Monday, November 15, 2010

Bergson, Intellect, Intuition

According to Bergson, the object, in general, of the Intellect is static, either inert matter, or hypostasized dynamic processes. Accordingly, Zeno's Paradoxes are exposures, according to Bergson, of the inadequacy of the Intellect to Motion, e. g. the aggregate of the representations of various stages of a flight of an arrow can never unify into a perception of its actual continuous movement. Instead, only Intuition directly perceives the flux of immediate experience, according to him. Now, on his analysis, Intuition is Instinct having "become disinterested, self-conscious, capable of reflecting on its object". In turn, he identifies Instinct with Sympathy. Hence, it follows that for Bergson, Intuition is disinterested Sympathy. So, one consequence of his having solved one classic paradox, is the generation of, if not an out-an-out contradiction, at least, another paradox. But, what his analysis of Intuition does bear out is that it is less antithetical to Intellect then a combination of the latter and Instinct.

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