l6o UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



II. Matter and Memory 



In his second work, Bergson emphasizes the striking truth that 

 "the body is an instrument of action only." This statement is the 

 soul of Pragmatism, and James calls Bergson "the master" many 

 years later. As for memory, "the body retains motor habits capable 

 of acting the past over again " ; and " It can resume attitudes in which 

 the past (pure memory) will insert itself." "In no case can the brain 

 store up images." "Neither in perception, nor in memory, nor a for- 

 tiori in the higher attainments of mind, does the body contribute 

 directly to representation." 



"All the difficulties of the problem of materialism and idealism 

 come from considering the physical and mental as duplicates of each 

 other." Perception and memory (the physical and mental) are not 

 mere duplicates of one another. 



We Are Not Made to Think but to Live and Act 



Neither the realist (materialist) nor the idealist (spiritualist) can 

 bridge the chasm between body and mind. 



Kant makes a very unconvincing attempt to make a transition 

 from sense to understanding. Bergson realizes the implications of 

 his great thought. Perception and memory are not pure knowledge, 

 but point to action. Both old schools neglect this all-important 

 truth. 



It is action that the body prepares. The growing complexity of 

 the nervous system shunts the excitation received on to an ever larger 

 variety of motor mechanisms, and so sketches out an ever-increasing 

 variety of conduct. 



Memory (that is our past experiences stored in the psychic world) 

 enables us to select those actions that are most useful, by comparison 

 with previous similar situations. 



By allowing us to grasp, in a single intuition, multiple moments of 

 duration, it (memory) frees us from the flow of things, that is from the 

 rhythm of (material) necessity. 



Our perceptions are not pure, but are largely mixed with our past, 

 that is, our whole previous experience, habits, in a word our own 



