Whitehead and Business Education: A Second Look

Abstract

Alfred North Whitehead was a philosopher with an abiding interest in education. He took on an extraordinary number of educational and administrative duties while at the University of London, including membership on a National Committee on the position of the classics in the educational system of the United Kingdom. It comes as no surprise to learn that when he decided to joint the Philosophy Department at Harvard in 1924, he wrote that this would enable him to further deal with some general questions, "half philosophical and half practical."

What is more surprising is the fact that his views on American university education are most clearly expounded in his personal interactions and writings dealing with the Harvard School of Business. By examining several of his essays on business education, as well as his correspondence with Dean Donham of the Harvard Business School, I argue that Whitehead's strong support of business education can seen to be all of a piece with his overall process philosophy of education and that his emphasis on the need to study what he calls the sociological dimension of business is a timely one in these days of proliferating business programs.