Every reading of Process and Reality has to start by declaring the initial problem on the basis of which the book is to be interpreted. It has become clear to readers of Whitehead that different perspectives never stop reorganising the system, perspectives that determine relative and changing areas of importance, connecting problems with ever fluctuating forms. One of Process and Reality's particularities – connected to its style and philosophical form – is that it resists being ‘surveyed’ from above, it resists readings introduced as mere explanations. As such, ‘there are distinct lineages of readers of Whitehead in accordance with different approaches. Each reader inherits one particular movement out of all the movements that the original work tangles up.’ These tangles are the transformative power of the system to which one must become sensitive. An adequate reading cannot avoid taking a particular path. The only constraints are those shared by all systematic thought: coherence must be maintained.

One could say of the interpretations of Whitehead's work what Whitehead himself considers a requirement for all philosophical thought:

philosophy, in any proper sense of the term, cannot be proved. For proof is based upon abstraction. Philosophy is either self-evident, or it is not philosophy. The attempt of any philosophic discourse should be to produce self-evidence.

Proof matters little. What does matter, however, is the capacity to produce self-evidence. It is this capacity that prevents all relativism concerning the success and relevance of a reading.