Explores the thought of Henri Bergson, highlighting his compelling theories on the nature of consciousness and its relationship to the physical world.

G. William Barnard is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Southern Methodist University. He is the author of Exploring Unseen Worlds: William James and the Philosophy of Mysticism, also published by SUNY Press, and coeditor (with Jeffrey J. Kripal) of Crossing. Boundaries: Essays on the Ethical Status of Mysticism.

Acknowledgments	p. x
Abbreviations	p. xiii
A Brief Bio-Historical Preamble	p. xv
Introduction	p. xxiii
Explorations of consciousness, authenticity, time, and freedom
The nature of consciousness	p. 3
Questioning and Experiencing Consciousness	p. 3
Enduring Duree	p. 6
Struggling with Immediacy	p. 7
Carving Up the World	p. 10
An "Object"-tive Understanding of Ourselves	p. 12
Language and Durée	p. 13
The Paradox of Durée	p. 14
Authenticity	p. 18
The Superficial Self and the Deep Self	p. 18
Rumination: Authentic Selfhood	p. 21
Time	p. 28
Duree as Time	p. 28
Rumination: Consciousness as Time	p. 30
Quantity and Quality	p. 33
Do Our Feelings Measure Up?	p. 33
Determinism	p. 38
Physical Determinism	p. 38
A Historical Interlude: Predeterminism	p. 40
Psychological Determinism	p. 44
Alternative Understandings Of The Self	p. 46
Associationist Ideas of the Self	p. 46
A Substantially Flowing Self	p. 41
Freedom	p. 51
Duree: Ever-New	p. 51
Arguing for Free Will	p. 54
Freedom: An Immediate Fact	p. 57
A Little Hard-Core Common Sense	p. 59
Degrees of Freedom	p. 61
Liminal Section: The Dynamism of Matter
The world "out there"	p. 71
Playing with the Space In-Between	p. 71
Splitting Up the World	p. 72
Movement	p. 73
Motion as a Whole	p. 73
Moving from One Point to Another	p. 14
Catching Up with Zeno	p. 16
An Atomistic Understanding of Reality	p. 78
Unchanging Atoms or Universal Flux?	p. 78
Mini-Rumination: Porous Bodies	p. 79
Going Beyond Classical Physics	p. 82
Beyond Mechanism	p. 82
Contra Atomism	p. 83
Bergson Said It First	p. 84
Melodies of the Self and the World	p. 88
Matter as Melody	p. 88
A Flowing Identity	p. 92
Rumination: The "Both/And" Perspective of Bergson	p. 95
The Matter of consciousness and the consciousness of matter
contemporary understandings of consciousness	p. 105
Remembering Matter and Memory	p. 105
Becoming Conscious of Consciousness	p. 106
Theories of Consciousness: Dualism	p. 107
Theories of Consciousness: Epiphenomenalism	p. 108
Theories of Consciousness: Materialism	p. 109
A Problem for Materialism: The Unity of Consciousness	p. 111
An Evolutionary Problem: When Did Consciousness Arise?	p. 113
Contemporary Theorists-Various "Camps"	p. 116
One Solution to the "Hard Problem": Panpsychism	p. 117
Why Is Panpsychism So Often Dismissed or Ignored?	p. 118
Images Of The Universe	p. 121
Making Consciousness Matter	p. 121
Material Images	p. 123
A Conscious Universe	p. 123
The Creation of Perceptions	p. 125
Rumination: Opening Ourselves to the Whole	p. 126
Nonlocality And Bergson's Universe Of Images	p. 130
Bell's Theorem and Nonlocality	p. 130
Nonlocality and the Work of David Bohm	p. 133
Perceptions And The Brain	p. 137
Pure Perceptions	p. 137
Perceptions and the Physical Body	p. 138
Relationships between the Brain and Consciousness	p. 140
Understanding the Relationship between the Brain and Consciousness	p. 141
The Brains Role in Pure Perception	p. 142
The Interaction Of Perception And Memory	p. 145
Pure Perceptions and "Primal" Memory	p. 145
Pure Perceptions and Two Basic Forms of Memory	p. 146
Rumination: Cappadocia, Turkey, 2004	p. 148
Moving From Perception To Memory	p. 151
The Differences between Memory and Perception	p. 151
Two Types of Memories	p. 152
The Interweaving Of Recollection Memory And Habit Memory	p. 155
The Cone of Memory and the Plane of Perception	p. 155
Planes of Consciousness	p. 156
Complete Perception	p. 159
Ruminations On The Hidden Power Of Memory	p. 162
Rumination, Part One: Psychic Cysts and Distorted Perceptions	p. 162
Rumination, Part Two: Freeing Ourselves, Creating New Worlds	p. 168
The Presence Of The Present	p. 173
The Presence of the Past and the Future of Presence	p. 173
The Character of Our Present, the Presence of Our Character	p. 175
Attending to the Present	p. 175
Mini-Rumination: Living in the Now	p. 177
The Indivisibility of Memory	p. 177
Memory And The Brain	p. 180
Where, Oh Where Are Our Memories Stored?	p. 180
Experimental Attempts to Find Memories in the Brain	p. 181
Philosophical Problems with the Memory Trace Theory	p. 184
Brain Injury and Memory: Bergsons Perspective	p. 187
Brain Injury and Memory: Current Understandings	p. 190
Mind And Matter As Different Rhythms Of Duree	p. 193
The Interweaving of Mind and Matter	p. 193
Quantity and Quality: The Difference Overcome	p. 195
Rhythms of Duree	p. 196
Embodying Memory	p. 199
Coping with Memory	p. 199
Rumination: Getting Dreamy and Going on Automatic	p. 200
Learning Physical Movements	p. 202
Moving Intuitively	p. 205
Rumination: Bodily Intuitions	p. 210
Becoming Conscious Of The Subconscious	p. 216
Consciousness and Unconsciousness	p. 216
Rumination: The Subconscious and Superconsciousness	p. 219
Recollection Memory, Dreams, And The Élan Vital	p. 224
Bergsons Ambivalence Toward Recollection Memory	p. 224
Recollection Memory and Bergsons Theory of Dreams	p. 227
The Creativity of Dreams	p. 229
Time and Dreams	p. 231
Dreams, "Virtual" Memory and the Elan Vital	p. 233
Bergson And Non-Ordinary Experiences	p. 237
Rumination: A Neo-Bergsonian Understanding of
Non-Ordinary Experiences	p. 237
Bergsons Participation in "Psychical Research"	p. 249
"Phantasms of the Living' and Psychical Research"	p. 252
Bergson And The Afterlife	p. 257
Bergson and the Survival of Consciousness after the Death of the Physical Body	p. 257
Rumination: Neo-Bergsonian Glimpses of the Afterlife	p. 259
Some Final Words	p. 269
Notes	p. 273
Bibliography	p. 317
Index	p. 327
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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Living Consciousness : The Metaphysical Vision of Henri Bergson

9781438439570

1438439571

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