Impulsion and Consciousness

By describing Impulsion as 'plastic', Dewey means that it is in itself formless, but shapeable. His own main purpose is to demonstrate how it can be shaped into habitual behavior, but it is formless in every specific instance, as well. In other words, every actuation of Impulsion requires coordination with some independent formative agency, without which only corporeal spasms or convulsions result. Thus, the Formaterial concept of Action entails, in addition to Impulsion, a fundamental manifestation of its Material Principle, an independent Formal Principle that organizes and guides motion. Now, in the System, the most fundamental manifestation of the Formal Principle in personal Experience is Consciousness, which healthily functions co-spontaneously with Impulsion. So, according to the Formaterial analysis of Action, Sartre's theory of Freedom compresses two distinct processes into what he calls 'Consciousness', while abstracting from the physical dimension of Impulsion.