Process Philosophy in Under-explored traditions in philosophical history

There are two dominant streams for talking about reality in the history of metaphysical thought -  substance and process. These two streams are noticeable in virtually all traditions but the former seems to have gained more attention at the expense of the latter which offers a more robust and insightful framework for codifying reality. The metaphysical framework of substance has been elevated as absolute and universal in humanity’s comprehension of the self and the world. That metaphysical framework fails in providing a springboard on topics such as value and conscious nature of all ontological entities. As a result, topics such as the cellular basis of consciousness or biopsychism in plant neurobiology, panpsychism and its impact over the inter-relationship among all entities for environmental stability have not received penetrating and convincing analysis from the substance-based perspective. This is why an alternative framework in process metaphysics as broadly construed in all religious and philosophic traditions – African, Oriental, Anglo-American, and Continental become pertinent.

In its most commonly shared formulation, process philosophy, regardless of tradition, lays emphasis on vital force, flux, biopsychism, dynamism, relationality and interconnection among entities such that nothing stands in isolation (see Mesle 2008; Ivakhkiv 2018). Among process philosophers, there is a shared acknowledgement that reality is ‘becoming’ and an interconnected web such that no event stands in isolation. Process philosophers eschew the mainstream and dominant outlook in traditional metaphysics that changelessness implies perfection (see Rescher 1996; Mesle 2008). Extant scholarship offers a more robust explanation for topics like ecology (Ivakhiv 2018; Maffie 2015; McLeod 2023), consciousness (Griffin 2007; Raud 2021; Zu 2025), agency (Valmisa 2025), relationality (Chimakonam & Ogbonnaya 2021; Maffie 2015; McLeod 2023), mystical experiences (Dambrowski 2023), and Being (Ofuasia 2024). These are hot topics that signal the importance of such metaphysics for contemporary scholarship. In spite of this common ground, process scholars in the afore-mentioned philosophical traditions have never engaged one another critically.

This conference will therefore be the first to birth this long overdue intellectual exchange as it offers an improved metaphysical framework for value and consciousness in all ontological entities to address various concerns that are facing humanity: economy, political, and environmental. Although there are hesitant answers to some of these global challenges facing humanity, the influence of substance-based analysis has yet to offer penetrative answers, in addition to the almost lack of interaction among scholars of process to explore their common ground for a common voice in the way that substance thought has done over the centuries.Based on the foregoing established gap, anonymized abstracts, not more than 250 words are invited from scholars of all traditions who specialise in process philosophy over topics that are not limited to the following thematic coverage of the Conference:

Being discourses in two traditions – Substance and Process;

Becoming, relationality, and vital force in substance and process philosophies;

Consciousness and process philosophy;

Process-relational philosophy and Ethnophilosophy;

Process philosophy in conversation: African, Chinese, and Indian;

Process implications for environmental philosophy;

Alternative logics and eventism;

Time and processism in Africa and beyond;

Relational field metaphysics;

Relationality and a process alternative framework in African environmental philosophy;

Becoming and relationality in Aztec thought system;

Vitalism, biopsychism, panpsychism, and panexperientialism in processism;

Philosophic sagacity and processism in African, Indian, Chinese, & Anglo-American traditions;

Process philosophy, sentience and plant neurobiology;

Ezumezu logic and classical logic;

Doctrines of Being in process thought: African and Eastern;

African traditional religions and process theology;

The subjectivist principle and the reformed subjectivist principle;

Pessimism, meaningfulness, and becoming;

Processism in Medieval Islamic theology;

Afro-Brazilian religions and process philosophy;

Selfhood and process philosophy;

Relationality and change in ancient and contemporary philosophical systems;

Processism in Medieval Christian theology;

Process theology and Indian religious systems and practices;

Chinese philosophy and process thought;

Identity, (trans)gender and feminism in relational and vitalist contexts;

Buddhist and Hindu processisms;

Process philosophy and the question of alternative systems of logic;

Africana philosophy and processism;

Death and immortality in Afro-Indo process thoughts; and

Process theology and the nature of God in classical theology.

Instructions & Important Timelines

Open Call for Abstracts:                                                                  September 30, 2025.

Abstract Submissions Deadline:                                                       January 16, 2026.

Abstract Acceptance/Notification to Participants:                            February 13, 2025.

Submissions of Article Drafts (to be shared with respondents) ends:   April 15, 2026.

Online Conference Proper:                                                               May 19-21, 2026.  

Deadline for submission of Final papers for consideration in publication:   July 31, 2026.

Talks are ongoing with a renowned and reputable Journal for a Special Issue edition as post-conference publication.

All abstracts for the online conference MUST be submitted via this link: https://forms.gle/ppjSjRMGDP8CpRNn7

No registration fees but all participants and observers must register before they can get the links to the talks/panels. This will be communicated in due course. For further information, please relate with Dr. Chukwueloka Uduagwu via email:  [email protected] More information will be made available to participants.

References

Chimakonam, J. O. & Ogbonnaya, L.U. (2021). African metaphysics, epistemology and a new logic: A Decolonial approach to philosophy. Palgrave.

Dombrowski, D. (2023). Process Mysticism. SUNY Press.

Griffin, D.R. (2007). Whitehead’s Radically Different Postmodern Philosophy: An Argument for its Contemporary Relevance. SUNY Press.

Ivakhiv, A. (2018). Shadowing the Anthropocene: Eco-Realism for Turbulent Times. Punctum Books

Maffie, J. (2015). Aztec Philosophy: Understanding a World in Motion. University Press of Colorado.

McLeod, A. (2023). An Introduction to Mesoamerican Philosophy. Cambridge University Press.

Mesle, R. C. (2008). Process-Relational Philosophy: An Introduction to Alfred North Whitehead. Templeton Foundation Press.

Ofuasia, E. (2024). Ìwà: The process-relational dimension to African metaphysics. Springer Verlag

Raud, R. (2021). Being in Flux: A Post-Athropocentric Ontology of the Self. Polity.

Rescher, N. (1996). Process Metaphysics: An Introduction to Process Philosophy. SUNY Press.

Valmisa, M. (2025). All Things Act. Oxford University Press.

Whitehead, A.N. (1929 [1978]). Process and reality: An essay in cosmology. The Free Press.

Zu, J. (2025). Just Awakening: Yogācāra Social Philosophy in Modern China. Columbia University Press.