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>From Henri Bergson, "An Introduction to Metaphysics" (1903):
There are two profoundly different ways of knowing a thing. The first may
be said to result in relative knowledge. He names it "analysis". By
analyzing a thing, we are expressing it as a function of other things, by
which we imperfectly express the object in terms of conceptual symbols,
thereby losing the original, which is metaphysically perfect. The process of
analysis is one which may infinitely chop up, re-relate, rotate and examine
a thing from so many different points of view. Hence it called relative,
dependent on prior knowledge of other things.
It is a process of "moving round the object".
The second way of knowing a thing is analogously described as "entering
into the object". This is done through "inserting" one's self into them with
"effort of imagination". This kind of "intellectual sympathy" (what I would
call "vision"), called "intuition". When one knows an object intuitively,
one has rejected all analytic translations "in order to possess the
original". This original is the essence of "duration". By duration, Bergson
refers to the undeniable indivisibility of self-experience. Though our
thoughts paint pictures of the past and future, our "dynamic" enduring
conscious continuum only knows the present, is never static and chopped up
into words. The knowledge reaped through intuition is simple, 'pure', in a
sense. By contrast, relative analytic knowledge is always complex and
multiple. "For every fact (<intuition>), there are an inifinite number of
hypotheses (<analyses>)" - ZMM The intuitive present fact of conscious
existence is termed by Bergson "absolute" knowledge. It is ultimately new,
unique and inexpressible, whereas relative knowledge, that of "maya", if you
will, is patterned and old.
As far as I can see, Bergson views the Absolute which is apprehended
through absolute knowledge, as metaphysically primary, and, perhaps, most
valuable - best. He equates the absolute with "perfection" in contrast to
the "imperfection" of analytical translations of reality.
A thing/experience/event is simple when viewed from the inside, but
complex when differing points of view are taken from outside. The absolute
is the "gold coin" from which we eternally reap "small change".
Rich
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