Change

Abstract

The fundamental principles of philosophical systems and movements are sometimes expressed with an engaging directness. While future historians may not turn to Dewey for the crisp statement which catches the thought of an age, they might well do so if they wish to sum the metaphysical outlook which has dominated much of Western thought since the late nineteenth century. The acknowledgement that change is the primary trait of reality has been a point of agreement for thinkers as diverse as Bergson and Dewey, Marx and Peirce, Whitehead and James. Dewey catches the essence of this orientation and lays the foundation of his own world view in one brief proposition: “Every existence is an event.”² With this statement, we have the central affirmation which distinguishes philosophies of becoming from philosophies of being.

... being can very well be explicated as an aspect of becoming...¹