Henri Bergson

Henri Bergson (1859- 1941) the most influential French philosopher of the 19th century and early 20th century.

Duration ( Durée ) According to Bergson, duration is a theory of time and space. Bergson presented this theory in his doctor thesis Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness.

For Bergsosn "duration" is not linear. It is unextended, mobile and incomplete and cannot be juxtaposed as successive parts. An individual may perceive time differently. If you are busy or absorbed in thought time may gain speed, but if you are bored time may slow down. It is your mind that does not work in a linear way, time and present intersect, the individuak stands between now and then. Moreover Bergson explored the inner life of a man. Bergson opposes individual time to science. Individual time can change, whereas for science time remains the same.

His doctor thesis Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness. was a criticism on Immanuel Kant who believed that the free will can only exist outside of time and space that is the reason why people do not know if something like the free will does exist at all. For Kant it is a pragmatic faith . Bergson argues that Kant mistook time with spatial representation. The Spool Image

In his Introduction to Metaphysics Bergson presents the three images of duration, one of them is the spoolimage The first image represents two spools, one is unrolling depicting the ongoing flow of ageing, the other spool is rolling up illustrating the ongoing growth of memory which corresponds to consciousness.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duration_%28philosophy%29 http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/bergson/