Observations placeholder
Bergson, Henri - Matter and Memory - Perception extraction
Identifier
006071
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
The extraction of Perceptions according to perceived need.A description of the experience
Henri Bergson – Matter and Memory
Our representation of matter is the measure of our possible action upon bodies; it results from the discarding of what has no interest for our needs, or more generally for our functions.
In one sense we might say that the perception of any unconscious material point whatever, in its instantaneousness, is infinitely greater and more complete than ours, since this point gathers and transmits the influences of all the points of the material universe, whereas our consciousness only attains to certain parts and to certain aspects of those parts.
Consciousness – in regard to external perception – lies in just this choice. But there is, in this necessary poverty of our conscious perception, something that is positive, that foretells spirit; it is, in the etymological sense of the word, discernment.