Bergson and the Processual Ontology of Experience. From Pain Assessment to Philosophical Categories

Abstract

Henri Bergson revolutionizes philosophy by processualizing traditional categories, transforming them into tools for thinking of reality as a continuous flow. This paper focuses on his crucial reconceptualization of intensity, which he redefines from a spatial measure into a qualitative progression, a temporal process rooted in the compenetration of heterogeneous qualities and embodied effort. For Bergson, pain itself is paradigmatic of this process, defined as an active effort, a temporal striving for equilibrium. Using pain and its linguistic expression as a case study, we demonstrate how contemporary clinical assessment tools systematically fail because they commit the very category error Bergson identified, reducing this qualitative, temporal process to a quantitative, spatial measure. Through the analysis of patient narratives, we derive five processual categories of pain, Corporeity, Motivation, Assessment, Processual Orientation, and Affectivity, that capture its dynamic nature. This work shows how Bergson’s processual ontology operates as both a theoretical framework and a practical analytical tool, offering new perspectives for empirical research while enriching the philosophical understanding of complex experience.