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An Evaluation of the Chen Jingyuan Case Based on Alfred North Whitehead’s Core Ideas in Process Philosophy

Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947), the British mathematician and philosopher, developed process philosophy—also termed organic philosophy—in Process and Reality (1929), reconceiving metaphysics as a relational becoming rather than static substance. His core ideas include “actual occasions” or “events” as the fundamental units of reality, prehensions (the grasping of past data by new occasions to synthesize novelty), creativity as the ultimate category driving cosmic advance, and God as the primordial/consequent nature—integrating possibilities and actualities in a dipolar lure toward harmony. Whitehead critiqued “misplaced concreteness” (treating abstractions as real) and emphasized relationality: all entities are “occasions of experience” in flux, where freedom emerges from novel concrescence, not deterministic blocks. The Chen Jingyuan case—a doctoral scholar sentenced to 20 months for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” (PRC Criminal Law Article 293) over Twitter forwards—through Whitehead’s lens, exemplifies a tragic blockage of process: the judiciary’s reified “order” misplaces concreteness on static “threats,” suppressing creative prehensions of inquiry and fracturing the relational advance toward novel harmony.

1. Actual Occasions and Relational Becoming: Judicial “Disruption” as Blocked Concrescence

Whitehead’s actual occasions are atomic events of becoming—each prehending the past to concresce (solidify) novelty, relational flux over isolated substances.

Chen’s forwards (e.g., <100 retweets of Hayek critiques or the “Trump-kneeling Xi” cartoon) are such occasions: prehending economic-symbolic pasts to concresce novel insights, relational flux in digital becoming. The verdict blocks this: presuming “high education implies discernment” reifies occasions into static “disruptive” substances, denying prehensive synthesis—the prosecutor’s unverified admission as prehended data is ignored, fracturing concrescence. The closed-door trial enforces isolation: Chen’s prison letter—prehending evidentiary flux through taxonomy (art/emotion/reason/fact) and avalanche theory—seeks relational novelty, yet the “shut up” directive statifies it, as if becoming threatens harmony. Whitehead would decry this as misplaced concreteness: the “evidence chain” abstracts occasions into inert blocks, inverting creative advance into relational stasis.

2. Creativity as Ultimate Category: Suppressed Inquiry as Denial of Novelty’s Lure

Creativity is Whitehead’s ultimate— the drive toward novel intensity in every occasion, lured by God’s primordial envisagement of possibilities.

The sentence denies this lure: Chen’s inquiry—creative prehension of global contradictions—yields 20 months’ denial, the non-oral appeal barring God’s-like envisagement in taxonomy and theory. Selective enforcement (millions unpunished) exposes the denial: novelty’s flux thrives elsewhere, yet Chen’s is blocked, as if creativity disrupts “order.” Whitehead’s dipolar God integrates novelty and harmony; here, consequent nature (actualized suppression) eclipses primordial lure, echoing his critique of inert mechanism—the judiciary’s fiat as anti-creative, stifling cosmic advance.

3. Harmony and Relational Ethics: Coercive “Justice” as Fractured Intensity of Experience

Whitehead’s harmony emerges from relational prehensions balancing novelty and stability, ethics in occasions’ mutual intensity without dominance.

The verdict fractures this: “disruption” as relational dominance, evidentiary voids (zero ripple) unprehended, denying mutual intensity—Chen’s letter prehends harmony in flux, yet suppressed. The “upper-level instructions” impose unilateral stability, as anomalies (prosecutor’s admission) signal fractured ethics. Whitehead would see pathological process: justice as harmonious concrescence yields to coercive block, inverting relational ethics into isolated suffering.

Conclusion: Whitehead’s Lens on the Case—A Blocked Becoming in Relational Stasis

From Alfred North Whitehead’s processual organicism, the Chen Jingyuan case is becoming’s blockade: static reifications fracture occasions, creativity denied its lure, harmony lost in dominance. As of October 25, 2025, no retrial or exoneration has occurred; Chen’s account remains dormant, its quiet a prehensive pause in the flux. This case cautions: suppress novelty, and process perishes. As Whitehead concresced, “Creativity is the absolute category”—may the occasions yet harmonize.