The Body is Untied to the World Bergson's "Matter and Memory" The Range of Late 19th Century Thought

The Body is Untied to the World Bergson's "Matter and Memory" The Range of Late 19th Century Thought
Bergson's body is not a subject detached from the world, but a node embedded in a continuous field of countless images. The external world and one's own body are not qualitatively different, but the body occupies a privileged position as the center where action can take place. Perception is not an image created in one's head, but is external to the body as the very change in the world around the body, and the body is in direct contact with it. When we look at a desk, the image of the desk is not projected inside, but the image of the desk and the image of the body form a certain relationship, which is perception. Therefore, there is no essential disconnection between the outer world and the inner world, and the body is understood as a translucent membrane that continues to interact with the world. Bergson emphasizes the continuity between the body and the world in order to avoid the error of idealism, which confines the external world to the mind, and to distance himself from
the difficulty of mechanics, which can only add the mind. By considering that there is a continuous field of imagery in the world and that the body is situated within this field, the question of how the outside reaches the inside is transformed, and it becomes possible to understand that the outside and the inside are originally in contact. Bergson's viewpoint provides the basis for rethinking memory and freedom from the perspective of continuity rather than rupture.