The Dialectics of Outside and Inside Summary and Analysis

The terms outside and inside create a forced-choice form of geometric reasoning that clouds the issue when used metaphorically. An object or concept is either in or out without allowance for any gray area or halfway. The reasoning process of either here or there becomes an absolutism used, unfortunately, with ontological determinism. The first issue to address is that the inside is limited and concrete whereas the outside is vast and unlimited. The terms do not represent symmetrical realities despite how they are used linguistically.

Bachelard uses the example of a prose-poem titled "Shade-Haunted Space," by Henri Michaux to illustrate the significance of unuttered words and unfulfilled intentions. Outside and inside space is like a mixture of being and nothingness. Bachelard is amused by space images, where all complications can be...