ABSTRACT
Bergson, as is well known, distinguished between two different ways of using the mind: intuition and intelligence. These two modes of mental activity are naturally correlative to two different aspects of reality. Bergson's distinction between intuition and intelligence also sheds new light on the range and function of metaphysical descriptions in general. It cautions us against confusing the result of conceptual, intellectual analyses with reality itself. Philosophers following a philosophical tradition are in constant danger of being deceived by this sort of metaphysical mistaken identity. Bergson's analysis of the function of intelligence cautions us against confusing the result of intellectual analysis with reality itself. Whitehead too tells us to land the plane, to return from the realm of intellectual abstraction to that of direct observation, and Bergson explains at length just how we do this: by returning, through painstaking intuition, to the ongoing immediacy of the concrete experience.
