Reviews - Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness

6 reviews for:

Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness

A major key take away from Bergson is that the lived experience of time is in-communicable. All attempts to communicate the experience of time are merely abstractions, or symbolical representations, which treat time as if it were space.

For Bergson, philosophers and scientists alike make the mistake of externalizing time, which leads to even more confused ideas.

Does Free Will exist?

Undoubtedly for Bergson, the answer is yes. However, because free will can only be experienced when tapping into our intuition, actual free acts are a rarity.

Yet, Bergson urges us to have a fuller analysis by viewing time and space as different. Time is qualitative, heterogeneous, and singular, whereas space is homogeneous, quantitative and symbolic.

Bergson is also a wonderful writer. I highly recommend this book.

evan_streeby's review against another edition

Good work with extremely influential ideas. You can really see the influence this had on 20th century philosophy, as I felt I already knew all the major defenses and objections to each contention; though I do feel a lot of it was co-opted from Plato (shocker)

The most difficult aspect of this work to accept is his denial of any sense of ‘becoming’. States of affairs superimposed on this time-stamped now are what exists for Bergson.

gijshuppertz's review against another edition

3.0

Het is een ontzettend boeiend werk, ik heb er echter maar beperkte fragmenten uit kunnen halen die ik volledig begreep, omdat het in het verloop van het boek steeds moeilijker en moeilijker werd. Zeker een herlezing waard.