Bergson ,Time and the world we live in.
Rahul Karavadra N0215613
The central theme in Bergson’s philosophy was that
of time. In Time and Freewill Bergson discusses two forms of time. The first
being spacialized and segmented resulting in Mathematical time, which is
mechanistic, measurable, has units: seconds, minuets, days, months, years.
Bergson suggests that we impose spatial concepts onto time[1].
The second was Pure time, for Bergson is that which is indivisible, is infinite,
has no beginning or end, is creative, it is real time or what he called
Duration[2]
Due to society being subjected to spacialization and
segmentation, we humans have also segmented time. For example we impose units
onto time: days, months, years. Thus creating a past, present and future, in
other words it has created linear time. This organization of time has resulted
in the human being to remove itself from being able to experience true time.
The breakup of society has caused society to become
machine like, we have also become machine like. One could mention René Descartes
notion of the clock[3]
or in fact Fordism where life has become a production line obsessed with
efficiency. Our daily lives and perceptions have been altered due to the
quantification of time.
For Bergson this Mathematical time is false. It is
created by humans to operate efficiently. Real time is qualitative, it flows,
contracts, relaxes, stretches, above all creative. Bergson calls it Durée,
Einstein’s effortlessly describes what Bergson terms as Durée. Einstein’s quote
beautifully unfolds us to the true nature of time and how we experience it in a
way in which mathematical time cannot explain.
‘When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems
like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour.’[4]
[1]http://www.philosophynow.org/issues/48/Henri_Bergson_and_the_Perception_of_Time
last visited 28/02/2012
[2] Henri
Bergson, Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of
Consciousness, Author's Preface.
[3] Descartes,
Treatise on Man, p.108
[4] http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/alberteins100656.html
last visited 28/02/2012.
Thanks Rahul. I love that quote as well. Even if Einstein and Bergson disagreed, I think that quote gets to the heart of what Bergson is trying to communicate with the question of Real Time. I suppose Einstein is right up to a point, time is relative to a subjective viewer, whereas Bergson sees time as real and radically objective. Time is out there. This I think helps explains Bergson's influence on artists and in terms of everyday life. We can have a sense of time as non-mechanical, as a rough elongated flow from one thing to another. If we think about our subjective experience of time this is more real than clock time. Again though, Bergson faces the wrath of the scientist. Subjective time is all well and good and interesting in telling us about introspection, and for Proust constructing narratives but what does it tell us about objective reality itself. This I think is the interesting and tentative moment for Bergson's. What can the philosopher of the Real tell us about reality?
ReplyDeleteIf your interested in the debate between Einstein and Bergson see this link here
ReplyDeletehttp://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=155599§ioncode=39