Henri Bergson

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.