Bergson and Time

What It Covers

Henri Bergson's revolutionary philosophy distinguishes clock time from psychological duration, arguing that human experience involves continuous flow where past and present interpenetrate, challenging the dominant scientific positivism of late nineteenth-century France.

Key Questions Answered

• •Duration vs. Clock Time: Bergson separates temps (measured time) from durée (lived duration). Clock time uses spatial units like hours derived from Earth's rotation, measuring elapsed time but missing the qualitative flow of consciousness where moments interpenetrate rather than exist as discrete units.
• •Memory and Perception: Memory operates simultaneously with perception, not sequentially. When experiencing any present moment, we form its memory concurrently. This explains déjà vu as becoming conscious of this normally unconscious process, experiencing the formation of memory in real time.
• •Qualitative vs. Quantitative Experience: Emotions and experiences involve qualitative changes, not quantitative intensities. Profound joy becomes richer through successive qualitative transformations, not simply more intense numerically. This challenges scientific attempts to measure psychological states using physical science models.
• •Evolution and Time: Time functions as an ontological creative force in evolution, generating genuinely novel forms that cannot be predicted. The past remains real while the future stays unwritten, with duration enabling continuous creation rather than predetermined mechanical unfolding of pre-existing possibilities.