Time and free will, an essay on the immediate data of consciousness

Henri Bergson

Idioma:

anglès

Estat:

Complete work

Autoria:

Written by the author

CHAPTER I THE INTENSITY OF PSYCHIC STATES IT is usually admitted that states of consciousness, sensations, feelings, passions, efforts, are capable of growth and diminution ; we are Can there be ... quantitative even told that a sensation can be said differences in • J.-L- /• , • conscious to be twice, thnce, four times as intense as another sensation of the same kind. This latter thesis, which is maintained by psycho- physicists, we shall examine later ; but even the opponents of psychophysics do not see any harm in speaking of one sensation as being more intense than another, of one effort as being greater than another, and in thus setting up differences of quantity between purely internal states. Com mon sense, moreover, has not the slightest hesita tion in giving its verdict on this point ; people say they are more or less warm, or more or less sad, and this distinction of more and less, even when it is carried over to the region of subjec tive facts and un extended objects, surprises nobody. But this involves a very obscure point and a much more important problem than is usually supposed. When we assert that one number is greater than 2 TIME AND FREE WILL CHAP. I another number or one body greater than another When we assert that one number is greater than 2 TIME AND FREE WILL CHAP. I another number or one body greater than another body, we know very well what we mean. SS'ca-For in both cases we allude to unequal Statob!Hlt spaces, as shall be shown in detail a to Intensities. ^^ further on> and we call that Space

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