신비주의와 베르그손의 철학

Abstract

Religion has the same goals as science and philosophy in that it seeks to tell the truth about the world and our own being. But, unlike science and philosophy, which rely on rational thinking of reasons, religion argues that it is a special kind of experience that underlies the credibility of what it says about the world. Religion argues that this particular kind of experience can teach us more truly about the world than the rational thinking of science or philosophy can do. If we look at how these experiences occur, we can see that the principle of their occurrence is a "conversion of consciousness," in which our consciousness, which is directed normally to the external environmental world for our own survival and adaptation, returns its direction of interest to our inner mind. Therefore, the following issue arises: How can this religious method of going inside ourselves be a way to understand the external world that extends itself largely beyond ourselves? Bergson's philosophy seems to show how these seemingly paradoxical and absurd religious claims can be justified. The task of this article is to show how Bergson's theory of <Duration> can justify the religious vision of the world, which seems, in large part, to be trans-rational – or even anti-rational.