Bergson and Deleuze on Duration: How Lived Time Differs From Clock Time
Henri Bergson's idea of duration, or la durée, perceives time as an uninterrupted stream of uniquely distinct moments, in stark contrast to the artificial nature of clock time. He posits that the nature of an hour spent working is fundamentally different from an hour of leisure. Gilles Deleuze builds on this by characterizing duration as a particular form of multiplicity, making a clear distinction between discrete and continuous aspects. He argues that dividing duration alters its fundamental nature. Deleuze also critiques the philosophical tendency to confuse qualitative differences with quantitative ones, claiming that duration serves as the foundational basis for difference, existing prior to clock time. This critique underscores the risks of simplifying qualitative diversity into mere quantitative measures, calling for a methodological reevaluation.
Key facts
- Bergson calls experiential time duration, or la durée, a continuous flow in which each moment is qualitatively distinct.
- Clock time is spatialized time: measurement records the position of a hand on a dial, an artificial construct.
- An hour of hard work and an hour of leisure are qualitatively heterogeneous forms of duration.
- Deleuze traces the term multiplicity to the mathematician Bernhard Riemann, who distinguished discrete from continuous multiplicities.
- A discrete or numerical multiplicity can be divided without changing kind; duration cannot be divided without altering its essence.
- Bergson's example in "Time and Free Will" is a complex affectivity combining love and anxiety, altered when its parts are isolated.
- Bergson treats the confusion of differences in kind with differences in degree as a fundamental metaphysical diagnosis of philosophy's history.
- Deleuze's Bergsonism makes duration the ontological ground of difference, anticipating Difference and Repetition, where difference is primary and identity derivative.
Entities
Artists
- Henri Bergson
- Gilles Deleuze
- Bernhard Riemann
- Jacques de Gheyn II
- Raphaël Schwartz
- Edwaert Collier
- Jan van Kessel the Elder
- Henri de Nolhac
Institutions
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris
- National Gallery of Art
- Smithsonian Libraries and Archives
- Centre Pompidou
- The Collector
Locations
- New York
- United States
- Paris
- France
- Washington, DC