Philosophy and the Adventure of the Virtual: Bergson and the Time of Life

257 Pages·2001·1.3 MB·English

by  Keith Ansell Pearson

PHILOSOPHY AND THE
ADVENTURE OF THE VIRTUAL
The concept of the virtual has recently assumed a remarkable level of
importance,spanning a diverse range of different disciplines and approaches.
Yet in spite of the attention it has received, its precise ontological status is
mysterious for many and the extent of its application to time,perception,and
memory is largely unexplored and unknown.Philosophy and the Adventure of
the Virtual:Bergson and the time of life brings the virtual to centre stage and
argues for its importance in thinking anew the central philosophical questions
of being and time.
Keith Ansell Pearson examines the nature of continuity, probes relativity,
pursues a notion of creative evolution, and outlines a novel approach to
perception and memory.Staging a series of encounters between Bergson and
philosophers as diverse as Kant,Nietzsche,Russell,Popper,Denett,Badiou,
and Sartre,the book provides some genuinely insightful readings of Bergson
and endeavours to revitalize Bergsonism for a contemporary audience.
Philosophy and the Adventure of the Virtualis a lucidly written and imagin-
atively argued volume of essays, and will be of interest to philosophers
across the analytic and continental divide and to anyone open to the
possibilities of thinking.
Keith Ansell Pearsonis Professor of Philosophy at the University of Warwick.
His previous books with Routledge include Viroid Life (1997) and Germinal
Life(1999).

PHILOSOPHY
AND THE
ADVENTURE OF
THE VIRTUAL
Bergson and the time of life
Keith Ansell Pearson
London and New York
First published 2002
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane,London EC4P4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street,New York,NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint ofthe Taylor &Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002.
© 2002 Keith Ansell Pearson
All rights reserved.No part ofthis book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,mechanical,
or other means,now known or hereafter invented,including
photocopying and recording,or in any information storage or
retrieval system,without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library ofCongress Cataloging in Publication Data
Ansell-Pearson,Keith,1960–
Philosophy and the adventure ofthe virtual: Bergson and the time
oflife / Keith Ansell Pearson.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Bergson,Henri,1859–1941. 2. Time. I. Title.
B2430,B43 A57 2001
110–dc21 2001031994
ISBN 0–415–23727–0 (hbk)
ISBN 0–415–23728–9 (pbk)
ISBN 0-203-46936-4 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-77760-3 (Glassbook Format)
The best images and parables should speak of time and becoming.
(F.Nietzsche,‘On the Blissful Islands’,
Thus Spoke Zarathustra,1883)
The only crime is time itself.
(G.Deleuze,Cinema 2:The Time-Image,1985)
The One expresses in a single meaning (sens) all of the multiple.Being
expresses in a single meaning all that differs.
(G.Deleuze and F.Guattari,A Thousand Plateaus,1980)

CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
1 Introducing time as a virtual multiplicity 9
Introduction 9
The two multiplicities 13
The time of number 18
Is time space? 21
Bergson and Russell on continuity 24
One time and one space 28
Towards an ontology of duration 35
The whole of duration 38
2 ‘A life of the real’and a single time:relativity and virtual
multiplicity 43
Popper on Parmenides 44
The problem of change 46
Popper on Einstein as a Parmenidean 47
Bergson on the ancients and the moderns 49
Bergson and relativity 55
Popper encounters Bergson 65
Conclusion:towards the time of life 68
3 Duration and evolution:the time of life 70
Life as a virtual multiplicity 71
The possible and the real 74
Dennett on Darwin’s dangerous idea 79
Bachelard on Bergsonism 87
Some problems 89
Conclusion 95
vii
CONTENTS
4 The simple virtual:a renewed thinking of the One 97
Introduction 97
The One of pluralism:Bergson and Deleuze on Plotinus 98
Deleuze on the difference of life 105
Conclusion 113
5 The élan vital as an image of thought:Bergson and Kant
on finality 115
Introduction 115
Kant:the problem of teleology 121
Bergson’s response 124
Bergson and finality 130
The image of the élan vital 135
6 Virtual image:Bergson on matter and perception 140
Introduction 140
All is image 143
Between idealism and realism 149
Beyond the identity thinking of materialism 155
Beyond idealism 159
7 The being of memory and the time of the self:from psychology
toanontology of the virtual 167
Introduction 168
From psychology to ontology:Bergson on pure memory 171
Virtual memory and a crystal-image of time 180
The synthesis of the pure past in Difference and Repetition 185
The depths of time 190
The straight line of time:Nietzsche and Kant 197
Conclusion 204
Notes 206
Bibliography 230
Index 242
viii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A version of essay three first appeared in Robin Durie’s edited volume Time
and the Instant (Clinamen Press, 2000). A slightly different version of essay
four first appeared in Pli: The Warwick Journal of Philosophy, volume 11,
2001. A much shorter and more primitive version of essay five appeared in
issue 6 (2000) of Tekhnema:A Journal of Philosophy of Technology,devoted
to the theme of ‘Teleologies:scientific,technical,critical’,guest edited by G.
Banham and S. Malik. I am grateful to the editors of these publications for
allowing me to draw on this material for the purposes of this volume.
ix