"Needham compares early Chinese thought to what he calls the Whiteheadian preference for reticular relationship, or "process," whereas Western thought has been deeply influenced by the Newtonian preference for "particulate, catenary" causal explanation; that is, Whitehead describes the cosmic process as a netlike interweaving of events, while Newton conceives of it as a series of discrete events linked in a causal chain. The cosmic process, the Chinese felt, in a many sided fashion affects one's life within it, because each person is an active element in that process."
--Intellectual Foundations of China by Frederick W. Mote