Deppe S (2021)
Publication Language: English
Publication Type: Journal article, other
Publication year: 2021
Book Volume: 01
Pages Range: 33-50
URI: https://journals.openedition.org/bergsoniana/298
Open Access Link: https://journals.openedition.org/bergsoniana/298
The article confronts Bergson’s Time and Free Will with ontological models
of temporal reality from analytic time metaphysics, such as presentism, eternalism etc.
I maintain that tense (and hence a changing “now”) and temporal extension are crucial
features for understanding successive structure within our temporal experience. In the
context of analytic metaphysics following McTaggart, however, tense and extension fall
under the suspicion that they are not consistent with each other. I show Bergson’s concept
of “Qualitative Multiplicity” to open a new perspective on the issue: being introduced as
a qualitative and hence not countable or measurable feature, it enables an understanding
of temporal extension that differs radically from spatial extension. Following this, we
can understand Bergson’s durational realm of the conscious I as temporally extended in
qualitative but not numerical respect — which, in turn, is unproblematically consistent
with tense. A second issue of the article is a critical reflection on the conception of the
external world established in Time and Free Will: I maintain that it is not problem-free
to conceive any part of reality as merely tensed and not at all temporally extended. I
conclude this to be a strong motivation for expanding further the idea of “Qualitative
Multiplicity.”
APA:
Deppe, S. (2021). Combining Tense and Temporal Extension: The Potential of Bergson’s ‘Qualitative Multiplicity’ for Conquering Problems of (Analytic) Time Metaphysics. bergsoniana, 01, 33-50. https://dx.doi.org/10.4000/bergsoniana.298
MLA:
Deppe, Sonja. "Combining Tense and Temporal Extension: The Potential of Bergson’s ‘Qualitative Multiplicity’ for Conquering Problems of (Analytic) Time Metaphysics." bergsoniana 01 (2021): 33-50.
BibTeX: Download