The concept of Comprehension, as previously introduced, entails a criticism of Whitehead's theory of 'prehension'. By characterizing the fundamental contact between an organism and its environment as 'prehensive', Whitehead invokes the image of 'grasping'. However, that image undermines his characterization of that contact as always being initiated by an external impulse, to which a prehension is fundamentally a response. For, that characterization abstracts from the process of reaching towards an object that the grasping of it presupposes, a discrescent process, as has been previously discussed, whereas Whitehead's system does not recognize Discrescence. In contrast, according to the model of Experience being developed here, Will is the process of self-extending. Hence, its formulation 'Will is the immediate matter of Comprehension' more accurately connotes 'prehension' than does Whitehead's theory.
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