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ABSTRACT
The article analyzes the views of the famous French philosopher Henri Bergson on vitality and intuitionism. Bergson
contrasted his theory of creative evolution with Darwin's theory of evolution in a rationalistic spirit. He reveals that
Darwin's views were mechanistic in nature. It also shows the difference between intellect and intuition. Since natural
processes are characterized by vitality, they prove to be creative in nature.
KEYWORDS
Vitality, creativity, evolution, time, continuity, higher consciousness, matter, spirit, brain and consciousness, higher
consciousness, intuition.
INTRODUCTION
Henri Bergson is one of the great representatives of
20th century irrationalism.
Henri Bergson was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1927 for
his work "Emergent Evolution" and his achievements
in the field of literature. The essence of life can be
reached only through intuition, says Bergson.
Bergson's analysis of intellectual knowledge in
traditional philosophy led him to come to this
conclusion. The service of the intellect was clearly and
clearly shown by Bergson in his "Introduction to
Metaphysics". This intuition directly penetrates the
subject and merges with its individual nature. Intuition
does not oppose the knower and the known, like the
object and the subject. It is self-awareness through life,
direct seeing and noticing.
Research Article
PHILOSOPHICAL ASPECTS AND SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE OF HENRI
BERGSON'S INTUITIONISM AND THE IDEA OF "VITAL ENTHUSIASM"
Submission Date:
October 02, 2023,
Accepted Date:
October 06, 2023,
Published Date:
October 11, 2023
Crossref doi:
https://doi.org/10.37547/ajps/Volume03Issue10-03
Kabulniyazova G.T.
Professor At Department Of Philosophy And Logic, Faculty Of Social Sciences, UZNU. D.P.S., Uzbekistan
Journal
Website:
https://theusajournals.
com/index.php/ajps
Copyright:
Original
content from this work
may be used under the
terms of the creative
commons
attributes
4.0 licence.
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According to Bergson, self-observation leads to the
fact that the evidence of spiritual life can be seen in a
continuum, a continuum that is a state of continuous
change. It imperceptibly moves from one state to
another. Bergson understands life on a cosmic scale.
"Matter is solidified without the concept of life. Life
infuses it with life, so life consists of the spiritual
transformation of the world," says Bergson. Intuition,
emotional experiences are its main forms, feelings and
endless exchanges that arise on its basis. It is the basis
of any philosophical view. It is the sum of these mental
states that creates true reality and constitutes the main
content of philosophy.
Intellect, according to Bergson, is an instrument that
interprets dead things. Intuition is opposed to material,
spatial objects. His views on intellect and intuition are
reflected in Bergson's evolutionary theory. So, life is a
process in a metaphysical state, and the vitality of life
is a wave of a huge creative process. As a result of the
weakening of vitality, life turns into matter, that is, into
a soulless mass, a thing. According to Bergson, man is
a creative being. Through man, "vital enthusiasm" is
realized. Creativity depends on irrational intuition. Not
everyone has this ability. The foundations of Bergson's
intuitive philosophy began to form for the first time in
his work called "The direct foundations of
consciousness" (1899). A concept central to his
philosophy is time. He separates the philosophical
concept of time from the scientific concept of time and
connects this concept with the power of "vital
enthusiasm". We exist, feel and live in this time.
Scientifically understood time, i.e. time measured in
hours, minutes and seconds, is a product of our
intellect, and the intellect is limited to this very time.
The intellect organizes everything around it through
this concept of time, puts it into a system and tries to
absorb this time, which is contrary to the vitality of life,
into it.
An intellectual worldview serves our practical needs,
makes our lives easier, but at the same time allows us
to make philosophical mistakes. In real life, no situation
is similar to another, and the intellect tries to artificially
find this similarity. In fact, there is a changing life
experience, the results of which are also different,
never the same. It is precisely these disparate
situations of life experience that are understood as
continuity for Bergson.
The concept of "time" in the philosophy of Henri
Bergson was analyzed by Russian researchers. In
particular, D.V. Garbuzov, I. D. Verikhov, Yu. Yu.
Novikov, J. Authors such as Pule shed light on his
concept of "time". According to them, this continuum
is not related to space and has no dimensions. We call
it continuity because we observe such cases.
Continuity exists only as our internal state of mind,
there is no time outside of our consciousness. In fact,
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there is a continuum of transition from one mental
state to another.
Bergson recognizes physical time and considers the
dimension of this time to be space, while duration for
Bergson is the change of mental states in
consciousness.
A change in these conditions leads to development.
The reality that causes such mental states is continuous
and future-oriented. This idea of continuity is
reminiscent of William James' thoughts on the stream
of consciousness. In his views, Bergson "rejects the
mechanical vision of existence and criticizes the ideas
about change, development, movement created on
the basis of these visions". He denies that everything is
purposeful and moves toward a goal. According to
him, what drives creative evolution is the spiritual force
underlying the vitality. Such spiritual power has no
particular purpose.
Our analysis shows that it is this spiritual force that is
creative and gives rise to innumerable spiritual forms.
According to Bergson, every person is an organism
governed by vital forces. The driving force behind such
vital enthusiasm is intuition. Through it, the distinction
between object and subject disappears. Intuition is
actually observation, it is not related to any interests.
Correct knowledge of real existence is not related to
practice. Intuition is the most ideal form of knowing.
Thinking with science arose not for knowledge, but to
meet practical needs. Intellect, with its concepts,
methods, serves human practice and satisfies his
material needs. The relationship between intellect,
science and reality is purely practical.
Thus, the main subject of science is not reality, but
actually our practical activities aimed at reality.
Intellect, because the attention of science is not
focused on knowing reality, it approaches this reality
one-sidedly. From an intellectual point of view, our
vision is veiled, it can see only what is useful to itself.
Our brains are adapted to this kind of sorting, evidence
of which we can observe in the cases of continuity and
memory. Intellect cannot reveal the essence of things,
it only illuminates the relationships between things.
Bergson's critical view of science stems from this
assessment of intelligence.
Intellectual
knowledge
is
essentially
external
knowledge. In such a worldview, the limitation and
superficiality of the intellect is evident. But Bergson
admits that the intellect gives a correct idea of the
world. Intellect gives clear and clear knowledge
compared to intuition, the information of intuition is
like a dark fog around the center. Intellect and science
deal with material objects and cannot go beyond this
limit. Bergson reflects on the positive aspects of the
intellect as well as its shortcomings. Intuition deals only
with pure observation, which is beyond the reach of
the intellect. Deficiencies of the intellect come to the
fore when thinking about development, change.
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The intellect reflects existence like a cinematograph. It
is characteristic of the intellect not to understand life.
Deep knowledge of life in all its aspects is inherent only
to intuition. Intuition unites itself with what it studies,
thereby revealing the essence of things. In addition,
Bergson says that intellect and intuition are different
from each other. Intellect and intuition are parallel
forms of knowledge. The main source of intuition is
instinct. For Bergson, intellect and intuition are two
beautiful solutions to the same problem. Thus, for
Bergson, intuition is direct knowledge of the essence
of a thing. Intuition is feeling life in all its colors.
Intuition is not an emotional or intellectual faculty, it is
a force free from any practical needs.
In our opinion, Bergson "values intuition more than
intellect, so his philosophy is called intuitive, and he is
called anti-intellectualist." In addition, Bergson
mentioned that human knowledge is one-sided and
mechanical. He called his concept creative and
contrasted it with the mechanical concept. In the
mechanistic worldview, Bergson notes that there is
only analogy and reversal. In such a mechanical
concept, the spirit of true creativity has been killed.
According to Bergson, in the mechanistic conception,
things only change their places; real development and
creativity are not characteristic of him. Mechanism
actually denies historical development. In the
mechanistic conception, the past and the future can be
calculated as a function of the present, and no
innovation is assumed to occur. Development and
evolution is the way of life of living systems. Living
systems never return, so they cannot be known by the
intellect. The future state of biological systems is
unpredictable and cannot be scientifically predicted.
Bergson understands aliveness not as a biological state
of life, but as a mental state. The only existence that a
person can know is the "I" of a person, which is sensed
through intuition. According to Bergson, from the
beginning, the life force divided the existence in nature
into three directions, i.e. plants, animals and insects.
These three currents did not originate from each other,
they were separated from the once single spiritual
force. The difference between these three streams is
related to their nature.
In addition, Henri Bergson makes the concept of
continuity one of the central issues in his work.
According to him, the "essence" of the world is time.
Time is not understood as a series of moments, but as
a "continuity". Natural knowledge, referring to time,
does not understand its essence, separates it from its
inner content. Bergson writes a work entitled "Time
and Duration" dedicated to the issue of time. In this
work, he does not analyze the natural foundations of
A.Einstein's theory, but focuses on revealing the
epistemological mechanism of the formation of the
concept of time, defining the concept of time in this
theory, and determining its place in scientific thinking
in general. Bergson re-analyzes the theory of relativity,
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accusing it of formalism and saying that "this theory is
paradoxical because it is not understood." The
"transformation" of time into the "space" dimension in
the theory of relativity is an artificial mathematical tool,
a method of "symbolization" of scientific thinking.
According to Bergson, this conversion is natural for
every scientist or school. "From this we can draw a
conclusion that - writes Bergson, - ... although we look
for the properties of time in space, we cannot go out
of space: we cannot discover what the essence of time
is." This "... shows that we cannot define time
mathematically, we have to calculate it with the same
seconds in measuring it; these identical seconds are
the essence of the instant; they are not continuous. It
is a sign of our thinking, a conscious suspension of
continuity and real action; for this purpose, thinking
takes a mathematical dimension, transfers it from
space to time. From the philosophical point of view,
this physical theory can be interpreted as a thinking
process - a "product", the content of concepts. A.
Bergson's thoughts about time, duration I. Similar to
Kant's metaphysical views. In particular, the scientific
concept of time "is a real continuity, it is felt by us."
There are also Bergso's special works on this.
Russian researcher E. V. According to Rovenko, in
Bergson's philosophy, life and consciousness form a
whole, the most important aspect of consciousness is
its continuity, thanks to which consciousness has a
creative nature. "Consciousness is the internal
immanent feature of existence, which connects all
things in reality, the continuity in which causes the past
to merge with the present and the emergence of a
whole, which in turn reminds us of the waves of the
ocean that are surging and emptying."
A. Bergson recognizes the existence of external
"reality". External reality is given directly to the mind.
That is why it cannot be explained by any theory, one
cannot be replaced by another.
The real reality given immediately is 'life', that is,
mobility, movement and 'process'. Our consciousness
is "time to time . . . impelled by an indivisible moving
reality." These "pictures" - feelings and ideas,
sufferings are perceived by us as situations and things.
In this way, "continuity is replaced by discontinuity,
mobility by stagnation, changing trends by immutable
impulses, which determine the direction and processes
of change."
Evidence "immediately given" to consciousness
confronts us with existence. Being is defined in
consciousness. "In a certain sense, there are many
things - objects, a person differs from a person, a tree
is not like a tree, a stone is not like a stone, each
essence has its own characteristic, the law of
development. However, the specialization of a thing
from the environment is not absolute, it passes from
one to another through imperceptible changes,
merges with one another. ... these subjects do not have
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clear boundaries that we recognize. The human
subject, his div, perception of objects, matter and
consciousness, according to Bergson, are "one of the
manifestations of essence." According to him, "Matter
is a collection of images, perception of matter is the
movement or relation of these images to other
images." Neoplatonism had a strong influence on
Bergson's worldview. Bergson supports the theory of
emotion. Bergson's "image" is a product of
imagination, creative activity. This activity is more
emotional.
We conclude the following from the above points:
1. A. Bergson's philosophy of life differs from F.
Nietzsche's philosophy of life by its characteristics.
2. The concept of intuition occupies a central place in
Bergson's philosophy of life.
3. The concept of instinct is separated from intuition
and interpreted as an unconscious mental state.
4. The concept of intelligence is considered a special
form of spiritual energy, different from intuition.
5. Intuition is connected with the concept of vitality.
6. Time is considered a continuous process and is
explained as a product of consciousness.
Along with the analysis of the philosophical aspects of
the ideas of intuitionism in the work of Henri Bergson,
we try to analyze the essence of his idea of vital
enthusiasm and justify its importance.
A. In "Creative Evolution", Bergson focused on the
study and analysis of the forces that move living
nature. According to I. I. Blauberg, a major researcher
of Bergson's work, for this purpose he analyzed
mechanical and theological theories to explain the
movement in nature. As an example, he takes the
function of the human eye. "According to Bergso, the
human eye is extremely complex, it consists of the
sclera, cornea, retina, and optic nerves." But the
activity of vision is extremely simple, and under this
simplicity lies a mysterious process that is difficult to
understand.
Neither mechanical nor theological theory can explain
this process. As another example, a picture painted by
an artist can be described as a mosaic, but in this case
the picture loses its attractive, mysterious effect, says
Bergson. Leonardo da Vinci's Giaconda painting has
fascinated people for centuries. There is also a
computer version of this photo. The miraculous power
of Leonardo's painting is lost without a trace in
computer graphics. According to Bergson, in works of
art, in works of art and in the wonders of nature, a
mysterious immaterial force is hidden. Bergson
considers this force spiritual and calls it an active force
that moves all material things. Bergson directly
connects this spiritual force with material things and
calls it vital enthusiasm. He goes back to the eye and
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the ability to see and tries to explain the concept of
vitality. For example, birds, humans, and bees have
eyes. The eyes of these creatures are extremely
complex. Their ability to see and the structure of their
eyes is related to their vital activity. "For example, the
human eye cannot see what bees can see. A common
rose consists of various colors of glitter for bees. The
bees see the rose as a mosaic. His vision does not have
the images and images of human vision. The human
eye is adapted to human activity. Therefore, the human
eye sees a rose as an artistic image, a whole flower, and
can also enjoy it.
We can rely on current data in science to confirm
Bergson's point. Our observation shows that scientists
say that a person actually uses the eye only as an
instrument, and the ability to see depends on the
psychic processes in the human mind. If the image of a
flower is lost in these psychic processes, a person will
not see a flower even if his eyes are healthy.
A. Bergson distinguishes between concrete scientific
activity and philosophical activity. The origin of science
is related to the satisfaction of material needs of man.
It uses all the capabilities of human thinking to satisfy
material needs. The mechanism of thinking consists in
collecting information, analyzing it and using it
according to the goals set for itself. Thinking activity,
according to A. Bergson, consists of dividing into
extremely complex small parts and studying these
parts separately, fabricating them. Bergson compares
the activity of thinking to the activity of a craftsman.
For him, nature is also a big workshop. The craftsman
invents only what he needs in his workshop. He does
not pay attention to things beyond his material needs.
According to A. Bergson, in fact, nature is a material
and spiritual force with the ability to create, a thousand
times more wonderful and unique than the workshop
of any craftsman. In our opinion, this view of Bergson
does not correspond to the theological views
characteristic of the Christian religion left from the
time of Aristotle, because in the Christian religion,
nature was created by God and he does not have the
ability to create. Such a religious view led to a deistic
understanding of God in the 15th-16th centuries.
According to deism, God creates nature, then nature
develops according to its own laws. But unlike deism,
according to Bergson, God in his language is spirit,
spiritual force is life force. It is not external to nature, it
is this spiritual force that underlies all the forces of
movement in nature. We find this in Bergson's
"Creative Evolution" section entitled "The Life of the
Body and the Life of the Spirit." In it, Bergson compares
"spiritual power" to an exploded rocket. As a result of
this explosion, "small particles of the rocket begin to
lose their strength and solidify. These hardened
particles of spiritual energy become material bodies.
This wonderful analogy of Bergson's is reminiscent of
the Friedman-Gammow theory in modern physics.
According to this theory, the origin of the universe is
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the result of an explosion of indiscriminately powerful
energy forces concentrated in a single point or drop.
According to A.Bergso, the evolutionary processes in
living nature consist of the dispersal of the vitality of
life, which was initially unified, in different directions.
In the part of "Creative evolution" "Dispersing
directions of the evolution of life - hardening, intellect,
instinct" Bergson compares the process of evolution to
the explosion of a grenade. Small particles separated
from the grenade fly randomly in different directions.
The process of the evolution of life also diverges in
different directions at a starting point. This leads to the
emergence of different species. On the question of the
origin of species, Bergson strongly criticizes
mechanical and theological theories. Mechanic,
especially Ch. According to Darwin's theory, the reason
for the origin of species is due to adaptation to external
environmental conditions. If this were true, it would be
easy to explain the existence of species that have
remained unchanged for thousands of years. But the
mechanics could not reveal the reason for this. From
the theological point of view, the development of
nature must take place on the basis of some specific
plan. But this is also not true. According to the Russian
researchers I.S.Vdovina, I.I.Lasosiy, K.A.Svasyan,
M.Barlov, who studied Bergson's work, A.Bergson
considers the evolutionary process to be not a goal-
oriented movement, it has no goal at all. Both the
purpose of life enthusiasm and its essence is in itself.
This essence is in his creativity. The force of vital
enthusiasm resembles burning particles that scatter in
all directions despite all external influences. Where
there is vitality, there is also spirit of creativity. Thus, A.
According to Bergson, the power of vital enthusiasm is
characteristic of all nature and gives a creative touch to
evolutionary processes. Intuitive philosophy focuses
on the processes of vital impulses and explores the
nature of creativity in them.
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