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Foundations in Flux: Process Metaphysics and Its Scientific Applications
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Foundations in Flux: Process Metaphysics and Its Scientific Applications

A special issue of Philosophies (ISSN 2409-9287).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026 | Viewed by 4229

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Maximilian Zachrau

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Philosophisches Seminar, University of Siegen, 57068 Siegen, Germany
Interests: process philosophy; metaphysics of time; metametaphysics
Prof. Dr. Cord Friebe

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Philosophisches Seminar, University of Siegen, 57068 Siegen, Germany
Interests: analytic metaphysics of time; philosophy of physics; Kant’s theoretical philosophy

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Process metaphysics is a philosophical tradition that has gained renewed significance in light of contemporary scientific developments. In opposition to static, substance-based conceptions of reality, process philosophy proposes understanding the world as fundamentally dynamic, emphasizing the processual nature of time, change, and causation. This perspective has become increasingly relevant as modern sciences have shifted toward dynamic, relational, and thereby processual foundations. The understanding of fields (Seibt, 2002), living systems (Koutroufinis, 2017), emergence (Campbell, 2015), and action (Stout, 2018) increasingly suggests the need to move beyond the limitations of traditional static categories and mechanistic explanations.

The apparent convergence between process philosophy and contemporary scientific frameworks is not coincidental. From its modern inception, process philosophy has aimed to provide both a foundation for scientific developments and to integrate these developments with everyday experience. As Seibt (2022) notes, “Process philosophy centers on ontology and metaphysics, but it has full systematic scope.” This systematic scope aligns with Philosophies' commitment to exploring fundamental questions across disciplinary boundaries.

From today's perspective, we aim to explore how process-oriented thinking can illuminate our understanding of scientific phenomena while simultaneously examining how scientific developments might inform process metaphysics. This Special Issue, entitled “Foundations in Flux: Process Metaphysics and Its Scientific Applications”, emerges from a workshop to be held in 2025 in Turin. It aims to assemble recent research concerning the metaphysical implications of process-based approaches to scientific understanding.

We welcome original contributions that examine how process frameworks can illuminate key scientific concepts and, conversely, how scientific discoveries might inform process metaphysics. Suggested themes (though articles beyond these are also welcome) include:

  • The reinterpretation of fundamental physical entities in terms of processes;
  • The understanding of central biological systems and organisms in light of process philosophy;
  • The dynamic nature of time and its relationship to process metaphysics;
  • Processual approaches to biological individuality;
  • The nature of dynamicity;
  • Theoretical foundations of process metaphysics and their relevance to scientific inquiry;
  • Critical examinations of substance-based versus process-based ontologies;
  • Process approaches to causation and scientific explanation;
  • The relationship between process metaphysics and scientific realism;
  • Process-based approaches to emergence and complexity.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Maximilian Zachrau
Prof. Dr. Cord Friebe
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Philosophies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • process philosophy
  • dynamicity
  • scientific metaphysics
  • biological organization
  • fundamentality
  • philosophy of time

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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22 pages, 2073 KB  
Article
Ongoing Processes in the Growing Block Universe
by Anna-Lisa Nußbaum
Philosophies 2026, 11(3), 82; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies11030082 (registering DOI) - 22 May 2026
Abstract
Ongoing processes appear to be both open-ended and, in an important sense, complete. In the context of the Growing Block Theory of time, this combination generates a tension: if a process is genuinely ongoing, it seems incomplete; yet if it is complete, it [...] Read more.
Ongoing processes appear to be both open-ended and, in an important sense, complete. In the context of the Growing Block Theory of time, this combination generates a tension: if a process is genuinely ongoing, it seems incomplete; yet if it is complete, it appears closed and no longer directed at a non-existent future. This paper argues that this tension is only apparent. Building on Stout’s conception of occurrent continuants and on the distinction between temporal existence and temporal location central to Growing Block accounts, I examine two hybrid views according to which a process, considered as ongoing, and processes, considered as having gone on, fall under different categories of persistence. I argue that both versions of the hybrid view ultimately fail to account for the relation between dynamic existence and temporal location in a growing universe. As an alternative, I propose understanding ongoing processes as temporally expanding wholes with open boundaries. In this view, an ongoing process is always complete, though not completed, because its boundary at the edge of becoming is dynamically open rather than a genuine temporal part. This account preserves the motivations behind hybrid views while avoiding their ontological costs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Foundations in Flux: Process Metaphysics and Its Scientific Applications)
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17 pages, 275 KB  
Article
Change Before Time: Empirical Equivalence, Mechanics, and Structures for Dynamic Metaphysics
by Mackenzie Hawkins
Philosophies 2026, 11(2), 61; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies11020061 - 15 Apr 2026
Viewed by 537
Abstract
This paper argues that, within established mechanics, a change-first structure of mechanics—one that does not treat background time as fundamental—is as empirically licensed as the familiar time-first structure. Carlo Rovelli’s generally covariant framework and Wonchull Park’s initial conditions framework each provide an independent [...] Read more.
This paper argues that, within established mechanics, a change-first structure of mechanics—one that does not treat background time as fundamental—is as empirically licensed as the familiar time-first structure. Carlo Rovelli’s generally covariant framework and Wonchull Park’s initial conditions framework each provide an independent demonstration of this possibility across classical, relativistic, and quantum mechanics. Park’s Reality View Equivalence is employed as an epistemological constraint on claims of compatibility at the physics–metaphysics interface. The resulting picture of change before time yields structural resources that offer, without mandating, ways of supporting metaphysical projects that emphasize the dynamic nature of reality. Two worked examples are used to illustrate this application: first, by placing local becoming within the change-first state package, and, second, by treating entities that participate in change-first states as necessarily dynamic and thus, arguably, processual. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Foundations in Flux: Process Metaphysics and Its Scientific Applications)
33 pages, 429 KB  
Article
Cells and Their Organelles as a Testing Ground for Process- and Substance-Based Ontologies in Biology
by Giorgio Dieci
Philosophies 2026, 11(2), 47; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies11020047 - 24 Mar 2026
Viewed by 936
Abstract
Recently, a shift from substance-based to process-based ontologies of living beings and biological entities has been widely advocated, largely on the grounds that traditional substance thinking, by encouraging biological reductionism, fails to adequately capture the nature of biological wholes. Process-based approaches are instead [...] Read more.
Recently, a shift from substance-based to process-based ontologies of living beings and biological entities has been widely advocated, largely on the grounds that traditional substance thinking, by encouraging biological reductionism, fails to adequately capture the nature of biological wholes. Process-based approaches are instead taken to provide a more appropriate metaphysical framework for the constitutive dynamicity of living systems. These arguments, however, have been criticized for relying on overly reductive characterizations of substances, which both classical and contemporary accounts describe as inherently involving change and activity. In this essay, I address the substance-versus-process debate from the perspective of contemporary cell biology. I argue that conceiving the cell as a substance is not only compatible with the centrality of processes, but that the cell continues to function as the fundamental reference point in biology precisely because it entails processuality as intrinsic to its dynamic mode of being. Within this framework, subcellular entities are identified by their functional subservience to the cellular whole. On this basis, I propose an empirically grounded criterion for distinguishing between purely processual and substance-like subcellular entities. Processual entities, such as the Golgi complex and the nucleolus, lack dedicated repair systems and tend to disassemble upon inhibition of specific metabolic activities. By contrast, substance-like entities, including cell-derived organelles such as the mitochondrion and the nucleus, depend for their persistence on specific repair systems, and their eventual dismantling under non-permissive conditions cannot be straightforwardly understood as the mere interruption of a process, but instead appears as the outcome of an active, regulated response. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Foundations in Flux: Process Metaphysics and Its Scientific Applications)
21 pages, 2277 KB  
Article
Living Metaphysics: Process Thought, Buddhist Philosophy, and the Impact of Ontology
by Tina Röck
Philosophies 2026, 11(2), 38; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies11020038 - 13 Mar 2026
Viewed by 779
Abstract
In this contribution, I explore the idea that reality is best understood as fundamentally dynamic and interdependent, i.e., processual, bringing together resources from process thought, phenomenology and the Madhyamaka school of Buddhism. I furthermore explore how this view shapes the ways we speak [...] Read more.
In this contribution, I explore the idea that reality is best understood as fundamentally dynamic and interdependent, i.e., processual, bringing together resources from process thought, phenomenology and the Madhyamaka school of Buddhism. I furthermore explore how this view shapes the ways we speak about, investigate, and understand the natural world. What is novel in my approach is that I bring a phenomenological reading of process in dialogue with Buddhist thought. My paper unfolds in two stages: first, I map key points of convergence between phenomenologically clarified process philosophy and Madhyamaka; second, I consider the broader epistemological and practical consequences of viewing reality as impermanent and dependently arising by looking at Whitehead’s and Nāgārjuna’s views in dialogue. Engaging with Buddhist philosophy alongside phenomenological process thought enables a deeper investigation into the ethical, and lived dimensions of metaphysical inquiry, which are dimensions often sidelined both in Western metaphysics and in some versions of phenomenology, because metaphysical and phenomenological analysis can remain stuck on the conceptual level, detached from both lived experience and practice. By contrast, Buddhist traditions explicitly link philosophical reflection with lived experience and embodied practice throughout. For this reason, sustained dialogue with Buddhist views and practices can expand Western methodology as such and can enrich process-based phenomenological approaches in particular by showing ways to reconnect speculative metaphysics, observation, and the concrete in practical ways. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Foundations in Flux: Process Metaphysics and Its Scientific Applications)
25 pages, 378 KB  
Article
Towards a Theory of Dynamicity: Foundations for a Non-Vacuous Process Metaphysics
by Maximilian Zachrau
Philosophies 2026, 11(2), 32; https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies11020032 - 6 Mar 2026
Viewed by 563
Abstract
Process metaphysics seeks to provide a novel foundation for metaphysical explanations of entities in both scientific inquiry and everyday experience. It aims to better explain ongoing phenomena—moving, raining, and the like—by analysing them as fundamental processes (FP), that is, dynamic entities not further [...] Read more.
Process metaphysics seeks to provide a novel foundation for metaphysical explanations of entities in both scientific inquiry and everyday experience. It aims to better explain ongoing phenomena—moving, raining, and the like—by analysing them as fundamental processes (FP), that is, dynamic entities not further reducible. Crucially, I argue, this analysis and the ultimate value of process metaphysical explanation hinge on an understanding of what dynamicity is; without one, the central thesis concerning fundamental processes remains vacuous. The paper examines metametaphysically what an account of dynamicity should provide, defending three desiderata: (1) difference-making: it must draw an informative, not merely stipulative, distinction between dynamic and static entities; (2) explanatory power: it must provide the conceptual resources to yield explanatory claims about dynamic entities and apply broadly. On the basis of these desiderata, I argue that prominent accounts of dynamicity, that is the mereological and modal account, prove unsatisfactory or miss their mark. The paper concludes by developing and defending an account of dynamicity as temporal forward-directedness, thereby linking process metaphysics to realist theories of time. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Foundations in Flux: Process Metaphysics and Its Scientific Applications)
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