Bergson’s concept of the present is highly enigmatic one. On the one hand, he is a philosopher who follows common sense and pursues empiricism according to common sense. On the other hand, however, because he places emphasis on flowing continuity of the duration, he only sees the present as a cross section of the flow. Ultimately, it can be said that the present is a non-existent concept in his philosophy. However, in the first chapter of Matter and Memory, he assumes pure perception and writes as if it were possible to perceive in the present without duration. Deleuze suggests that this problem can be solved by a metaphysical interpretation of the phenomenon of déjà vu which Bergson discusses in his essay “Memory of the Present and False Recognition.” In this article, I would like to discuss these complicated but crucial issues.
