Skill and Duration

A main aim of Time and Free Will is to reveal Duration as the substratum of all inner Experience, usually hidden in fragmentary practical pursuits.  In preparation, Bergson early on cites the grace of an externally observed dancer as exemplifying the fluidity and continuity that characterize Duration.  However, in doing so, it does not seem to occur to him that the dancer, and, indeed, any skilled performer, is internally enjoying Duration as they externally produce corporeal fluidity and continuity.  The skilled performer thus does not need to read Bergson's revelation, since they are already familiar with it, not as a hidden substratum, but as the overt stratum of the internal aspect of the performance, i. e. internal fluidity and continuity as they produce externally graceful motions.  Hence, his presumed revelation of a pervasive truth is actually a generalization of an abstraction--from a practical corporeal experience to an observational incorporeal one.  Furthermore, the generalization is inadequate, since he shows only that Consciousness is Durational when deliberately sought, not that it is in-itself ever-present, i. e. his evidence only confirms the thesis that observed Duration is a reflection of the continuity of a specific physiological act of observation.  Thus, the Experience that he privileges in his system may actually be that of the inner awareness enjoyed by the skilled performer.