Rethinking Cancer
Process Ontology, Creativity, and Cancer as a Chaotic Concrescence
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5195/pom.2026.279Keywords:
Process philosophy, Cancer ontologyAbstract
This article redefines cancer through Alfred North Whitehead’s process philosophy. Challenging models that frame cancer as a genetic error or stochastic mutation, I draw on Whitehead’s principle that “creativity is the ultimate causality.” Cancer thus emerges as a chaotic creative process: a concrescence wherein cells, dissociated from the organism’s integrated social order, construct a new relational nexus, guided by a deviant subjective aim. This framework explains therapy resistance, heterogeneity, and metastasis, and suggests therapeutic strategies should redirect pathological creativity, rather than target static entities.
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