A New Philosophy : $b Henri BergsonLe Roy, Edouard
Philosophy
A New Philosophy : $b Henri Bergson
Le Roy, Edouard
Bergson, Henri, 1859-1941
Our senses supplement one another. A slow education has gradually taught
us to co-ordinate their impressions, especially those of touch to those
of vision. (H. Bergson, "Note on the Psychological Origins of Our Belief
in the Law of Causality". Vol. i. of the "Library of the International
Philosophical Congress", 1900.)
Theoretical forms come between nature and us: a veil of symbols envelops
reality; thus, finally, we no longer see things themselves, we are
content to read the labels on them.
Moreover, our perception appears to analysis completely saturated with
memories, and that in view of our practical insertion in the present. I
will not come back to this point which has been so lucidly explained
by Mr Bergson in a lecture on "Dream" ("Report of the International
Psychological Institute", May 1901.) and an article on "Intellectual
Effort", ("Philosophical Review", January 1902.) the reading of which
cannot be too strongly recommended as an introduction to the first
chapter of "Matter and Memory", in which further arguments are to be
found. I will only add one remark, following Mr Bergson, as always:
perception is not simply contemplation, but consciousness of an original
visual emotion combined with a complete group of actions in embryo,
gestures in outline, and the graze of movement within, by which we
prepare to grasp the object, describe its lines, test its functions,
sound it, move it, and handle it in a thousand ways. (This is attested
by the facts of apraxia or psychic blindness. Cf. "Matter and Memory",
chapter ii.)
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