Friday, June 30, 2017

Duration and Praxis

According to Bergson, Duration, under the rubric 'Time', is falsified in two ways, in both Physics and common experience.  First, it is hypostasized, as when it is represented as an immobile, complete, line.  Second, it is homogenized, as when it is counted in terms of identical units.  But, the latter involves a third falsification, which Bergson does not recognize.  For, the process of counting, independent of its object, is in itself Durational, and, furthermore, is only first produced as a characteristic of an active process.  In other words, Duration is fundamentally Practical.  Kant approaches that concept when classifying Time as a Form of Experience, but 'Experience' for him connotes merely Cognition, while Heidegger does recognize that Time is the general structure of behavior, but stops short of conceiving it as actively produced by Praxis.  So, Bergson's correction of the standard concept of Time remains incomplete, and, given his stated familiarity with Kant, underinformed.

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