Thursday, December 28, 2017

Impulse and Novelty

Whitehead's observation that "imaginative zest is tinged with impulse" is perhaps an illusion to Dewey's concept of Impulse as the origin of Novelty.  But, regardless, there is a significant difference between the two concepts of Impulse.  Now, according to Dewey, Impulse initiates Action, whereas, in Whitehead's system, Impulse initiates a Teleological Mental event.  In other words, for Dewey, Novelty consists in changing the world, while for Whitehead, Novelty consists in re-interpreting the world.  Whitehead thus seems committed to the position that one can read a new book, but one cannot write a new book, or improvise musically.

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