Concrescence is simply the process of becoming “concrete.” Concrete means fully actual, and that means a completed actual occasion. The use of the term “concrescence” places emphasis on the idea that even these momentary flashes of actuality that Whitehead calls actual occasions are processes. There is the actual occasion in the process of becoming, and then there is the completed occasion. Whitehead calls the completion “satisfaction.” This term emphasizes that this process of becoming is characterized by subjectivity. There is a subjective aim, a subjective form, a decision, and a satisfaction. But as soon as the occasion attains satisfaction it becomes an objective datum for successor occasions.
Ordinarily, to think of a process is to think of earlier and later segments of the process. Whitehead uses that language at times. But he warns us against interpreting this language or the concrescence itself in a temporal way. In an important sense, it all happens at once. Viewed externally, the occasion is either there as datum to be prehended or it is not. It is never partially there. Furthermore, everything that happens in the process of concrescence presupposes the unity that is its outcome. If we think in temporal terms, this does not make sense. One might say, nevertheless, that the process is “temporal” but not in the sense of clock time that functions in physics or in ordinary language. It would be a unique sort of temporality, which Whitehead calls microscopic subjective aim, a subjective form, a decision, and a satisfaction. But as soon as the occasion attains satisfaction it becomes an objective datum for successor occasions. Ordinarily, to think of a process is to think of earlier and later segments of the process. Whitehead uses that language at times. But he warns us against interpreting this language or the concrescence itself in a temporal way. In an important sense, it all happens at once. Viewed externally, the occasion is either there as datum to be prehended or it is not. It is never partially there. Furthermore, everything that happens in the process of concrescence presupposes the unity that is its outcome. If we think in temporal terms, this does not make sense. One might say, nevertheless, that the process is “temporal” but not in the sense of clock time that functions in physics or in ordinary language. It would be a unique sort of temporality, which Whitehead calls microscopic and responds to it. This can happen in a “split second.” She sees a car coming at her, she sees the location and movement of other cars, and she sees that there is just one way of braking and swerving that will avoid a collision. The situation and the reasoning that supports the decision are very complex. To explain why she acted as she did might take some time. But in fact the decision is almost instantaneous. The complex calculations involved include several stages. Some parts presuppose other parts. But they occur all at once. The point is that a complex process, analyzable into stages, can take place in a moment.
The process of concrescence is the self-creation of the occasion. It is the subject or recipient of the causal efficacy of the past and it is the subject that integrates and transforms what it receives. It takes what is given to it objectively and constitutes itself as a new subject. In the moment of its concrescence, the occasion enjoys its own experience. That does not mean that it prehends that experience. Whitehead uses the term “enjoy” to emphasize that this is not a datum for something else, but the reality of the occasion itself, in itself, and for itself. The term suggests that to be in this way is something positive. It does not exclude pain or suffering. The point is that in the concrescence there is “subjective immediacy.” We all know what subjective immediacy is. It is the way our experience feels to us at all times. But when we think of it, we almost necessarily have conscious subjective immediacy in mind. To understand Whitehead, we must grasp that there is also nonconscious subjective immediacy; indeed, that the vast majority of subjective immediacy is not conscious. We can begin by recognizing that much of the time we are not conscious of our own emotions. Others may see that we are embarrassed or angry, and we may deny it. Sometimes, of course, the denial may be a lie, but at other times it expresses ignorance. Psychologists may train us to pay attention to our emotions. The point is simply that the emotions are there in subjective immediacy whether we are aware of them or not.
Cobb Jr, John B. Whitehead Word Book: A Glossary with Alphabetical Index to Technical Terms in Process and Reality (Toward Ecological Civilization Book 8) . Process Century Press. Kindle Edition.
