Henry Bergson's Theory of Duration: A Critical Review

Abstract

Henry Bergson (1859-1914) sees Duration as a theory of time and consciousness. It is time that characterizes the subjective experience of our conscious moments, which for Bergson, is in constant mobility and interpenetrates as a unity and multiplicity. Duration, according to Bergson, can only be seized from within through first person intuition. He used it first, as an attack against Immanuel Kant, who according to Bergson, holds the idea of a space based or mathematical time. Secondly Bergson uses it also as a defence for free will. This study is therefore an attempt to critically review Henry Bergson's theory of Duration. In his attack against Kant, Henry Bergson misconstrued Kant's position on free will, and seem to have erroneously classified Kant as a Hard determinist. Using the analytic method, the study concludes that: first, Bergson's philosophy should be commended for, calling the attention of man back to his root; showing that life eludes science, technology and logic; secondly, that Kant's position with regards to argument about free will and determinism can rightly be classified as free will agnosticism, not hard determinism.