Sunday, May 23, 2010

recognition before thinking

Impressive passage by Henri Bergson;

In fact, we commonly act our recognition before we think it. Our daily life is spent among objects whose very presence invites us to play a part: in this the familiarity of their aspect consists. Motor tendencies would, then, be enough by themselves to give us the feeling of recognition.
[Bergson, H. (1896/1991). Matter and Memory trans. N. M. Paul and W. S. Palmer. New York: Zone. p.95]

A cup affords us to hold it and drink the coffee in it, a chair affords us to sit down on it, a computer affords us to write an article. All the surrounding objects invites us to act in certain ways. We recognize the objects through our motor capacity. Recognition is not a representation in the mind, but is lived through embodied action.