Grasp and Prehension

While 'grasp' is frequently used in casual conversation to indicate an act of intelligence, perhaps the closest to a rigorous employment of it is Whitehead's 'prehension'.  However, his usage of the term strays from its literal meaning.  For, first, in his system, a 'prehension' is the analogue of a perception in Leibniz' system, the perspectival character of which, as has been previously discussed, can be transcended by an act of grasping.  Second, his misuse of the term is evident in his classification of a 'feeling' as a 'prehension', i. e. to grasp something is more than to merely have contact with it, just as a feeler is not a claw.  In other words, he shares with Leibniz the shortcoming of excluding from his system physiological actions, one of which is Prehension = Grasp.  And, because also thereby excluded is specifically tool-grasping, the terminological imprecision can be interpreted by a Marxist as an expression of Class-prejudice.