Rising Consciousness and Sinking Intelligence Duality of Movement and Order in Consciousness 1900-2025

Rising Consciousness and Sinking Intelligence Duality of Movement and Order in Consciousness 1900-2025

Bergson viewed human consciousness as an "ascending" and "descending" movement. Descending consciousness corresponds to an intellect that divides and analyzes the world, producing a material and static order. It is the foundation of science, logic, and institutions, but it cuts off the fluidity of life and the sense of time. On the other hand, ascending consciousness is associated with intuition and manifests itself in art, poetry, and religious experience. Here, the emphasis is on a holistic, dynamic order, allowing for a perception that resonates with the temporal rhythms of life. Bergson warns that modern society has lost the original kinetic nature of human consciousness due to its emphasis on the descending intellect and its disregard for the ascending intuition. At a time when consciousness has become rigid and a one-sided order dominates society and thought, he explained, we need to reclaim "living thought," in which intuition and intellect circulate once again.