Bergson: The Possible and the Real

In our last text, "Technopoly", Neil Postman warned of a world where the ideology of technology strangles all novelty, connection, and spontaneity. But is that nightmare even possible? In his 1930 essay "The Possible and the Real", the French philosopher Henri Bergson suggests a very different picture: the world is like a living thing, and destined to surprise us continually, no matter how much we plan, calculate, or predict. The very idea of "the possible" constantly changes with experience, says Bergson; time is not doomed to any particular future, but "...is what prevents everything from being given all at once".

The essay can be found at http://bergsonian.org/the-possible-and-the-real/. It's only about 15 pages, so let's get through the whole thing. Good luck!