p As we have already pointed out in the Introduction, neotealism acts as the transitional stage between the three main tendencies (neo-positivist, irrationalist, and religious-dogmatic) in modern bourgeois philosophy. One of its leading proponents is the English neo-realist philosopher, Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947), whose philosophical system, in his own words, can be seen as the transference of certain primary ideas of absolute idealism onto a realistic foundation (27, 112, 303; 28, 25).

p His epistemology is characterized by a realism which consists in the recognition of nature existing separately from cognition. Nature itself is revealed as something derived from eternal objects, akin to the Platonic ideas. Thus, in his ontology (or “metaphysics”) Whitehead is an objective idealist, as is noted both by Marxist scholars (Alexei Bogomolov, H. Frankel, Harry K. Wells) and by most bourgeois commentators. The idea of God plays an important role in the philosophy of the English neo-realist, which, as the Soviet philosopher Bogomolov has correctly pointed out, is “irrefutable testimonium paupertatis" of his philosophical system, which strives to provide a scientific resolution of the problem.

In Whitehead’s philosophy an important role is played by problems of language and symbolism. In the opinion of Victor Lowe, Wilbur M. Urban, Arthur H. Johnson and other commentators his theory of symbolism constitutes the kernel of his philosophy. The problems of symbolism are examined mainly in his special study Symbolism. Its Meaning and 98 Effect (1927), as well as in his magnum opus Process and Reality (1929). Like Peirce Whitehead did not concentrate on aesthetics and the theory of art. Nevertheless, in his writings he touches on these problems, mainly in connection with the theory of symbolism and problems of axiology.