Bergson, Time and Free Will, Ch 1, §36 "Photometric Experiments. We Perceive Different Shades and afterwards Interpret Them as Decreasing ..."

by Corry Shores
[Search Blog Here. Index-tags are found on the bottom of the left column.]

[Central Entry Directory]
[Bergson, Entry Directory]
[Bergson Time and Free Will, Entry Directory]

[The following is summary; my commentary is in brackets.]

Bergson, Time and Free Will

(Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience)

Chapter I, "The Intensity of Psychic States"

Part XIII: "Sensation of Light"

§36 "Photometric Experiments. We Perceive Different Shades and afterwards Interpret Them as Decreasing Intensities of White Light"

Imagine four candles illuminating a sheet of paper. We blow out the candles one by one. The paper seems to become less intensely lit. It is more accurate to say that a layer of shadow passes over the paper when we blow out a candle. This shadow is no less real than the light. It makes the paper a different shade of white. So it does not cause us to have less of a sensation. (53b.d) "Black has just as much reality for our consciousness as white." (54a) The varying shades of white are like colors of a spectrum. Each are different, but none are greater or lesser than another.

Colors can be lightened and darkened. Regardless of any modification to a color, we only perceive it as qualitatively different, even though we often mistakenly think it is quantitatively different. (54c.d)

[Next entry in this series.]

Images from the pages summarized above, in the English Translation [click on the image for an enlargement]:

Images from the pages summarized above, in the original French [click on the image for an enlargement]:

Bergson, Henri. Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness, Transl. F. L. Pogson, (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 2001).

Available online at:

http://www.archive.org/details/timeandfreewill00pogsgoog

French text from:

Bergson, Henri. Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience. Originally published Paris: Les Presses universitaires de France, 1888.

http://www.archive.org/details/essaisurlesdonn00berguoft

Bergson, Time and Free Will, Ch 1, §35 "Does Experiment Prove that We can Measure Directly our Sensations of Light?

by Corry Shores
[Search Blog Here. Index-tags are found on the bottom of the left column.]

[Central Entry Directory]
[Bergson, Entry Directory]
[Bergson Time and Free Will, Entry Directory]

[The following is summary; my commentary is in brackets.]

Bergson, Time and Free Will

(Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience)

Chapter I, "The Intensity of Psychic States"

Part XIII: "Sensation of Light"

§35 "Does Experiment Prove that We can Measure Directly our Sensations of Light?"

As light intensities change, the things around us alter subtly in color. However, there are instances when we see only one light change in luminosity. In these cases we would be inclined to think that we have greater and lesser sensations of light. Bergson will now examine such psychophysical experiments to see whether sensation is qualitative or quantitative. (52-53)

[Next entry in this series.]

Images from the pages summarized above, in the English Translation [click on the image for an enlargement]:

Images from the pages summarized above, in the original French [click on the image for an enlargement]:

Bergson, Henri. Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness, Transl. F. L. Pogson, (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 2001).

Available online at:

http://www.archive.org/details/timeandfreewill00pogsgoog

French text from:

Bergson, Henri. Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience. Originally published Paris: Les Presses universitaires de France, 1888.

http://www.archive.org/details/essaisurlesdonn00berguoft

Bergson, Time and Free Will, Ch 1, §34 "The Sensation of Light. Qualitative Changes of Colour Interpreted as Quantitative Changes in Intensity of ..."

by Corry Shores
[Search Blog Here. Index-tags are found on the bottom of the left column.]

[Central Entry Directory]
[Bergson, Entry Directory]
[Bergson Time and Free Will, Entry Directory]

[The following is summary; my commentary is in brackets.]

Bergson, Time and Free Will

(Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience)

Chapter I, "The Intensity of Psychic States"

Part XIII: "Sensation of Light"

§34 "The Sensation of Light. Qualitative Changes of Colour Interpreted as Quantitative Changes in Intensity of Luminous Source"

When lights are dim, we have difficulty seeing things. When they are bright, we are dazzled. By increasing the the number of lights, the outlines of things become more clear. Also, things seem to alter in color as the amount of light increases or decreases. But we first believe that every object maintains its own color. So as the light dims and the object changes color, we mistakenly think instead that our sensation of the object is decreasing. Really, our consciousness receives a qualitative impression. Then our understanding erroneously interprets these qualitative impressions as quantitative ones. (51d)

Bergson then has us consider Helmholtz description of a similar incorrect interpretation. During different parts of the day, the sun gives off more-or-less light. Our bodies react more strongly when the sun is bright. And we mistakenly regard this as being a greater sensation of light, on account of the additional muscles involved when under its influence. Furthermore, we may re-create the white light of the sun by mixing certain colors. We use so much of one color, and so much of another, and together they produce white light. Then we equally increase the luminous intensity of both colors. The resulting white light remains the same color. However, we have a very disproportional increase in what seems to be the intensity of light sensation. But really the luminosity of our experimental lights were not increased very much. We use the sun's light as our standard for white light. And as we mentioned, our bodies react very strongly to changes in the sun's luminosity. Hence when we see those same changes in shade in the experimental lights, we interpret the sensation as increasing. But really there were only qualitative changes in our light sensations. (51-52)

[Next entry in this series.]

Images from the pages summarized above, in the English Translation [click on the image for an enlargement]:

Images from the pages summarized above, in the original French [click on the image for an enlargement]:

Bergson, Henri. Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness, Transl. F. L. Pogson, (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 2001).

Available online at:

http://www.archive.org/details/timeandfreewill00pogsgoog

French text from:

Bergson, Henri. Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience. Originally published Paris: Les Presses universitaires de France, 1888.

http://www.archive.org/details/essaisurlesdonn00berguoft

Bergson, Time and Free Will, Ch 1, §33 "The Sensations of Pressure and Weight Measured by Extent of Organism Affected"

by Corry Shores
[Search Blog Here. Index-tags are found on the bottom of the left column.]

[Central Entry Directory]
[Bergson, Entry Directory]
[Bergson Time and Free Will, Entry Directory]

[The following is summary; my commentary is in brackets.]

Bergson, Time and Free Will

(Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience)

Chapter I, "The Intensity of Psychic States"

Part XII: "Sensation of Weight"

§33 "The Sensations of Pressure and Weight Measured by Extent of Organism Affected"

If someone were to press down on our hand with increasing pressure, it might seem that the feeling of heaviness increased. But really there were only qualitative changes in the sensation: first we felt contact, then light pressure, then pain; the pain undergoes a sequence of qualitative changes, while the sensation slowly spreads to surrounding regions. (47-48)

When we sense various degrees of lightness and heaviness, we are really feeling "many species of these two genera." (48c) But we instantly translate these different qualities into quantities, because we notice the different muscle efforts needed to lift varying degrees of weight.

Bergson illustrates with a compelling example. Suppose someone tells us to lift a basket of scrap iron. But when we go to lift it, we find that really the basket is empty. Our bodies do not expect this. Rather, so many other muscles were ready to participate in lifting the basket, that when we try lifting it, we completely lose our balance, "as though distant muscles had interested themselves before hand in the operation and experienced a sudden disappointment." (49a) Thus we judge something's weight by the number of additional muscles we use to lift it. But we will have the same amount of sensation whether we lift something light or something heavy.

Imagine we lift something light according to a certain motion, then we lift something heavy using the same motion. We will incorrectly assume that both instances were qualitatively the same, except the heavy weight caused more of a sensation of heaviness. We are mistaken because we narrow our attention too much on the common muscles used in both cases. For, when lifting the heavier weight, we used additional muscles. And even the muscles used in both cases produced qualitatively different sensations in both instances. (50b)

[Next entry in this series.]

Images from the pages summarized above, in the English Translation [click on the image for an enlargement]:

Images from the pages summarized above, in the original French [click on the image for an enlargement]:

Bergson, Henri. Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness, Transl. F. L. Pogson, (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 2001).

Available online at:

http://www.archive.org/details/timeandfreewill00pogsgoog

French text from:

Bergson, Henri. Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience. Originally published Paris: Les Presses universitaires de France, 1888.

http://www.archive.org/details/essaisurlesdonn00berguoft