having just been there, I'm less surprised than I would have otherwise been: it seemed extraordinarily calm, clean and prosperous. Nearly everyone we met was relaxed, curious, helpful, and friendly. It's not perfect - I know, for instance, that the Danes pay a huge amount in income taxes. But it looks like they get a lot for it; medical care and education are covered, childcare and parental leave policies are generous, public transport is good, the streets are safe.

However, I noticed one difference between Denmark and many other countries with a high level of socialized services: it seemed remarkably un-bureaucratic. Things were organized without being regimented or restrictive. As I've been reading more about Denmark since returning, I've stumbled upon an element that I think may be key to understanding the Danish happiness phenomenon - and one that also explains this unusual combination of simplicity and structure.

It turns out the Danes also have high levels of trust. They trust each other, the government, and they even trust 'outsiders' - visitors and foreign nationals who come to Denmark to live and work.

I've seen over and over that trust alone can bring ease and simplicity. There's a great book that I've talked about before called The Speed of Trust. In it, Stephen M.R. Covey, the author (and son of Stephen R Covey of "7 Habits" fame) proposes that trust is a key business driver: that when trust between colleagues, and between a company and its customers, is high, business works faster and more cost-effectively: speed goes up, cost goes down.


Even more interesting, I discovered that the Speed of Trust website cites a study that shows Denmark tied for first place (with New Zealand and Singapore) as "the world's most trusted countries."

Putting this all together, I speculate that high trust = more ease, simplicity and productivity = happier citizens. Here's a personal example. On the last day of our vacation we went to a small stable to go horseback riding. They didn't take credit cards, and we didn't have enough kroner on hand to cover the cost. We were about to get in the car and go to the nearest ATM, which the stable owner had told us was about a mile away. Then he said, "Look, it's almost 3 and the ride's about to start. Why don't you just go riding, and then you can get the money and pay me after you get back."

Remarkably high level of trust! And we were certainly happy with the interaction - and it seemed as though our stable owner was, as well.

So, if my speculations (and the research) are correct, and high trust is not only a business driver but also increases happiness, the question is: how can we increase trust at work, both within our organizations and between organizations and their stakeholders?

I'd love to hear your ideas about this...and I'll be sharing both the ideas I hear from you and some ideas of my own in my next post.






Erika Andersen


I'm the founding partner of Proteus, keynote speaker, business thinker and author of Growing Great Employees, Being Strategic, Leading So
People Will Follow and Be Bad F...
 

Happy in Denmark - How Come?

Happy in Denmark - How Come?

17,701 viewsJun 28, 2011, 10:16am
Happy in Denmark - How Come?

I've just come back from a wonderful, relaxing two-week vacation in Denmark. So I know why I was happy there: spending lots of time with my husband; catching up on my sleep; exploring beautiful old buildings; walking on the beach; eating great seafood.

But why was everybody else so happy?

It turns out that the Danes are the self-reported happiest people in the world. A group called The World Values Survey Association asked people in over 50 countries around the world to rate their personal happiness and their overall contentment with life on a scale of 1-10, and the folks in Denmark scored themselves higher, on average, than people in any other country.

Having just been there, I'm less surprised than I would have otherwise been: it seemed extraordinarily calm, clean and prosperous. Nearly everyone we met was relaxed, curious, helpful, and friendly. It's not perfect - I know, for instance, that the Danes pay a huge amount in income taxes. But it looks like they get a lot for it; medical care and education are covered, childcare and parental leave policies are generous, public transport is good, the streets are safe.

However, I noticed one difference between Denmark and many other countries with a high level of socialized services: it seemed remarkably un-bureaucratic. Things were organized without being regimented or restrictive. As I've been reading more about Denmark since returning, I've stumbled upon an element that I think may be key to understanding the Danish happiness phenomenon - and one that also explains this unusual combination of simplicity and structure.

It turns out the Danes also have high levels of trust. They trust each other, the government, and they even trust 'outsiders' - visitors and foreign nationals who come to Denmark to live and work.

I've seen over and over that trust alone can bring ease and simplicity. There's a great book that I've talked about before called The Speed of Trust. In it, Stephen M.R. Covey, the author (and son of Stephen R Covey of "7 Habits" fame) proposes that trust is a key business driver: that when trust between colleagues, and between a company and its customers, is high, business works faster and more cost-effectively: speed goes up, cost goes down.


Even more interesting, I discovered that the Speed of Trust website cites a study that shows Denmark tied for first place (with New Zealand and Singapore) as "the world's most trusted countries."

Putting this all together, I speculate that high trust = more ease, simplicity and productivity = happier citizens. Here's a personal example. On the last day of our vacation we went to a small stable to go horseback riding. They didn't take credit cards, and we didn't have enough kroner on hand to cover the cost. We were about to get in the car and go to the nearest ATM, which the stable owner had told us was about a mile away. Then he said, "Look, it's almost 3 and the ride's about to start. Why don't you just go riding, and then you can get the money and pay me after you get back."

Remarkably high level of trust! And we were certainly happy with the interaction - and it seemed as though our stable owner was, as well.

So, if my speculations (and the research) are correct, and high trust is not only a business driver but also increases happiness, the question is: how can we increase trust at work, both within our organizations and between organizations and their stakeholders?

I'd love to hear your ideas about this...and I'll be sharing both the ideas I hear from you and some ideas of my own in my next post.






Erika Andersen


I'm the founding partner of Proteus, keynote speaker, business thinker and author of Growing Great Employees, Being Strategic, Leading So
People Will Follow and Be Bad F...
 

Never lose the trust of a Dane: Lies, corruption, and when to give birthday presents



Never lose the trust of a Dane: Lies, corruption, and when to give birthday presents






STORIES ABOUT LIFE IN DENMARK, WORKING IN DENMARK: DANISH BUSINESS CULTURE
NEVER LOSE THE TRUST OF A DANE: LIES, CORRUPTION, AND WHEN TO GIVE BIRTHDAY PRESENTS



Trust is so natural to the Danes and such an integral part of their culture that it is like the water fish swim through: even though it’s all around them, they barely notice it’s there.

As a foreigner, if your culture has a different outlook on honesty and trust, it’s important to adapt to the Danish way for as long as you’re in Denmark. If the Danes decide they can’t trust you, you might as well pack your suitcases and go home. Once you lose the trust of a Dane, it’s like losing your virginity: you’ll never get it back.

For example, your boss will trust you to make commitments and deliver on them. But maybe your culture prohibits telling a boss something she doesn’t want to hear. “Can it be done by Friday?” she asks. “Oh, sure,” you say, not wanting to lose face before the boss.

You know very well it cannot be done by Friday, and that when Friday comes you will have to come up with a plausible excuse.

Danish bosses don’t mind being contradicted. They would rather have you say directly, “Friday’s too ambitious. I can get it to you by next Wednesday if I clear my desk of other projects.”

On the other hand, if you promise to deliver on Friday and don’t, that will begin to erode your Danish boss’s trust in you.

Admitting mistakes
Part of the Danish Jantelov, which has its roots in the Lutheran Christian religious tradition, is admitting that you (like all other humans) are imperfect.

In a professional situation, this means that there is a general acceptance that you will make mistakes on the job. You will tally data incorrectly, you will make a programming error that makes the system crash, or you will forget to call the restaurant and make a booking for 25 pork dinners for your team’s Julefrokost.

The Danish way of dealing with mistakes is to admit it as quickly as possible and get on with the business of fixing things. Re-tally the data, fix the error, find another restaurant. Your boss or colleagues may express irritation with you, but they’ll put most of their effort into getting things running smoothly again.

A problem can arise, however, if you come from a culture in which mistakes are a humiliating loss of face and must be covered up or excused away.

If you hide a mistake in a Danish workplace, or even worse, lie about having made one, you can expect to find yourself quickly unemployed. Your Danish colleagues will forgive a mistake, but they won’t forgive a cover-up.

Corruption and payoffs
Denmark is regularly listed among the least corrupt countries in the world, which is one of it its charms. As slow or impassive as Danish bureaucrats can sometimes be, you can be confident that they are not expecting a payoff in order to get their jobs done.

In the workplace, that means it’s never OK to demand or receive a kickback for choosing a particular vendor or hiring an employee. If you do this, it will probably result in termination.

Some ethical questions aren’t as cut and dried. Are you allowed to keep the frequent-flyer miles you accumulate on business trips? Is it OK to use the company printer to print out flyers for your charity event? Will there be a problem if you catch up on the latest sports or celebrity news from your company laptop?

If you’re not sure, ask your supervisor or the company’s HR department. I generally ask the question via email so I have a written record of the response, and then print it out and keep it. (If you’re ever dismissed from a Danish company, you’ll immediately lose access to your email.)

If a client gives you a gift
Many Danish companies have policies against accepting gifts from clients. This is both for ethical reasons and because they see it as unfair to your desk-bound colleagues who don’t get to meet clients and don’t get any presents.

Ask your boss about this. Some companies require that all client gifts be turned in to a central source, such as HR, to be shared at the company Christmas party.

Gifts to your colleagues aren’t necessary
It’s not necessary to give your boss a gift, or to give gifts to any of your co-workers except on very special occasions, such as a new baby in the house.

In this case, some energetic person from the office will probably circulate and collect money from everyone to contribute to a team present.

If you know the person being celebrated, a contribution of DK50-100 is a nice gesture, but don’t be afraid to say ‘no’ if you sincerely can’t afford it. A card may be circulated for signatures as well. You generally don’t sign the card unless you’ve chipped in for the present.


Danish birthday behavior
When someone in the office has a birthday, they’re expected to bring their own cake or other delicacies to share with the team.

Your co-workers will often plant a Danish flag on the birthday worker’s desk; this isn’t a nationalist statement, just a general statement of birthday joy. They may also compliment the birthday worker on the day’s weather: good behavior over the previous year is thought to result in a sunny birthday.

You’re never required to give your co-worker a card or birthday present, although for “round” birthdays like 30, 40, 50, and 60, someone may take up a collection for a joint gift.

At Christmas time, the company sometimes gives a holiday gift to the employees. It’s usually a small luxury item. Either everyone gets the same thing or you are allowed to choose from two or three options of equal value. Generally, that value will be carefully chosen so you do not have to pay taxes on the gift you receive.

알라딘: 진화하는 종교 Whitehead



알라딘: 진화하는 종교

진화하는 종교 - 화이트헤드의 종교론
알프레드 노스 화이트헤드 (지은이),김희헌 (옮긴이)대한기독교서회2012-04-30
원제 : Religion In The Making








정가
8,500원
판매가
7,650원 (10%, 850원 할인)

마일리지


책소개
화이트헤드는 자신의 종교론을 통해 종교사상과 신학이 새로운 문명을 이끌어올 수 있는 사상적 모험을 감행해야 한다고 주장한다. 이 점은 오늘날 한국 기독교의 실정에 비춰보면 절실한 요청이다. 사상적으로 볼 때, 대부분의 한국교회는 고착된 교리를 숭배하는 반지성주의에 빠져서 겉으로는 용맹한 표현을 하고 있으나 그 실상은 타학문과의 대화에서 변증학이라는 소심한 수준을 넘어서지 못하고 있다.

그렇지 않으면, 과거가 살다 벗어놓은 껍데기인 전통에 대한 교의학적 충성에 머물러 있으면서 살아 있는 종교라면 응당 가져야 할 원대한 이상을 불러일으키는 일에는 턱없이 모자라다. 이 책은 이런 상황 속의 한국교회에 종교적 열정과 모험이 무엇을 뜻하는지를 묻는 도전적 계기를 제공할 것이다.



목차


서문

제1장 역사 속의 종교
1. 종교의 정의 / 2. 종교의 출현 / 3. 제의와 정서 / 4. 믿음 / 5. 합리주의 / 6. 인간의 향상 / 7. 마지막 대조

제2장 종교와 교리
1. 역사 속의 종교적 의식 / 2. 종교 경험에 대한 기술 / 3. 신 / 4. 신에 대한 탐구

제3장 육체와 영
1. 종교와 형이상학 / 2. 형이상학에 대한 종교의 공헌 / 3. 형이상학적 기술 / 4. 신과 도덕적 질서 / 5. 가치와 신의 목적 / 6. 육체와 정신 / 7. 창조적 과정

제4장 진리와 비판
1. 교리의 발전 / 2. 경험과 표현 / 3. 세 가지 전통 / 4. 신의 본성 / 5. 결론

옮긴이의 말




저자 및 역자소개
알프레드 노스 화이트헤드 (Alfred North Whitehead) (지은이)
저자파일
최고의 작품 투표
신간알림 신청


20세기를 대표하는 철학자 가운데 한 사람이다. 케임브리지 대학에서 수학을 전공한 후 런던 대학에서 응용수학 및 이론물리학 교수, 미국 하버드 대학에서 철학 교수를 역임하였다. 초기에는 수리논리학을 연구했으며, 버트런드 러셀과 함께 『수학 원리』를 저술해 20세기 수리논리학 발전에 큰 공헌을 했다. 이후 현대 물리학에 대한 철학적 고찰의 길로 나아가 『자연의 개념』 『상대성 원리』 등을 집필했다. 63세에 미국으로 이주하여 『과학과 근대세계』 『과정과 실재』 『관념의 모험』 등 주요 철학 저작을 발표하며 ‘유기체 철학’이라 불리는 ... 더보기


최근작 : <종교란 무엇인가>,<사고의 양태>,<진화하는 종교> … 총 246종 (모두보기)

김희헌 (옮긴이)
저자파일
최고의 작품 투표
신간알림 신청

한신대학교 신학과와 동대학 신학대학원을 졸업하고 한국기독교장로회 소속 목사가 되었다. 그리고 미국 클레어몬트 대학원에서 조직신학과 종교철학을 수학한 후, 유기체철학에 기초한 기독교 세계관을 정립하기 위한 연구를 하고 있다.

그 연구는 오늘 우리 시대에 화육하는 그리스도에 관한 신학적 증언이자, 생명을 속량해가는 신의 현재적 창조활동에 관한 철학적 서술 작업이다.

현재 한국민중신학회를 중심으로 학술활동을 하면서, 성공회대학교 연구교수로서 조직신학을 가르치고 있다. 한국교회의 갱신과 기독교의 사회적 책임에 관한 문제의식을 ... 더보기


최근작 : <우리는 이 모든 일의 증인입니다 : 신약>,<제 눈으로 주님을 봅니다 : 구약>,<민중신학과 범재신론> … 총 10종 (모두보기)


출판사 소개
대한기독교서회
도서 모두보기
신간알림 신청


최근작 : <의로움의 힘>,<다락방 2020.1.2 (한글판)>,<[아이보리] 개역개정 새찬송가 NKR43ETU - 초미니.합본.색인>등 총 881종
대표분야 : 기독교(개신교) 12위 (브랜드 지수 262,592점)





출판사 제공 책소개
20세기 가장 위대한 사상가
화이트헤드의 종교와 신에 대한 탁월한 종교철학적 고찰!

과학과 철학을 결합한 20세기의 대표적인 사상가 화이트헤드. 그는 이 책에서 종교의 의미를 문명사라는 거대한 맥락에서 조망하고, 교리적 표현의 합리성의 문제를 형이상학과 대비시켜 서술하며, 마침내 종교가 궁극적으로 말하고자 하는 신과 천국의 의미가 무엇인지를 밝히려고 한다.
화이트헤드는 자신의 종교론을 통해 종교사상과 신학이 새로운 문명을 이끌어올 수 있는 사상적 모험을 감행해야 한다고 주장한다. 이 점은 오늘날 한국 기독교의 실정에 비춰보면 절실한 요청이다. 사상적으로 볼 때, 대부분의 한국교회는 고착된 교리를 숭배하는 반지성주의에 빠져서 겉으로는 용맹한 표현을 하고 있으나 그 실상은 타학문과의 대화에서 변증학이라는 소심한 수준을 넘어서지 못하고 있다. 그렇지 않으면, 과거가 살다 벗어놓은 껍데기인 전통에 대한 교의학적 충성에 머물러 있으면서 살아 있는 종교라면 응당 가져야 할 원대한 이상을 불러일으키는 일에는 턱없이 모자라다. 이 책은 이런 상황 속의 한국교회에 종교적 열정과 모험이 무엇을 뜻하는지를 묻는 도전적 계기를 제공할 것이다.
접기


북플 bookple




화이트헤드의 종교에 대한 생각을 알게 해 준다
몇가지 거슬리는 단어를 빼더라도 상당히 읽기 어렵다.
책수집가 2014-09-14 공감 (1) 댓글 (0)
Thanks to
공감





횡설수설하다가 ˝신을 떠나서는 세계가 존재할 수 없다.˝는 결론을 내리는 형이상학적 헛소리
madwife 2015-06-09 공감 (1) 댓글 (0)
Thanks to
공감

------------------------





글쎄.. 결국 또 다른 내재적 종교는 아닌지




1. 요약 。。。。。。。



1장은 저자가 생각하는 종교의 발전과정에 대한 추측을 담고 있다. 원시적인 제의가 종교적 감정을 불러일으키고, 이것이 ‘믿음’이라는 이름으로 완성된다. 믿음은 다시 시간이 지나면서 스스로를 정당화하고 설명하려는 ‘합리화’의 단계에 이르게 된다는 설명.



2장에서는 소위 ‘위대한 합리적 종교’들이 가지고 있는 보편성에 관해 말한다. 저자는 종교란 개인이 자신의 고독과 뒹굴며 해내는 무엇이라고 정의하면서(45), 교리란 그런 경험들을 말로 공식화 한 것(55)이라고 설명한다. 2장의 남은 내용은 이런 교리들이란 고정된 것이 아니고 변화해왔다는 주장을 담고 있다.



3장에서 저자는 종교와 형이상학이 서로를 필요로 한다고 주장한다. 그러면서 본격적으로 종교에 대한 형이상학적 해설 - ‘신은 모든 창조적인 국면에서 반드시 고려되어야만 하는 비시간적 현실태’라는 식의 -을 이어간다. 이런 전제를 가지고 있는 화이트헤드의 종교철학 안에서 신이란 세계의 다양한 사건들을 조화시키는 존재로서의 의의만을 갖는다.



물론 저자는 교리의 필수불가결한 면을 인정하지만(136), 그 존재론적 한계를 아울러 강조하기 때문에, 기존의 종교인들이 교리를 중심으로 한 신앙생활을 하는 것을 비판적으로 본다. 4장은 이런 의식들이 잔뜩 반영되어 있는 부분이다.





2. 감상평 。。。。。。。



종교를 ‘개인적인 무엇’으로 보는 화이트헤드는 결국 신을 하나의 원리나 정신으로 한정시켜 버린다. 세계와 독립적으로 존재하는 인격적인 신이라는 개념을 받아들일 수 없었던 저자로서는 최선의 해답을 찾은 것일지도 모른다. 하지만 이렇게 될 경우 종교란 인간 개인의 내적 성장 이상의 무엇이기 어려워져버린다. 꽤나 어려운 용어들로 종교에 대한 철학적인 주장들을 열심히 쌓아 올렸지만, 다시 한 번 내재적 종교의 한 예를 말했을 뿐 사실 그가 말하고 있는 내용은 특별히 새롭거나 한 주장은 아니다.



책의 첫 머리에 실려 있는 종교의 진화 과정에 대한 설명은 기본적으로 ‘논란의 여지가 있는 것은 확실치 않은 것이요, 확실치 않은 것은 비교적 중요하지 않은 것’이라는 증거주의적 태도에 기인한다. 오랫동안 무비판적으로 수용되어오기는 이쪽도 마찬가지인데, 덕분에 이 전제에 동의하고 진행되는 거의 모든 사상은 유물론으로 수렴되고 만다. 그리고 큰 틀에서 보면 이 책 역시 그런 주장들 가운데 하나가 아닐까 싶다.





물론 저자가 이런 주장들을 하게 된 연유에 대해서, 그리고 책 속에서 비판적으로 지적되고 있는 현상들에 대한 문제의식은 어느 정도 공감하지만, 그것이 필연적으로 이런 결론을 도출하는 것은 아니라는 게 내 개인적인 생각이다. 그리고 사실 이런 식으로 철학으로 쌓아올린 종교는, 교리로만 가득 찬 신앙과 마찬가지로 지루하고, 생동감도 느껴지지 않는다.(피곤한 탓도 있었지만, 지하철에 앉아 한참 졸았다)



종교가 개인들의 경험에 기초해 있는 거라고 주장하는 사람이, 무슨 종교 이야기를 이렇게 이론적으로만 하는 건지..
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https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alfred-North-Whitehead/Career-in-the-United-States#ref221616


Encyclep Britanica


Career In The United States

In the early 1920s Whitehead was clearly the most distinguished figure in the philosophy of science who was writing in English. When a friend of Harvard University, the historical scholar Henry Osborn Taylor, pledged the money for his salary, Harvard early in 1924 offered Whitehead a five-year appointment as professor of philosophy. He was 63 years old, with at most two more years to go in the Imperial College. The idea of teaching philosophy appealed to him, and his wife wholeheartedly concurred in the move. Harvard soon found that it had hired more than a philosopher of science; it had acquired a metaphysician, one comparable in stature to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and G.W.F. Hegel.

Early in 1925 he gave a course of eight lectures in Boston, published the same year (with additions—among them his earliest writing about God) as Science and the Modern World. In it he dramatically described what had long engaged his meditation; namely, the rise, triumph, and impact of “scientific materialism”—i.e., the view that nature consists of nothing else but matter in motion, or a flux of purely physical energy. He criticized this materialism as mistaking an abstract system of mathematical physics for the concrete reality of nature. Whitehead’s mind was at home with such abstractions, and he saw them as real discoveries, not intellectual inventions; but his sense for the fullness of existence led him to urge upon philosophy the task of making good their omissions by reverting to the variety of concrete experience and then framing broader ideas. The importance of this book was immediately recognized. What perhaps impressed most readers was Whitehead’s appeal to his favourite poets, William Wordsworth and Percy Bysshe Shelley, against the exclusion of values from nature.

In 1926, the compact book Religion in the Making appeared. In it, Whitehead interpreted religion as reaching its deepest level in humanity’s solitude, that is, as an attitude of the individual toward the universe rather than as a social phenomenon.

In January 1927 the University of Edinburgh invited him to give a set of 10 Gifford Lectures in the ensuing academic year. For this, Whitehead drew up the complex technical structure of “the philosophy of organism” (as he called his metaphysics) and thought through his agreements and disagreements with some of the great European philosophers. It was characteristic of him to insist, against David Hume, that an adequate philosophical theory must build on “practice” and not be supplemented by it. The lectures reflected Whitehead’s speculative hypothesis that the universe consists entirely of becomings, each of them a process of appropriating and integrating the infinity of items (“reality”) provided by the antecedent universe and by God (the abiding source of novel possibilities). When, in June 1928, the time for delivering the lectures arrived and Whitehead presented this system in its new and difficult terminology, his audience rapidly vanished, but the publication of the lectures, expanded to 25 chapters, gave Western metaphysics one of its greatest books, Process and Reality (1929).

Whitehead had an unwavering faith in the possibility of understanding existence and a superb power to construct a scheme of general ideas broad enough to overcome the classic dualisms. But he knew that no system can do more than make an approach, somewhat more adequate than its predecessors, to understanding the infinitude of existence. He had seen the collapse of the long-entrenched Newtonian system of physics, and he never forgot its lesson. Henceforth dogmatic assurance, whether in philosophy, science, or theology, was his enemy.

Adventures of Ideas (1933) was Whitehead’s last big philosophical book and the most rewarding one for the general reader. It offered penetrating, balanced reflections on the parts played by brute forces and by general ideas about humanity, God, and the universe in shaping the course of Western civilization. Whitehead emphasized the impulse of life toward newness and the absolute need for societies stable enough to nourish adventure that is fruitful rather than anarchic. In this book he also summarized his metaphysics and used it to elucidate the nature of beauty, truth, art, adventure, and peace. By “peace” he meant a religious attitude that is “primarily a trust in the efficacy of beauty.”

Except for an insufficient familiarity with Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud, Whitehead was comfortable in both the scientific and literary cultures of his time. Young people flocked to “Sunday evenings” at his home, which his wife skillfully managed. Here the spare, rosy-cheeked man, who might have been of average height if he had not been so stooped, talked to them in a high-pitched but gentle voice—talked not about his system but about whatever was on their minds, sharply illuminating it from a broad and historical perspective.

In his Harvard lectures, as in his books, Whitehead liked best to explore the scope of application of an idea and to show how intuitions that were traditionally opposed could supplement each other, which he did by dint of his own ideas. Most students found attendance at his lectures a great experience. Harvard did not retire him until 1937.



In his first years in the United States, Whitehead visited many eastern and midwestern campuses as a lecturer. Though he loved Americans, he remained always very much an Englishman. A Fellow of the Royal Society from 1903, he was elected to the British Academy in 1931. In 1945 he received the Order of Merit. After his death his body was cremated, and there was no funeral. His unpublished manuscripts and correspondence were destroyed by his widow, as he had wanted.

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Goodreader review


Dec 28, 2013Stuart rated it liked it
Despite several poor analyses of Christianity, Alfred North Whitehead's 'Religion in the Making' is a further elucidation of Whitehead's genius system of philosophy which he has developed.

The book is a series of four lectures Whitehead gave at the King's Chapel in Boston in 1926. In the first he offers an analysis of the history and development of religions, in the second he analyzes dogma as a concept and dogmas of particular religions, in the third he describes the contribution of religious knowledge to metaphysics and elucidates something of his process ontology, and in the fourth he critiques religion and refines the Doctrine of God.

The first lecture can be largely ignored. It is full of Historical-Critical speculative conclusions circa the late 19th century. It is also prior to the re-interpretations of Christianity given for the 'modern man' by neo-orthodoxy and the 'demythologization' project. Whitehead therefore stands over 'religion' and gives analyzes it in terms of 'progress' and completely botches the application of his system to Christianity. In short, even the non-Christian has a biblical theology, and Whitehead's is deficient.

The second lecture is more useful, but the particular historical errors which evidence the failure of his analysis in the first lecture become even more apparent in the second. Characteristic of all these errors is the dating required for his analysis of the book of Job. According to his paradigm, the book of Job represents a later stage in the development of religion; it is characteristic of the beginnings of the rational stage. However, Job is easily seen to be one of the earliest compositions in the entire Old Testament. If his analysis be true, Judaism has been in the rationalizing stage since its inception. On the other hand, his analysis of dogma is somewhat useful. He contrasts the respective abilities of Buddhism and Christianity to deal with the problem of evil, but he defines evil, also, in terms of his progressive process. He does give the occasional deep insight, such as when he says that, "Any proof [for God] which commences with the consideration of the character of the actual world cannot rise above the actuality of this world" (69, though he later defines God as an actual entity). Finally, he attempts to show how the emergence of dogma occurs in a 'purified' or 'rational' religion. This analysis shares some harmonies with Christianity, but in the end will likely prove to be foundation ally dissonant.

His third lecture is his best. In it he outlines the contribution of religion to metaphysics. That contribution, he says, is primarily the 'bigness' of the view religions take on the world. They attempt to see the whole in light of the one. From this he describes a metaphysic in the rest of the chapter that was quite enjoyable to read, though it was written in Whitehead's typically impenetrable style. The only obvious problem (and it is an unacceptable doctrine), was his definition of God as one of the formative principles for the actual temporal world. God, for Whitehead, is the third of these formative principles, and is an actual entity which is the limitations placed on the first formative principle, creative force, which prevents absolute freedom in creativity, and thus prevents purely arbitrary consequents to their respective grounds among causal processes and produces a 'novelty' among consequent world states. This is a clearly non-Christian doctrine of God, and should be entirely disregarded by the theologian.

In the final lecture, Whitehead critiques the doctrines of religion and refines the doctrine of God. He defines God as di-polar, the ideal in which each causal process finds its 'novelty,' either unto a lower form or a higher one. In this way he overcomes objections which reason from the already established nature of Classical Theism, by arguing that, since God is creative direction, those who believe that Classical Theism's doctrine of God has any 'finality' to it are simultaneously arguing that Greek Philosophy is 'final,' and are therefore idolatrous. He defines idolatry as the belief that one has 'arrived' at a final doctrine, showing again his penchant for progression.

Whitehead's philosophy of religion here explained is immensely valuable. He is an extremely perceptive thinker who offers the Christian theologian valuable critiques that they must avoid falling into. He is a useful conversation partner for developing rigor and accuracy in theology. However, this work contains two fundamental errors which merit its 3-star rating. First, Whitehead anachronistically analyzes theistic theories in terms of immanence and transcendence. In this way he completely misses the important Trinitarian shape of Christian theology. His conception of Christian theism collapses simply back into 'Semitic Theism.' He allows only the Apostle John the space for conceiving of Christianity as more immanent than transcendent, before he sees the Church Fathers lapsing back into a 'Semitic theism.' This is an entirely poor account of Christian theism and cannot be taken seriously except in reference to a general monotheism. Second, Whitehead's accounts of history are repeatedly poor. His handling of the history of religions does little to shake the faith of even the layman believer today, though at the time it may have done more. His accounts of the formation of Christianity from Judaism are simplistic an in many cases simply wrong. Therefore, while his metaphysical system is useful and he provides important critiques for the philosophy of religion, his tale of how religions form should be more or less disregarded and his criticisms of Christian theism in particular should found lacking apart from philosophical problems presented by the concept of theism in general. (less)
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In 2004, David Ray Griffin published The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions about the Bush Administration and 9/11. Translated into several languages, it helped spark a worldwide movement demanding "9/11 truth." Even as it became increasingly outdated, it continued to be widely cited as the best introduction to the issues.

Griffin has now written The New Pearl Harbor Revisited, which provides a chapter-by-chapter updating of the information provided in that earlier book. It shows that the case against the official account constructed by independent researchers - who now include architects, engineers, physicists, pilots, politicians, and former military officers - is far stronger than it was in 2004, leaving no doubt that 9/11 was a false-flag operation, designed to give the Bush-Cheney administration a pretext to attack oil-rich Muslim nations.

Taken together, these two books provide everything one needs to make an informed decision about 9/11 - whether one is a journalist, a political leader, a religious leader, or an ordinary citizen concerned about truth, democracy, and the rule of law.


Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Author and professor Griffith (9/11 Contradictions: An Open Letter to Congress and the Press) knows his work is referred to by officials and the media as conspiracy theory, and he has a rebuttal: "the official theory is itself a conspiracy theory." In this companion volume to 2004's The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11, Griffith provides corrections, raises new issues and discusses "the two most important official reports about 9/11," the 9/11 Commission Report and the National Institute of Standards and Technology report on the Twin Towers, both "prepared by people highly responsive to the wishes of the White House" and riddled with "omission and distortion from beginning to end." Griffith addresses many points in exhaustive detail, from the physical impossibility of the official explanation of the towers' collapse to the Commission's failure to scrutinize the administration to the NIST's contradiction of its own scientists to the scads of eyewitness and scientific testimony in direct opposition to official claims. Citing hundreds, if not thousands, of sources, Griffith's detailed analysis is far from reactionary or delusional, building a case that, though not conclusive, raises enough valid and disturbing questions to make his call for a new investigation more convincing than ever.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"Detailed and deeply unnerving... For anyone who doubts the government's truthfulness regarding the WTC terrorist attack, this well-researched volume will give you a trough full of ideas to chew on." -- --Publishers Weekly on Debunking 9/11 Debunking (starred review)<br ><br >"The 9/11 Commission air brushed our great tragedy and David Ray Griffin has done the most thorough and painstaking analysis of how it applied those brush strokes and presents meticulous details of its cover-up and the questions regarding 9/11 that must be answered by a thorough investigation, lest our country be rendered meaningless by future repetitions." -- --Edward Asner<br ><br >"Circuses use people to clean up their elephants--a dirty job, but someone has to do it. The 9/11 Commissioners evidently likened themselves to circus workers, cleaning up after the (Republican) elephant. They did a very sloppy job, making it easy to see that 9/11 was an inside job. The contrary view--that the 9/11 attacks were perpetrated by Arab Muslims--has been the source of innumerable evils, which threaten to destroy our country and the world itself. David Griffin's New Pearl Harbor Revisited contains everything needed by Congress and the press to see through the most massive crime and cover-up in our history." -- --Edward Asner, actor and citizen <br ><br >"Citizens in many countries are waging a war on the cover-up of the basis for the so-called war on terror--this basis being the official interpretation of the 9/11 attacks. Along with the Internet, which has equipped both public figures and ordinary citizens to wage this war on the cover-up, David Ray Griffin has revealed dozens of omissions, distortions, and contradictions in the official story in a way that provides undeniable evidence of its falsity. The New Pearl Harbor Revisited presents a powerful exposé of the false narrative that has been driving the mainstream political agenda since 9/11. It is now up to politicians and journalists around the world to expose this truth to our peoples." -- --Yukihisa Fujita, member of the House of Councilors, the Diet of Japan <br ><br >"David Ray Griffin stands at the center of one of the most impressive citizen research projects in history. In this superb new volume, he draws together a great quantity of recent evidence and demonstrates beyond question the fraudulent nature of the official account of 9/11." -- -- Dr. Graeme MacQueen, Founder of McMaster University's Center for Peace Studies<br ><br >"Mr. Griffin has again painstakingly laid bare the many lingering questions and inconsistencies of the official story regarding the horrific attacks of September 11, 2001. Sadly, millions of taxpayer dollars have been squandered on investigations that yielded no accountability, few answers, and fewer reforms. Yet, the attacks of September 11, 2001 have been wantonly used as political and policy fodder. Without truth, there can be no accountability. Without accountability, there can be no real change. Without change, we remain at risk." -- --Monica Gabrielle, widow of Richard Gabrielle, who was killed at WTC2 on 9/11/01, member of the Family Steering Committee for the 9/11 Commission<br ><br >"President Bush and Vice President Cheney have many questions to answer in light of this book. This time they should have to testify separately and under oath. Unlike their testimony at the 9/11 Commission, behind closed doors, this should be open testimony." -- --Jesse Ventura, Governor of Minnesota, 1999-2003

"Nowhere is it clearer that truth is now considered quaint, obsolete here in Washington, than in the disingenuous non-answers to questions about the cavernous holes in the official version of 9/11---and the flippant attempts to marginalize intrepid souls like David Ray Griffin, branded `blasphemous' by the likes of Tucker Carlson. Facing straight into this rancid wind, Griffin now provides a definitive account that updates and integrates his earlier findings. Will Congress ever authorize an honest investigation of the seminal event of our time?" --Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst and presidential briefer

"Nowhere is it clearer that truth is now considered quaint, obsolete here in Washington, than in the disingenuous non-answers to questions about the cavernous holes in the official version of 9/11---and the flippant attempts to marginalize intrepid souls like David Ray Griffin, branded `blasphemous' by the likes of Tucker Carlson. Facing straight into this rancid wind, Griffin now provides a definitive account that updates and integrates his earlier findings. Will Congress ever authorize an honest investigation of the seminal event of our time?" -- --Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst and presidential briefer


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Donald C. Land

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, fact based research that describes the real 911 crime!Reviewed in the United States on March 16, 2017
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David Gray Griffin is a extremely articulate, factual-based and intellectual writer. I have enjoyed this book a lot. It's too bad the corporate media and American citizens aren't open to discussion when it comes to 911. They've made up their mind and anything other than the official government narrative is considered heresy. That is the major irony because there is a mountain of evidence, facts, documents, witnesses, videos etc. that completely contradicts the big lie and crime. Hopefully one day there will be a breakthrough and people will take it as seriously as they well should. Until then I hope to David Ray Griffin continues to fight the good fight.

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Collin O'Donnell

5.0 out of 5 stars Everything You Always Wanted to Know about 9/11 (But Were Afraid to Ask)Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2015
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The New Pearl Harbor, or Everything You Always Wanted to Know about 9/11 (But Were Afraid to Ask)

As a result of careful media spinning, the bizarre and unfounded notion of American exceptionalism, and overwhelming ignorance to any contradicting facts (be it self-willed or not), the majority of Americans still believe Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda were responsible for the 9/11 attacks. The people who still believe the ‘official story’ generally fall into three categories: 1) Patriots who still believe that America is ‘the land of the free and the home of the brave.' 2) Those who accept what their leaders tell them without a thought given to their various agendas and biases. 3) Those who react violently (emotionally) to any sort of ‘conspiracy theory’ in fear that what they’re spouting might actually be true. These three groups are in no way mutually exclusive. In fact, overlap is pretty much guaranteed. The main advantage that these people have over the ‘Truthers’ (a term that should not be a pejorative, but for some reason is) is that they don’t have to argue with facts. They can simply call the opponent a delusional nut-job and end things at that. It’s the burden of Truthers to lay down a compelling argument contrary to the ‘official story,’ and retired professor David Ray Griffin presents in two carefully researched volumes a wealth of damning evidence supporting not only American complicity of the September 11th attacks, but overall orchestration.

Griffin is an academic above all and is in no way a representation of the stereotypical conspiracy theorist whose dimly-lit basement walls are collaged with newspaper articles and yarn. He’s simply an educated man in search of the objective truth, as every American should be. Taking a level-headed and emotionally-detached look at the massive and varied array of evidence disproving the ‘official story,’ Griffin systematically shreds every single strand of the government’s poorly spun web of lies. He dissects the impossibility of the attacks themselves, rightfully concluding that all signs point to false-flag instead of the purported ‘massive communication breakdown’ as a result of incompetence (although incompetence was certainly in the cards when it came to the sloppy conception of the ‘official story.’) Beyond the highly incriminating and contradictory evidence presented by the government and media about the events of 9/11, Griffin culls both pre and post-9/11 history and collects the undeniable motives of perpetrating such a heinous crime and contrasts them with the results of Bush’s ‘War on Terror.’ He sheds light on the fact that the 9/11 commission investigating the attacks was 100% bias and government orchestrated. Along with this, Griffin presents a cast of tragic heroes, government workers who were bullied and silenced in their attempts to take an objective look at 9/11. Furthermore, he uses historical precedent (the thankfully abandoned Operation Northwoods, the sinking of the USS Maine) as a device to help the reader understand that the government is not above harming innocent civilians as a pretext for military action. All of these points and more are the building blocks of Griffin’s book, yet he doesn’t stop at these broad highlights. His in-depth and tireless research can be clearly seen in the 1000+ citations used in the book’s creation. Reading The New Pearl Harbor volumes and The 9/11 Commission Report back-to-back, it’s obvious Griffin’s research and objective standpoint make a far more compelling argument than the heavily-biased, narrow-minded, and government-backed Commission Report.

The New Pearl Harbor is probably the most important work of modern non-fiction not to be recognized by the general public. Why, one might ask, is this so? Simply put, Griffin doesn’t dance around the obvious like many political writers tend to do. Many commercially successful books have been written about the corrupt Bush administration and the oil agenda of the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, but while these writers seem very open to the widely publicized corruption and greed of the American Government in the Middle East, they neglect crucial facts about the event that kicked it all off. Why don’t they challenge the 9/11 ‘official story’ of the government they openly criticize as corrupt? Because they would be challenging the beliefs of over half of our nation, and that kind of reporting doesn’t sell books on a mass scale. Of course All the President’s Men was a huge hit, but Watergate was a kind of scandal that people could believe the government was capable of having perpetrated. 9/11, on the other hand, is a comparatively enormous scandal that blocks the common sense of Americans due to its sheer magnitude. We don’t want to believe it’s true, so we ignore any evidence that it might be. That’s why The New Pearl Harbor isn’t a bestseller, and that’s why wholly honest reporting is doomed unless reporters and writers can put ego, popularity, and financial gain on the back burner and focus on the unadulterated truth.

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MOD

5.0 out of 5 stars Every American Should Read This Book!Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2015
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Every American should read this book because the questions it raises have still not been answered sufficiently by our government. If you care about democracy, and your freedom, and the truth, read Griffin's book. Then you will have the right to sit at the table and take part in the debate about what happened on 9/11; otherwise your views are only opinions. Democracy and freedom and truth are not things that you automatically inherit simply because you are an American: you have to work for them, monitor them, and speak up against those who are determined to diminish them in order to further their own personal interests. Each generation must take up the process all over again . . . because as a people, if we don't, we forget what democracy, freedom, and truth are and what the generations before us had to do in order to maintain them.

9 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

3.0 out of 5 stars very academic and well researched and proper citing of sourcesReviewed in the United States on January 11, 2018
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the book really got bogged down into hairsplitting on minor details about problems with the government sponsored story, instead of focusing on the bigger picture and it did not speak at all about the most important question which is who the author really believed was responsible for this attack and it was a rather boring read. on the plus side this book was very well researched and it cited all the sources which supported his arguments, which were very convincing. on the whole, however chris bolyns book, solving 911 : the deception that changed the world , is a far better book, its more interesting, and it very convincingly showed who was the party behind the attack, which was Israel and pro Israeli jewish supporters in the US government

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Carl

5.0 out of 5 stars Massive Research and Fact Checking........Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2017
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The New Pearl Harbor Revisited: 9/11.... contains a massive amount of research and fact-checking. The extent and detail shown in the footnotes and index give support to any of us wishing to learn more about events surrounding the 9/11 disaster.
I have considerable respect for the incredible time and effort required to fact-check previous sources about 9/11.
You may already know all about this event. I also thought I was well informed about it. Well........not so much.

I would strongly recommend this book and others by David Ray Griffin on the 9/11 events dealing with the twin towers and also
Building # 7. You might become as shocked as I am.

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Betty Dodson

5.0 out of 5 stars I so admire David Ray Griffin's total attention to every ...Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2014
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I so admire David Ray Griffin's total attention to every detail as he wades through a ton of information and brings it all together to make his case. It's very satisfying for me, a sex educator who also searches for truth as I teach women about their orgasmic capabilities that far exceed anything "suggested" by academics from Sigmund Freud to the present day.

The Truth does indeed set us free!

Betty A. Dodson, PhD sexologist

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William Lettich

5.0 out of 5 stars The New Pearl Harbor RevistedReviewed in the United States on September 13, 2018
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Conspiracy theory or not, if you believe the NIST report that no plane parts or human remains were found at Shenksville because the Pa. soil was so soft that the aircraft just borrowed into the ground you are Gullible.

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MR DEREK PATTERSON
4.0 out of 5 stars New Pearl HarbourReviewed in the United Kingdom on August 3, 2016
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I enjoyed reading this book although it was extremely difficult to keep track of all the names of those involved. Do I believe the book? That is the question and the answer must be that even if half of it was true then this was undoubtedly an inside job but that in itself raises the next question, why has no one faced prosecution for what is a crime committed by a Goverment against its own ? Personally I believe something sinister brought down those three buildings, something very powerful and very sinister and the truth will remain buried for a very long time.

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H. J. Netting
5.0 out of 5 stars Read it!Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 12, 2018
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Scary but very convincing. I recommend to anyone suspicious since first seeing Bush’s muted response to the attacks.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Makes you thinkReviewed in the United Kingdom on July 27, 2016
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I highly recommend this book to anyone who has even the slightest hint of a doubt about 9/11. You have to wonder what the Bush administration were really doing on that day

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Peterich
4.0 out of 5 stars essential exposeReviewed in the United Kingdom on July 2, 2014
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An up to date, fully reviewed and revised account by david ray griffin of his original 'the new pearl harbour' book!

The definitive guide to the events surrounding the September 11th attacks and an insight into who was really responsible and the coverup by the '911 commission report'!

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5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent ExposéReviewed in the United Kingdom on September 12, 2011
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Once again the author brings his analytical skills to bear on the latest information and developments in the tragic events of 9/11/01. The additional information he has gleaned since his last work has only reinforced the doubt and extreme suspicion of the "official conspiracy theory" as to what happened. Best examples are the near free-fall descent of the buildings, inexplicable as conventional fire and collapse, especially Building 7 which was not even hit by any aircraft; the alleged impact of a Boeing jetliner into the Pentagon which left virtually no wreckage; the alleged cell-phone calls from 30,000 feet which, given the technology available in 2001, were a physical impossibility; and so on.

Mr Griffin leaves no stone unturned, and the more I read this book, the more angry I felt that the cover-up that was undoubtedly placed over the whole affair, is still in place 10 years later. Whilst I suspect that there may well have been a plot hatched by terrorists, it seems clear to me that someone somewhere picked up on the plot and ensured that it was carried through to its conclusion. Other authors, notably Webster Tarpley, have examined the possibility that 9/11 was some kind of attempted coup d'état, and this is quite possible in the light of the fact that security codes were known to the perpetrators in making their threats to Air Force 1.

The strange coincidence of the "mock terror drills" that were taking place the same day, whereby false blips were placed on ATC screens, is also covered here. It seems that maximum confusion was placed on the system which, for example, enabled "something" to impact the Pentagon without let or hindrance. The confiscation and hiding of the complete CCTV evidence at the Pentagon, which must be in existence somewhere, surely is a massive indication of some sort of covert activity.

The list of anomalies goes on and on, the story put out by the mainstream media remains in place, as does the ridicule and contempt heaped upon those like Griffin, Tarpley, Jones and others, who are merely trying to establish the truth as to what happened. The glaring omissions and inaccuracies of the 9/11 Commission only serve to heighten the suspicions of the public at large.

As time goes on, of course, memories will dim and the events will be consigned to history. A similar process happened with the Kennedy assassination. There is still a lot of material, however, coming out of the woodwork for those seeking the truth to examine. Whether the whole truth will ever be known is open to conjecture, but I have to admire David Ray Griffin and his colleagues in their dedication to their cause.
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