The Center for Process Studies in Claremont, California held a conference on Physics and Time in August 1984 with David Bohm, Ilya Prigogine, Henry Stapp, and other leading scientists and philosophers. During that conference, a spontaneous conjunction of energies emerged from a conversation between two participants who also appear in these pages (Stapp and Keeton). Stapp presented a paper on Einstein and Alfred North Whitehead, after which Keeton asked Stapp if they might collaborate on reinterpreting Whitehead’s gravitational theory of 1922. Stapp suggested they write a paper together and discuss the project over lunch that day. As they left the auditorium, other conference participants joined the conversation, swelling the original pair to more than 25. It was a loud and energetic session, and two more of those joining the effort that day also appear in this volume (Eastman and Tanaka). Our enthusiasm for the project of reinterpretation grew into a broad collaboration lasting nearly 10 years, including research, annual gatherings, and publications. The present volume is an extension of that collaboration. In the decades preceding 1984, efforts to explore and enhance process concepts within modern scientific research had gradually accelerated (see Bibliography, especially Internet resources).

Leading scholars explore the connections between quantum physics and process philosophy.