The Body Untangled in the World Bergson, "Matter and Memory"

The Body Untangled in the World Bergson, "Matter and Memory"
The first thing Bergson establishes at the beginning of "Matter and Memory" is that the world is a place of countless images, and that our bodies are embedded within these images as well. Here, the Cartesian dichotomy of "inner mind" and "outer objects" is dismissed, and the scene of the world, the desk, the bodies of others, and even one's own body are all merely images on the same plane. The difference is that only the image of one's own body has a privileged position as the center where action can occur. The body is not an observer standing outside the world, but works as a nexus of action and reaction in the middle of the world.

Perception is not an image projected in the head, but appears outward as a change in the world that takes place around the body. The body is in direct contact with this change, and when I look at the desk, the image of the desk is not projected onto the inner screen. The image of the desk and the image of the body form a specific relationship, which is perception. Therefore, the boundary that separates the outer world from the inner world is not an absolute rupture, but only a provisional delimitation from the perspective of action. The body is not a box separated from the world, but is seen as a translucent membrane that receives and pushes back the actions of the world.

The reason Bergson emphasizes the continuity between the body and the world so much is to avoid two impasses. One is idealism, which reduces the external world to "representations in the mind," and the other is mechanism, which treats the body as a mere physical machine to which one can only add the mind. If there is already a continuum of imagery in the world, and the body is positioned as one of the nodes in that imagery, then the conundrum of "how does the outside reach the inside?" dissolves as it is. The outside and the inside are inherently connected, and the body is merely a device that modulates the way the connection is made. Here emerges the outline that the subject is not an isolated "I," but the very way of connecting with the world. Bergson's push for this continuity is also a preparation for recounting memory and freedom from the ground of continuity rather than disconnection.