Bergson And Personal Realism

ter and spirit we have emptied its meaning to the vanishing point by one of those "efforts at intellectualization" which Bergson so greatly deplores. The actual line of demarcation is pronounced, and the controversy of philosophy must be settled by clear thinking rather than by ambiguous terms. The nature of the strife cannot thus be changed any more than could the desperate points at issue in the great American war be lost in the reference to it by a humorous writer as "the late unpleasantness." From This Definition Of Matter Arises Confusion In The Meaning Of Self Out of this confusion in the definition of being arises a further confusion as to the meaning of personality, or self. The self is referred to under the general term "body." Yet we say "my body," and "I," in contrast with my body. This may be a convenient form of expression if we are trying to break down the bordersbetween materiality and spirit. The device may enable me to group my body as an image with other bodies that comprise the material world, but the world has long since discarded the crude conception of organs of the body as the seat of the soul. There is great question whether any progress is to be made by recurring to the old expedient. According to Bergson's usage, the self is alternately matter and spirit as best suits the occasion. But he still further differentiates spirit from perception by making it always bound to time flown. He says: "It is in very truth within matter that pure pe...