ABSTRACT
Henri Bergson's theory of the relation of matter to memory suggests a possible solution of this problem as to how it is possible to analyse and so apply general laws to and explain duration: it becomes necessary, therefore, to give some account of this theory. Matter, for Bergson, is an exaggeration of the tendency in reality, towards logical distinctness, what he calls "spatiality". Apart from the actual fact neither matter nor memory has independent existence. The complementary exaggeration which, taken together with matter, completes Bergson's explanation of reality, is memory. Just as matter is absolute logical complexity memory is absolute creative synthesis. If Bergson's account of the way in which memory works is true there is a sense in which the whole past of every individual is preserved in memory and all unites with any present bare sensation to constitute the fact directly known to him at any given moment.
