ESTRATEGIAS DE ENSEÑANZA

T h e i n t u i t i o n o f t h e s e l f b y s e l f w a s t h e r e f o r e n o t a b s t r a c t b u t e x i s t e n t i a l B u t B e r g s o n h a d d i s c o v e r e d t h i s v e r y t h i n g i n h i s f i r s t w o r k , E s s a i s u r l e s d o n n é e s i m m é d i a t e s d e l a c o n s c i e n c e , w h i c h w a s p u b l i s h e d i n 1 8 8 9 , s i x y e a r s b e f o r e P e i l l a u b e ' s w o r k . T h e s e l f a s e x i s t i n g i n t i m e h e n a m e d ' l a d u r é e r é e l l e '1

La durée se présente ainsi à la conscience immédiate, et elle conserve cette forme tant qu'elle ne cède pas la place à une représentation symbolique, tirée de

l'étendue ... .. Au-dessous de la durée homogène, symbole extensif de la 'durée vraie,une psychologie attentive

deméle une durée dont les moments hétérogènes se pénètrent; au dessous de la multiplicité qualitative; au-dessous du moi aux états bien définis, un moi où succession implique fusion et organisation (L'Essai, p. 85).

T h i s n e w d e p a r t u r e l e d t o m u c h e x p l o r a t i o n o f t h e ' i n t u i t i o n d u m o i ' b y o t h e r s , n o t a b l y R o l a n d - G o s s e l i n a n d M a r i t a i n , b o t h o f w h o m a c k n o w l e d g e d t h e i n f l u e n c e o f B e r g s o n o n t h e i r r e s e a r c h e s .

Then Maritain, at about the time of Les degrés du savoir (1932) conceived of the possibility of an aesthetic intuition of beauty which 1. 1864-1934» Professeur at Institut Catholique I896-I912 and its

Dean thereafter.

2. In his Théorie des concepts; existence, origine, valeur (Lethielleux, 1895)Ï "Dans l'intuition synthétique de la conscience, nous

saisissons le moi dans l'acte et l'acte dans le moi ... Grâce à nos opérations, nous sommes donc immédiatement présents à nous- mêmes, et nous nous saisissons directement dans une intuition"

(p. 554)-

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I

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he called 'preconscious• in the sense that it was present in the mind prior to the abstracting process^. Here was another intuition which v;as direct and pre-conceptual. Maritain also wondered about man’s ,

knowledge of God. Was this in any sense abstractive or could it be 2

immediate and existential?

It was not by chance that Bergson analyzed both the aesthetic intui­ tion of beauty and the existential knowledge of God. He asserted that spiritual realities were directly knovra and in fact defined intuition in general as "la vision directe de l’esprit par l’esprit" (P.M,, p. 1274)î

(l'intuition) voudrait saisir dans les choses ... leur participation à la spiritualité,nous dirions à la divinité.

Thus, the idea of intuition as pre-conceptual knowledge eventually came to be sub-divided into various categories according to its objeot(s). The most interesting'consequence of this was that these subdivisions were then 'rediscovered' in Aquinas's own philosophy. Bruce Wuellner reflects this trend in A dictionary of scholastic philosophy (Bruce Pub­ lishing Co., Milwaukee, U.S.A., I966) by listing under 'intuition' six different types of knowledge and under 'contuition' the knowledge of God (or spiritual reality in and through some aspect of creation).

Alongside this preoccupation with intuitive knowledge went another line of research in epistemology, which concerned the function of the will in the act of knowledge. This essentially Kantian or August inian

bias nevertheless owed something to Bergson. Joseph Maréchal

1 . T h i s i s d i s c u s s e d a t l e n g t h i n C h a p t e r E i g h t .

2 . T h i s s u b j e c t i s c o n s i d e r e d i n t h e c h a p t e r o n M a r i t a i n ' s p h i l o s o p h y ( c h a p t e r S e v e n ) .

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