The Fourth Option for Epistemology: Bergson's Response to the Problem of the Correspondence Between Thought and Object

This paper examines the philosophical problem of “the correspondence between thought and object,” focusing on Henri Bergson’s fourth option as presented in Creative Evolution. Bergson proposes an alternative to the three options outlined since Kant: thought being subordinate to the object, the object being subordinate to thought, and the pre-established harmony between the two. Bergson’s fourth option suggests a progressive mutual adaptation between thought and object. To understand the significance of this choice, it is necessary first to discuss the premise that both intellect and matter share the characteristic of spatiality, which enables their mutual adaptation. Furthermore, the implicit assumption of another kind of knowledge, intuition, beyond both intellect and matter, is crucial for securing their adaptation. However, the validity of this intuition ultimately resides in the self-correspondence of thought, making it difficult to escape the limitations of solipsism. Therefore, the fundamental answers to the problem of correspondence between thought and object are reduced to two: divine guarantee or the self-correspondence of thought, neither of which provides a fully satisfactory resolution. The ultimate lesson of Bergson’s fourth option is the realization that this problem cannot be resolved satisfactorily through reason alone.