Henri Bergson: Philosophy and Perception

(in English): The thesis deals with Henri Bergson's theory of perception. Bergson approached the problem of perception in an original way, namely in terms of life, action and movement. The starting point of this inquiry is his claim that if perception is de iure a picture of the whole but de facto confined to what we are interested in, then we should not ask how perception is produced, but how it is limited. I trace this line of thought mainly in the work Matter and Memory; subsequently, I try to relate it to Bergson's urge that perception should be expanded and deepened beyond the level of attention given to practical activity. I develop the notion of expanded perception on the basis of Bergson's texts in The Creative Mind, and in this connection I reflects on mental life as a movement on the continuum, two senses of life and two conceptions of freedom