Henri Bergson Essay, Research Paper

Henri Bergson was a modern philosopher who merged empiricism with a bit of

rationalism to become part of a new empiricism that held room for intuition and

movement with a flux through time. He essentially refused science?s claim to

explain the universe in mechanical conditions; instead he considered life an

unending creation, a matter of change and time unlike something static. In Henri

Bergson?s (originally?) dualistic realm there existed the distinctive modes of

consciousness or knowing: analysis and intuition. Intuition consists of an

internal grasping of an object, consequently capturing its very essence or

heart. Analysis is basically an external or relative way to understand

something, because of this it can be considered relatively superficial. One of

Bergson?s working illustrations of these variances is that of time. Within his

works, Bergson addresses the issues of knowing through the discussion of

mathematical versus real time. Through these explorations Bergson provides

tenable grounds for belief in the intuitive knowing of the self, and proffers

substantial justification for that of other selves. First, the characteristics

to both modes of knowing are important. Analysis or intellect reduces objects to

elements that are already comprehended. Thus, analysis is expression through a

function of something other than itself. This means externally moving around an

object in order to perceive it. Other characteristics of analysis include

transition or the development of symbols and concepts. Intellect gives an

incomplete representation because of its relativity or stretch into infinity. As

a method of positive science it employs mathematical time which ?freezes? an

object or renders it immobile. Secondly, In Bergson?s own words intuition is

described as a: ?…kind of intellectual sympathy by which we place ourselves

internal to an object in order to coincide with what is unique to it and

consequently inexpressible.? (Bergson, 7). Due to the direct connection to an

object intuition is a simple act, an absolute. This entrance into an object or

internalization then has the unrivaled ability to grasp the uniqueness of an

object. Because intuition does not spatialize objects it possesses the capacity

to exploit multiple images. Instead of using mathematical time intuition exists

in real time grasping the duration of an object, or the reality of constant flux

and mobility. Next, Bergson maintains that because people are enduring beings

with unpreventable cumulative direction, that there can?t be any two exact

moments within one being. Furthermore, 1 even if two people uninhibitedly share

a precise moment, because of their indisputably different past, the moment would

not result in the same experience between the two. …there are no two identical

moments in the life of the same conscious being. Take the simplest sensation,

suppose it constant, absorb in it the entire personality: the consciousness

which will accompany this sensation cannot remain identical with itself for two

consecutive moments, because the second moment always contains, over and above

the first, the memory that has bequeathed it (Bergson, 26). Finally, human

experience does not perceive life as a simply uniform progression along a line

extended in space but rather a continuous flow. Through his explanation of

mathematical and real time Bergson made the separation between time as it is

experienced and the mechanical clock time of scientific (empirical) thought.

When a physicist views and observes objects in sequence or succession, time is

presented to consciousness as duration or an endlessly flowing process. Instead

of separate operations of instinct and intellect Bergson contended the ?real

time? is experienced as duration and apprehended by intuition. Mathematical

time moves from moment to moment, but through the scientific process of analysis

it is reversible or suspendible. In this manner, one can stop, reverse or take

an object completely out of duration. However because experience is cumulative

the living self is enduring. The issue of duration logically leads into self

knowledge. The linear time of life conveys the past into the present, in effect

giving it consciousness. It is the power of the memory that actually makes you a

lasting self and forms consciousness. Bergson uses the power of intuition to

uncover the conscious self: …when I replace myself in duration by an effort of

intuition, I immediately perceive how it is unity, multiplicity, and many other

things besides…we do penetrate into it, however, and that can only be by an

effort of intuition. In this sense, an inner, absolute knowledge of duration of

the self by the self is possible (Bergson, 31). Thus, according to Bergson

intuitive knowing of other people would seem to be impossible, while intuitive

knowing of the self is ostensible.