Perception Outside Perception Sinking Within Bergson, "Matter and Memory"

Perception Outside Perception Sinking Within Bergson, "Matter and Memory"
The first thing Bergson tries to sort out is the simple but troubling question, "What do we perceive and where? Perception is the expansion of the outside world itself, and we do not create an image of the world in our minds, but are said to be in direct contact with the outside world through the imagery of the body. In contrast, sensations such as pain and breathlessness are phenomena that sink into the interior of the body and have no spatial expanse. Perception is an external arrangement and sensation is the body's response, and confusing the two can easily lead to a cyclical theory of mind-body. By separating perception of the external world from sensation of the internal, the location of the action coming from the world and the body's response becomes clear, and the role of memory, which will be discussed later, emerges. The difference between perception and sensation is a prelude to understanding how past experiences overlap with and give meaning to present perceptions,
and is an essential scaffold from which Bergson proceeds to the problem of memory.