Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Duration, Time, Space

Bergson sharply distinguishes Duration from the Time of Physics--while the former is a heterogeneous yet indivisible flux, the latter is inert and divisible, i. e. is actually Space.  The distinction thus reveals a limitation of the presumed scope of Physics.  For, insofar as all Corporeality is conceived as Mechanistic, which is the case in the Newtonian tradition, Biology is an instance of Physics. But, according to Bergson, Vitality has the character of Duration, from which it follows that Physics is inadequate to it, i. e. can no more than approximate it via Integral Calculus.  Thus, Biology, the subject matter of which is Vitality, i. e. Life, transcends Physics, even as the latter continues the Newtonian ambition of an all-embracing Unified Field Theory.  Duration also exposes the Physicist concept of 'Space-Time Continuum' as a two-fold misnomer--'Time' is actually Space, the 'Continuum' between being no flux, only ad hoc construct of four quantities.

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