ABSTRACT
Even though Motherwell never took courses with Whitehead since this philosopher had retired the spring before Motherwell enrolled as a graduate student in Harvard’s illustrious Department of Philosophy in the fall of 1937, there were several ways for him to come in contact with Whitehead and his theories. This chapter explores actual contacts between Motherwell and Whitehead, including Whitehead’s lectures at Wellesley, many of which Motherwell attended; this Harvard don’s open-invitation Sunday-night salons for as many as 60 people, including Harvard students and their friends where Motherwell had frequent opportunities to engage Whitehead in conversation; and this philosopher’s continuing legacy among the Harvard graduate students who had studied with him and also among his former colleagues who had enjoyed ongoing exchanges with him. Motherwell’s advisor and friend D.W. Prall, a young professor in the department, was himself indebted to a number of Whitehead’s ideas. In addition to Prall, Motherwell enrolled in a yearlong course in romanticism with visiting professor Arthur O. Lovejoy, author of The Great Chain of Being and was encouraged to move to France during the academic year of 1938–1939 in order to research and write a thesis on Eugène Delacroix. One of this chapter’s goals is to indicate why Whitehead’s theories rather than those of such philosophers as Prall, Lovejoy, and John Dewey, who was then much better known than Whitehead, became crucially important for Motherwell’s work and thought.
