The Place of Bergson’s Duration in Gilles Deleuze’s Philosophical Framework

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Hossien Zohdi Sehat 1
Syed Masoud Seif 2
Ali Naghi Baghershahi 3
1 Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy and Islamic Theology, Faculty of Humanities, University of Malayer, Malayer, Iran
2 Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Humanities, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran
3 Imam Khomeini International University
10.22034/mi.2026.11095
Abstract
Deleuze is fascinated by Spinoza’s concept of expression, which unifies the single substance with its states and attributes. Yet this “expression” is temporal. In other words, substance, as a fluid constant, requires a fluid context for its expression or realization, and this context is time. Of course, this time is neither circular nor linear, nor is it simply existential time; rather, it is a form of temporality that emerges through the key Bergsonian concept of durée. According to the Deleuze-Bergsonian understanding of time, durée is internal, non-numerical, indivisible, and devoid of spatial characteristics. Durée is centered on transition, change, and becoming, but on a becoming that endures and a change that expresses the fluidity of substance. The main characteristic of durée is difference. In fact, durée is that which differs from itself, a difference that does not fall under the categories of identity. What makes durée durable is precisely this difference. Of course, this is not a difference from something else or from another entity, but a difference from oneself, or, more precisely, a difference in itself. This shows that difference in itself is not an attribute imposed upon something else but is entirely inherent in it. It is precisely this inherent character that fascinates Deleuze and accounts for his profound interest in Bergson.
Keywords
Deleuze, Bergson, Duré
e, Becoming, Difference
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