Abstract
This essay offers a process-ontological account of work, addressing two challenges in particular. First, I try to show that even though the phenomenon of work is extremely diverse, all occurrences to which the word ‘work’ correctly applies — according to the current semantic intuitions of the relevant linguistic community — share the feature of being: the creation of something of value. Second, guided by this initial conceptual delineation of the phenomenon, I argue that traditional ontology would face fundamental difficulties in giving an ontological analysis of work, which can be surmounted in a Whiteheadian framework. I take Whitehead's analysis of an actual occasion as a model for an analysis of work that explains how toil (exertion of effort) can result in the accomplishment of a desired end. On this basis of this explanatory model the complex dynamicity that we experience in work as the creation of something of value can be accounted for in the well-defined terms of an ontological theory.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Arendt, Hannah: 1958, The Human Condition, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Blaug, Mark: 1968, Economic Theory in Retrospect, Homewood, IL: Richard D. Irwin, Inc.
Bowley, Marian: 1973, Studies in the History of Economic Theory before 1870, London and Basingstoke: The MacMillan Press Ltd.
Ciulla, Joanne B.: 2000, The Working Life, New York: Three Rivers Press.
Emmet, Dorothy M.: 1932, Whitehead's Philosophy of Organism, St. Martin's Street, London: MacMillan and Co., Limited.
Hall, Everett: 1963, ‘Of What Use are Whitehead's Eternal Objects?’, in George L. Kline (ed.), Alfred North Whitehead: Essays on His Philosophy, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall Inc., pp. 102–116.
Hartshorne, Charles: 1972, Whitehead's Philosophy, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Hegel, G.W.F.: 1967, Philosophy of Right, Oxford/London/New York: Oxford University Press.
Kraus, Elizabeth M.: 1979, The Metaphysics of Experience, New York: Fordham University Press.
Lowith, Karl: 1967, From Hegel to Nietzsche, Indianapolis/Cambridge: Anchor Books, Doubleday and Company.
Okrent, Mark: 1978-1979, ‘Work, Play and Technology’, The Philosophical Forum X(2-4), 321–340.
Pence, Gregory E.: 1978-1979, ‘Towards a Theory of Work’, The Philosophical Forum X(2-4), 306–320.
Whitehead, Alfred N.: 1967, Process and Reality, New York: The MacMillan Company.
'Work'. Def.: 1990, Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield: Merriam-Webster Inc.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Parkan, B. A Process-Ontological Account of Work. Axiomathes 14, 219–235 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:AXIO.0000006794.96017.a7
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:AXIO.0000006794.96017.a7