Why did Henri Bergson believe intuition could reveal reality more deeply than analysis?

Henri Bergson argued that intuition provides a deeper understanding of reality than analysis because the two methods serve fundamentally different purposes.1

He maintained that analysis—the primary tool of science—is inherently conceptual and spatializing. By breaking reality into static, discrete parts, analysis is highly effective for practical action and manipulating the world. However, Bergson believed this process inevitably falsifies the nature of reality by imposing a "cinematographical" or mechanistic structure that ignores the essential flow of existence.1

In contrast, intuition is a global, immediate mode of knowledge that reaches into the heart of a subject through sympathy. Bergson posited that reality is defined by duration—a perpetual, indivisible flux of becoming. Because this duration is inexpressible through static concepts, it can only be grasped directly through intuition. Ultimately, Bergson viewed his entire philosophical project as an exploration of this duration, which he considered the innermost reality of all things.12