Sartre Against Bergson’s Schema

This flow traces Sartre’s engagement with Bergson, from shared resistance to associationism to disagreement over the nature and activity of mental imagery.

increasingBearing stren­gth in each eventdecreasing

A Formative Influence

The Appeal of Bergson A shared opposition Henri Bergson had argued against treating images as weakened perceptions or automatic revivals. Sartre shares this resistance to associationist accounts and takes seriously the link between mental life and freedom. Bergson’s work also keeps duration and concrete experience in view, themes that matter to Sartre’s psychological inquiry. An influence under examination Sartre does not simply inherit a system. Bergson becomes a continuing interlocutor whose insights can be retained while his explanations are questioned.

The Dynamic Schema

A Theory of Preparation Waiting for images Bergson’s dynamic schema presents thought as an organized expectation of images. It improves on mechanical association by recognizing a developing structure that can guide what appears. Sartre acknowledges its explanatory value, especially as a way to describe knowledge approaching an image. The remaining difficulty He argues that Bergson does not adequately describe the intentional act that organizes the schema. Without such an act, the dynamic structure risks becoming a thing or force rather than conscious activity.

Knowledge Remains Active

The Image Is Not Dead Matter A disagreement over structure Sartre resists a sharp division in which the dynamic schema is living and moving while the image is fixed and dead. Knowledge does not disappear behind the image: it remains an active part of the imaging consciousness. The image’s elements form a synthesis rather than a collection of juxtaposed inner pictures. A revised inheritance Bergson’s idea of an expectation of images remains suggestive, but Sartre reframes it as a transition within intentional consciousness. The intellectual relationship becomes critical rather than merely receptive.

Before the composition of The Imaginary

Early in Part II, Chapter 1

Later in Sartre’s discussion of the schema