The intuition we refer to then bears above all upon internal duration. It grasps a succession which is not juxtaposition, a growth from within, the u… - Henri Bergson

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The intuition we refer to then bears above all upon internal duration. It grasps a succession which is not juxtaposition, a growth from within, the uninterrupted prolongation of the past into a present which is already blending into the future. It is the direct vision of the mind by the mind, — nothing intervening, no refraction through the prism, one of whose facets is space and another, language. Instead of states contiguous to states, which become words in juxtaposition to words, we have here the indivisible and therefore substantial continuity of the flow of the inner life. Intuition, then, signifies first of all consciousness, but immediate consciousness, a vision which is scarcely distinguishable from the object seen, a knowledge which is contact and even coincidence. —

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About Henri Bergson

Henri-Louis Bergson (18 October 1859 – 4 January 1941) was a major French philosopher, influential in the first half of the 20th century. He was awarded the 1927 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Biography information from Wikiquote

Also Known As

Alternative Names: Henri-Louis Bergson H. Bergson Henry Bergson Henri Louis Bergson Berxon
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Additional quotes by Henri Bergson

Underlying the doctrines which disregard the radical novelty of each moment of evolution there are many misunderstandings, many errors. But there is especially the idea that the possible is less than the real, and that, for this reason, the possibility of things precedes their existence. They would thus be capable of representation beforehand; they could be thought of before being realised. But it is the reverse that is true. If we leave aside the closed systems, subjected to purely mathematical laws, isolable because duration does not act upon them, if we consider the totality of concrete reality or simply the world of life, and still more that of consciousness, we find there is more and not less in the possibility of each of the successive states than in their reality. For the possible is only the real with the addition of an act of mind which throws its image back into the past, once it has been enacted. But that is what our intellectual habits prevent us from seeing.

En ce sens, on pourrait dire que la nature obtient souvent elle-même des succès de caricaturiste. Dans le mouvement par lequel elle a fendu cette bouche, rétréci ce menton, gonflé cette joue, il semble qu'elle ait réussi à aller jusqu'au bout de sa grimace, trompant la surveillance modératrice d'une force plus raisonnable. Nous rions alors d'un visage qui est à lui-même pour ainsi dire, sa propre caricature.

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L’homme est faber avant d’être sapiens.
(…) Seule l’intuition va au cœur du réel et permet de connaître le temps véritable qu’est la durée intérieure. C’est « la connaissance directe de l’esprit par l’esprit » au-delà de la médiation du langage incapable de saisir le « moi fondamental ».

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