praj-17/QA-MCQ-Open-ended huggingface dataset:
Title: Alfred_North_Whitehead
Context: Whitehead and Russell had thought originally that Principia Mathematica would take a year to complete; it ended up taking them ten years. To add insult to injury, when it came time for publication, the three-volume work was so massive (more than 2,000 pages) and its audience so narrow (professional mathematicians) that it was initially published at a loss of 600 pounds, 300 of which was paid by Cambridge University Press, 200 by the Royal Society of London, and 50 apiece by Whitehead and Russell themselves. Despite the initial loss, today there is likely no major academic library in the world which does not hold a copy of Principia Mathematica.

question: How long did Whitehead and Russell expect to spend creating Principia Mathematica? 

answer: a year

question: How long did it actually take to complete Principia Mathematica?  

answer: ten years

question: Why was there a funding shortfall for the publishing of Princpia Mathematica?  

answer: the three-volume work was so massive (more than 2,000 pages) and its audience so narrow (professional mathematicians)

question: Who supplied the funding to cover the shortfall? 

answer: 00 of which was paid by Cambridge University Press, 200 by the Royal Society of London, and 50 apiece by Whitehead and Russell

question: How prevalent is Principia Mathematica today? 

answer: today there is likely no major academic library in the world which does not hold a copy of Principia Mathematica

question: How long did Whitehead and Russell think it would take them to complete Principia Mathematica? 

answer: a year

question: How long did it actually take Whitehead and Russell to complete Principia Mathematica? 

answer: ten years

question: How many volumes was Principia Mathematica? 

answer: three

question: How many pages was Principia Mathematica? 

answer: 2,000

question: Who paid to publish Principia Mathematica? 

answer: Cambridge University Press
Title: Alfred_North_Whitehead
Context: This is not to say that Whitehead's thought was widely accepted or even well-understood. His philosophical work is generally considered to be among the most difficult to understand in all of the western canon. Even professional philosophers struggled to follow Whitehead's writings. One famous story illustrating the level of difficulty of Whitehead's philosophy centers around the delivery of Whitehead's Gifford lectures in 1927–28 – following Arthur Eddington's lectures of the year previous – which Whitehead would later publish as Process and Reality:

question: What is the general opinion of the difficulty level of Whitehead's work in philosophy? 

answer: generally considered to be among the most difficult to understand in all of the western canon

question: What lectures did Whitehead present in 1927-28? 

answer: Gifford lectures

question: Under what name were those lectures later published? 

answer: Process and Reality

question: Who also struggled to follow Whitehead's writings? 

answer: professional philosophers

question: Following Arthur Eddington's lectures, what did Whitehead  publish? 

answer: Process and Reality

question: When did Whitehead delivery the Gifford lectures? 

answer: 1927–28

question: In all of the western canon, what is Whitehead's work considered? 

answer: the most difficult to understand
Title: Alfred_North_Whitehead
Context: However, Mathews' frustration with Whitehead's books did not negatively affect his interest. In fact, there were numerous philosophers and theologians at Chicago's Divinity School that perceived the importance of what Whitehead was doing without fully grasping all of the details and implications. In 1927 they invited one of America's only Whitehead experts – Henry Nelson Wieman – to Chicago to give a lecture explaining Whitehead's thought. Wieman's lecture was so brilliant that he was promptly hired to the faculty and taught there for twenty years, and for at least thirty years afterward Chicago's Divinity School was closely associated with Whitehead's thought.

question: What affect did Matthews' opinion of the difficulty of Whitehead's works have on his interest in them? 

answer: Mathews' frustration with Whitehead's books did not negatively affect his interest

question: How did many philosophers and theologians at Chicago's Divinity School view Whitehead's work? 

answer: perceived the importance of what Whitehead was doing without fully grasping all of the details and implications

question: What expert on Whitehead delivered a lecture at the school to explain Whitehead's ideas? 

answer: Henry Nelson Wieman

question: What was the result of that lecture? 

answer: Wieman's lecture was so brilliant that he was promptly hired to the faculty and taught there for twenty years

question: Who was frustrated in Whitehead's books but still interested? 

answer: Mathews

question: What school recognized the importance of Whitehead's work? 

answer: Chicago's Divinity School

question: When was Henry Nelson Wieman invited to the Chicago Divinity school? 

answer: 1927

question: Who was invited to the Chicago Divinity school as one of Whitehead's only experts? 

answer: Henry Nelson Wieman

question: What happened after Henry Nelson Wieman gave a lecture about Whitehead? 

answer: hired
Title: Alfred_North_Whitehead
Context: Wieman's words proved prophetic. Though Process and Reality has been called "arguably the most impressive single metaphysical text of the twentieth century," it has been little-read and little-understood, partly because it demands – as Isabelle Stengers puts it – "that its readers accept the adventure of the questions that will separate them from every consensus." Whitehead questioned western philosophy's most dearly held assumptions about how the universe works, but in doing so he managed to anticipate a number of 21st century scientific and philosophical problems and provide novel solutions.

question: How has "Process and Reality" been described?  

answer: "arguably the most impressive single metaphysical text of the twentieth century,"

question: What did Isabelle Stengers say is the reason that "Process and Reality" is not commonly read and understood? 

answer: it demands – as Isabelle Stengers puts it – "that its readers accept the adventure of the questions that will separate them from every consensus."

question: What effect did Whitehead have on the future of metaphysics? 

answer: he managed to anticipate a number of 21st century scientific and philosophical problems and provide novel solutions.

question: Which publication is considered the most impressive metaphysical text? 

answer: Process and Reality

question: Who thought Process and Reality was little-read because the reader has to separate them from normal thought? 

answer: Isabelle Stengers

question: What philosophy in the west was challenged by Whitehead? 

answer: how the universe works

question: What was Whitehead's philosophy able to anticipate for the 21st century? 

answer: scientific and philosophical problems

question: What was the outcome of anticipating the scientific and philosophical problems Whitehead proposed? 

answer: novel solutions
Title: Alfred_North_Whitehead
Context: It must be emphasized, however, that an entity is not merely a sum of its relations, but also a valuation of them and reaction to them. For Whitehead, creativity is the absolute principle of existence, and every entity (whether it is a human being, a tree, or an electron) has some degree of novelty in how it responds to other entities, and is not fully determined by causal or mechanistic laws. Of course, most entities do not have consciousness. As a human being's actions cannot always be predicted, the same can be said of where a tree's roots will grow, or how an electron will move, or whether it will rain tomorrow. Moreover, inability to predict an electron's movement (for instance) is not due to faulty understanding or inadequate technology; rather, the fundamental creativity/freedom of all entities means that there will always remain phenomena that are unpredictable.

question: What did Whitehead believe regarding creativity? 

answer: creativity is the absolute principle of existence

question: An entity is a sum of relations, a valuation of them and what else? 

answer: reaction to them.

question: Most entities do not have what? 

answer: consciousness

question: All entities, being unable to predict behavior, are because of what? 

answer: the fundamental creativity/freedom of all entities

question: Not being able to predict what any entity is going to do is what principle b Whitehead? 

answer: creativity is the absolute principle of existence

question: Other than the combination of its relations, what else defines an entity? 

answer: an entity is not merely a sum of its relations, but also a valuation of them and reaction to them

question: What did Whitehead believe about an entity's relation to other entities? 

answer: has some degree of novelty in how it responds to other entities, and is not fully determined by causal or mechanistic laws
Title: Alfred_North_Whitehead
Context: Since Whitehead's metaphysics described a universe in which all entities experience, he needed a new way of describing perception that was not limited to living, self-conscious beings. The term he coined was "prehension", which comes from the Latin prehensio, meaning "to seize." The term is meant to indicate a kind of perception that can be conscious or unconscious, applying to people as well as electrons. It is also intended to make clear Whitehead's rejection of the theory of representative perception, in which the mind only has private ideas about other entities. For Whitehead, the term "prehension" indicates that the perceiver actually incorporates aspects of the perceived thing into itself. In this way, entities are constituted by their perceptions and relations, rather than being independent of them. Further, Whitehead regards perception as occurring in two modes, causal efficacy (or "physical prehension") and presentational immediacy (or "conceptual prehension").

question: What is the origin of the word "prehension"? 

answer: comes from the Latin prehensio, meaning "to seize."

question: What is a basic description of the theory of representative perception? 

answer: the mind only has private ideas about other entities

question: What term did Whitehead describe that perception is not limited to the living? 

answer: prehension

question: What language does the term "prehensio" come from? 

answer: Latin

question: What does the word "Prehensio" translate into? 

answer: to seize

question: What entities does the term prehension apply to? 

answer: conscious or unconscious

question: How many modes does perception occur in according to Whitehead? 

answer: two

question: What is prehension used to define? 

answer: a kind of perception that can be conscious or unconscious, applying to people as well as electrons

question: What does the term "prehension" signify regarding an entities perceptions and relations? 

answer: entities are constituted by their perceptions and relations, rather than being independent of them

question: What did Whitehead state are the two types of perception? 

answer: causal efficacy (or "physical prehension") and presentational immediacy (or "conceptual prehension")
Title: Alfred_North_Whitehead
Context: Whitehead describes causal efficacy as "the experience dominating the primitive living organisms, which have a sense for the fate from which they have emerged, and the fate towards which they go." It is, in other words, the sense of causal relations between entities, a feeling of being influenced and affected by the surrounding environment, unmediated by the senses. Presentational immediacy, on the other hand, is what is usually referred to as "pure sense perception", unmediated by any causal or symbolic interpretation, even unconscious interpretation. In other words, it is pure appearance, which may or may not be delusive (e.g. mistaking an image in a mirror for "the real thing").

question: How do the senses affect causal efficacy? 

answer: unmediated by the senses

question: What can be said about the accuracy of presentational immediacy? 

answer: it is pure appearance, which may or may not be delusive

question: What is the term for the experience dominating primitive organisms that have a sense for fate? 

answer: causal efficacy

question: What is the other term for "pure sense perception"? 

answer: Presentational immediacy

question: What is it called if you mistake a reflection in a mirror for the real thing? 

answer: Presentational immediacy

question: How does Whitehead define causal efficacy? 

answer: "the experience dominating the primitive living organisms, which have a sense for the fate from which they have emerged, and the fate towards which they go."

question: How does Whitehead define presentational immediacy? 

answer: "pure sense perception", unmediated by any causal or symbolic interpretation, even unconscious interpretation
Title: Alfred_North_Whitehead
Context: In higher organisms (like people), these two modes of perception combine into what Whitehead terms "symbolic reference", which links appearance with causation in a process that is so automatic that both people and animals have difficulty refraining from it. By way of illustration, Whitehead uses the example of a person's encounter with a chair. An ordinary person looks up, sees a colored shape, and immediately infers that it is a chair. However, an artist, Whitehead supposes, "might not have jumped to the notion of a chair", but instead "might have stopped at the mere contemplation of a beautiful color and a beautiful shape." This is not the normal human reaction; most people place objects in categories by habit and instinct, without even thinking about it. Moreover, animals do the same thing. Using the same example, Whitehead points out that a dog "would have acted immediately on the hypothesis of a chair and would have jumped onto it by way of using it as such." In this way symbolic reference is a fusion of pure sense perceptions on the one hand and causal relations on the other, and that it is in fact the causal relationships that dominate the more basic mentality (as the dog illustrates), while it is the sense perceptions which indicate a higher grade mentality (as the artist illustrates).

question: Which concept does Whitehead state is more dominant in a lower mentality? 

answer: causal relationships

question: What is Whitehead's term for the two modes of perceptions combining? 

answer: symbolic reference

question: What dominates more basic mentality in symbolic reference? 

answer: causal relationships

question: What does symbolic reference link appearance with? 

answer: causation

question: What does having sense perceptions conclude about a person? 

answer: higher grade mentality

question: What is the purpose of symbolic reference? 

answer: links appearance with causation in a process that is so automatic that both people and animals have difficulty refraining from it

question: How does Whitehead describe the process of a typical person noticing a chair? 

answer: An ordinary person looks up, sees a colored shape, and immediately infers that it is a chair

question: How might an artist view a chair differently than a typical person? 

answer: "might have stopped at the mere contemplation of a beautiful color and a beautiful shape."

question: How does Whitehead say a dog may interpret the presence of a chair? 

answer: "would have acted immediately on the hypothesis of a chair and would have jumped onto it by way of using it as such."
Title: Alfred_North_Whitehead
Context: Whitehead makes the startling observation that "life is comparatively deficient in survival value." If humans can only exist for about a hundred years, and rocks for eight hundred million, then one is forced to ask why complex organisms ever evolved in the first place; as Whitehead humorously notes, "they certainly did not appear because they were better at that game than the rocks around them." He then observes that the mark of higher forms of life is that they are actively engaged in modifying their environment, an activity which he theorizes is directed toward the three-fold goal of living, living well, and living better. In other words, Whitehead sees life as directed toward the purpose of increasing its own satisfaction. Without such a goal, he sees the rise of life as totally unintelligible.

question: What observation did Whitehead make about life? 

answer: "life is comparatively deficient in survival value."

question: What did Whitehead state was the biggest indicator of a higher form of life? 

answer: they are actively engaged in modifying their environment

question: What did Whitehead believe are the goals f life? 

answer: living, living well, and living better

question: What did Whitehead believe was the fundamental purpose of life? 

answer: increasing its own satisfaction

question: Whitehead observes that life is deficient in what? 

answer: survival value

question: What are higher life forms actively engaged in? 

answer: modifying their environment

question: How many goals of living is there? 

answer: three

question: Whitehead sees life as directed towards what purpose? 

answer: increasing its own satisfaction

question: Without Whitehead's proposed purpose, life would be what? 

answer: unintelligible

question: What was Whitehead's response to questions about why complex life evolved? 

answer: "they certainly did not appear because they were better at that game than the rocks around them."
Title: Alfred_North_Whitehead
Context: Whitehead's idea of God differs from traditional monotheistic notions. Perhaps his most famous and pointed criticism of the Christian conception of God is that "the Church gave unto God the attributes which belonged exclusively to Caesar." Here Whitehead is criticizing Christianity for defining God as primarily a divine king who imposes his will on the world, and whose most important attribute is power. As opposed to the most widely accepted forms of Christianity, Whitehead emphasized an idea of God that he called "the brief Galilean vision of humility":

question: What was Whitehead's description of God? 

answer: "the brief Galilean vision of humility"

question: What is Whitehead's most well-known critical statement regarding the Christian notion of God? 

answer: "the Church gave unto God the attributes which belonged exclusively to Caesar."

question: What qualities dis Whitehead state that Christians attributed to their version of God? 

answer: primarily a divine king who imposes his will on the world, and whose most important attribute is power
Title: Alfred_North_Whitehead
Context: It should be emphasized, however, that for Whitehead God is not necessarily tied to religion. Rather than springing primarily from religious faith, Whitehead saw God as necessary for his metaphysical system. His system required that an order exist among possibilities, an order that allowed for novelty in the world and provided an aim to all entities. Whitehead posited that these ordered potentials exist in what he called the primordial nature of God. However, Whitehead was also interested in religious experience. This led him to reflect more intensively on what he saw as the second nature of God, the consequent nature. Whitehead's conception of God as a "dipolar" entity has called for fresh theological thinking.

question: What was Whitehead's belief about God in relation to religion? 

answer: God is not necessarily tied to religion

question: In what did Whitehead believe that those concepts existed? 

answer: primordial nature of God

question: What did Whitehead view as the second nature of God? 

answer: the consequent nature

question: What type of God did Whitehead believe existed? 

answer: dipolar

question: Why did Whitehead view the existence of God as a necessity for his metaphysical system? 

answer: His system required that an order exist among possibilities, an order that allowed for novelty in the world and provided an aim to all entities.
Title: Alfred_North_Whitehead
Context: God's consequent nature, on the other hand, is anything but unchanging – it is God's reception of the world's activity. As Whitehead puts it, "[God] saves the world as it passes into the immediacy of his own life. It is the judgment of a tenderness which loses nothing that can be saved." In other words, God saves and cherishes all experiences forever, and those experiences go on to change the way God interacts with the world. In this way, God is really changed by what happens in the world and the wider universe, lending the actions of finite creatures an eternal significance.

question: How does Whitehead define he consequent nature of God? 

answer: God's reception of the world's activity

question: What does Whitehead say that God does with all experiences? 

answer: God saves and cherishes all experiences forever

question: How does Whitehead describe the judgment of God? 

answer: It is the judgment of a tenderness which loses nothing that can be saved.

question: What effect does Whitehead claim that experiences have on God? 

answer: those experiences go on to change the way God interacts with the world

question: What conclusion does Whitehead draw about God's treatment of humans' experiences? 

answer: God is really changed by what happens in the world and the wider universe, lending the actions of finite creatures an eternal significance.
Title: Alfred_North_Whitehead
Context: Whitehead thus sees God and the world as fulfilling one another. He sees entities in the world as fluent and changing things that yearn for a permanence which only God can provide by taking them into God's self, thereafter changing God and affecting the rest of the universe throughout time. On the other hand, he sees God as permanent but as deficient in actuality and change: alone, God is merely eternally unrealized possibilities, and requires the world to actualize them. God gives creatures permanence, while the creatures give God actuality and change. Here it is worthwhile to quote Whitehead at length:

question: In what way did Whitehead view God as deficient? 

answer: deficient in actuality and change

question: What did Whitehead claim God would be without the world? 

answer: merely eternally unrealized possibilities

question: How does Whitehead view the relationship between God an the world? 

answer: Whitehead thus sees God and the world as fulfilling one another

question: How does he define entities' need for God? 

answer: He sees entities in the world as fluent and changing things that yearn for a permanence which only God can provide

question: How dis Whitehead believe God provided permanence to entities? 

answer: by taking them into God's self, thereafter changing God and affecting the rest of the universe throughout time
Title: Alfred_North_Whitehead
Context: For Whitehead the core of religion was individual. While he acknowledged that individuals cannot ever be fully separated from their society, he argued that life is an internal fact for its own sake before it is an external fact relating to others. His most famous remark on religion is that "religion is what the individual does with his own solitariness ... and if you are never solitary, you are never religious." Whitehead saw religion as a system of general truths that transformed a person's character. He took special care to note that while religion is often a good influence, it is not necessarily good – an idea which he called a "dangerous delusion" (e.g., a religion might encourage the violent extermination of a rival religion's adherents).

question: What did Whitehead believe was the basis of religion? 

answer: individual

question: What is Whitehead's most famous statement on religion? 

answer: "religion is what the individual does with his own solitariness ... and if you are never solitary, you are never religious."

question: How did Whitehead define religion? 

answer: a system of general truths that transformed a person's character

question: How did Whitehead define "dangerous delusion" as it relates to religion? 

answer: while religion is often a good influence, it is not necessarily good