Henri Bergson

Em sua última obra, As Duas Fontes da Moral e da Religião, Henri Bergson investiga as origens, o desenvolvimento e a manutenção da sociedade humana por meio da distinção entre a sociedade fechada, baseada nos instintos primitivos de conservação da vida, e a sociedade aberta, fundada sobre a aspiração que impulsiona o homem à construção de uma vida em sociedade mais harmoniosa. Segundo o autor, os ideais democráticos são frutos da abertura de que as sociedades necessitam para seu progresso, o (...) qual, aos poucos, abrandaria a pressão das exigências impostas pela natureza para a conservação da vida em sociedade e possibilitaria aos homens conviverem mais livremente e mais afetuosamente com vistas a uma sociedade mais justa e sem tantos conflitos e mortes. Contudo, como escapar às determinações que a natureza impôs para que a vida em sociedade se mantivesse e conseguir que os homens se abram a outro tipo de vivência em conjunto? É esta a questão que o presente artigo procura investigar. Palavras-chave: Bergson, moral, política, mística. (shrink)

I will read the genealogy of the concept of energy through Bergson's Creative Evolution to argue that, historically, energy and its proto-concepts are grounded in spatialized notions of time. Bergson's work not only demands that we rethink energy and its relation to time, it also allows us to see that the concept of energy as we know it depicts time and materiality as a numerical multiplicity, which effaces the differences in kind which are characteristic of energy transformations and real duration. (...) To make this case, I first provide an analysis of Bergson’s concept of the cinematographical mechanism of thought, which splits duration into a composition of distinct states strung together by the idea of an impersonal becoming. Bergson claimed that this is the epistemological model for both ancient philosophy and modern science, meaning that it is also the epistemological ground within which energy concepts in western philosophy and science have been theorized. I then show how Bergson offers a way to overcome this model of theorizing through his method of intuition, and how these conclusions might be extended to future energy concepts. Thus, I argue that 1) Bergson’s work on duration allow us to interpret the genealogy of energy as the history of attempts to provide an account of change in terms of spatialized notions of time; 2) that his work offers a way of incorporating historicity into our understanding of energy; and 3) that thinking energy in the context of duration offers the possibility of conceptualizing energy as change itself rather than what remains constant through time. (shrink)

Henri Bergson is usually considered to be a ‘continental’ philosopher. This stimulating book is an attempt to introduce his philosophy into contemporary analytic philosophy of religion. Therefore,...

« Percevoir, dit Bergson, finit par n'être plus qu'une occasion de se souvenir. » De se souvenir ou de réfléchir? De Descartes à Bergson, toute la différence est là. Et, dans le fond, les deux doctrines sont si proches que l'une ne tarde pas à nous paraître comme la variation de l'autre. Qu'on réfléchisse ou que l'on se souvienne, la perception se fait comme un oubli de ce que l'on perçoit. Mais, tôt ou tard, il faut bien que les choses (...) reviennent et qu'on en tienne compte: cela se voit au bout du souvenir, chez Bergson, au bout de cinq méditations, chez Descartes. Et, rétablies dans leur juridiction, elles nous forcent de penser d'autre façon ce que l'intelligence seule imaginait de concevoir. Du côté de Descartes comme dans celui de Bergson, la philosophie se présente alors comme l'effort pour composer un équilibre entre ces deux postulations adverses, celle de la perception et celle de la réflexion. « Endlich, sagt Bergson, ist die Wahrnehmung nur eine Gelegenheit zurückzudenken. » Zurück- oder nachzudenken? Darin besteht, zwischen Descartes und Bergson, die ganze Verschiedenheit. Und im Grunde genommen, sind die zwei Lehrgebäude so nahe verwandt, daß nicht viel daran fehlt, die eine als eine Veränderung der anderen erscheinen zu lassen. Ob man nun nachdenkt, oder sich erinnert, so stellt sich die Wahrnehmung als ein Vergessen dessen dar, was man vernimmt. Über kurz oder lang aber, müssen die Sachen wiederkommen und darauf muß man Wert legen: das geschieht, bei Bergson, am Ende der Erinnerung, bei Descartes, am Ende von fünf Meditationen. Und in ihrer Gerichtsbarkeit wiederhergestellt, zwingen sie (d. h. die Sachen) uns auf eine andere Weise zu denken was der Verstand allein zu fassen ersonnen hat. Seitens Descartes, sowie seitens Bergson, stellt sich die Philosophie dar als die Anstrengung ein Gleichgewicht zu bilden, zwischen jene zwei gegensätzlichen Forderungen, die der Wahrnehmung und die der Überlegung. (shrink)

In Matter and Memory, Bergson identifies a problem with perception and resolves it by arguing that matter is an aggregate of images. However, it is unclear whether and how Bergson justifies this thesis, and interpreters differ considerably on this question. This paper formulates and analyzes Bergson’s arguments for this thesis in Chapter 1 of Matter and Memory. Bergson presents five arguments, some of which echo arguments in early modern philosophy. They jointly compose a substantive, well-structured defense of his thesis. This (...) paper also illuminates an aspect of Bergson’s method that departs from his famous reliance on intuition and is grounded in his conception of the clarity required in philosophy. (shrink)

L'actualité de la pensée de Bergson serait liée non pas à un ensemble de thèses mais à l'insistance d'une interrogation qu'il aurait formulée pour la première fois dans sa radicalité. Cette interrogation est celle qui met à jour la difficulté d'un commencement proprement et seulement humain de la réflexion. The current importance of Bergson's thought is not due to any set of theorems, but to the urgency of an inquiry, whose radical nature he would have been the first to consider, (...) and which remains pressing to day. This inquiry brings to light the difficulty of a beginning of a reflexion wich is rightfully and solely human. (shrink)

This paper presents Jean Nicod (1893–1924) as a mediator in the dispute between Bergson and Russell. In La géométrie dans le monde sensible (1924), Nicod extensively discusses Bergson’s epistemology focusing on those aspects that Russell critically discusses in The Philosophy of Henri Bergson (1912) and Our Knowledge of the External World (1914). His aim is to establish a middle ground between synthesis and analysis: to show how most of the disagreements between Bergson and Russell can be resolved without compromising the (...) central principles of their thought. Throughout this paper, I explicate Nicod’s exposition of two points of contention between Bergson and Russell: (1) the nature of sense-data and analysis, and (2) the relation between geometry and the sensible world. I will also show that his attempt to reconcile synthesis and analysis results in an innovative account of representation inspired by an early reading of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. In the conclusion, I reflect on how Nicod’s proficiency to engage with two increasingly diverging philosophical programmes, namely early analytic philosophy and the French epistemological tradition, could have affected the development of early twentieth-century philosophy. (shrink)

Saba Mahmood’s anthropological work studies the gain in skills, agency and capacity building by the women’s dawa movement in Egypt. These women increase their virtue toward the goal of piety by following dominant, often patriarchal norms. Mahmood argues that “teleological feminism” ignores this gain in agency because this kind of feminism only focuses on opposition or resistance to these norms. In this paper I defend Mahmood’s “anti-teleological” feminist work from criticisms that her project valorizes oppression and has no vision for (...) a nonoppressive feminist future. I argue the future envisioned by teleological feminists gets caught in “the Hegelian” trap of replicating past oppression in their feminist future. I find in Mahmood’s work the tools to escape this trap. I argue, rather than a movement of overcoming oppression, Mahmood’s work suggests an immanent and creative movement that emphasizes difference for a truly new future. I turn to a Bergsonian metaphor and argue that this movement can be seen as akin to the movement of biological evolution. I conclude using the work of Eve Sedgwick that the Egyptian women that Mahmood studies are being read in a “paranoid” fashion and demonstrate using Leila Ahmed a better “reparative” reading of these women. (shrink)

Matière et Memóire is, in the words of the great mentor and founder of the Portuguese Renaissance, “one of the most opulent, rich and penetrating books that philosophical thought has produced” (COIMBRA, 1994, p. 89) - and it is so on several levels. Here we will try to bring to light one of the most luminous innovations that were introduced by Bergson in the history of human thought, not only in its purely philosophical aspect, but also in its scientific importance. (...) By investigating the nature of the exosmotic relationship between memory and body, we will try to demonstrate how Bergson conceives the melodic unity of these two planes, showing that existence is always fundamentally focused on action. (shrink)

This book connects the philosophy of Henri Bergson to contemporary debates in metaphysics and analytic philosophy of religion. More specifically, the book demonstrates how Bergson’s philosophy of time can respond to the problem of foreknowledge and free will. The question of how humans can be free if God knows everything has been a perennial issue of debate in analytic philosophy of religion. The solution to this problem relies heavily on what one thinks about time. The problem of time is central (...) to Bergson’s philosophical system. In this book, the author offers a systematic application of Bergson’s thought to the freedom and foreknowledge problem. The first chapter presents a discussion of Bergson’s central concept of la durée (duration). The subsequent two chapters link la durée to the relation of time and space. Here the author provides a Bergsonian response to McTaggart’s argument for the unreality of time and develops a novel theory of time connected to Bergson’s analysis of temporal experience. The last three chapters explore the relation between free will, determinism, and divine foreknowledge. The author reconstructs Bergson’s theory of freedom and shows how it undermines the underlying dogmas of contemporary free-will theories. The author then argues that Bergson’s philosophy can be used to resolve the free will and foreknowledge problem in philosophy of religion. The monograph concludes by opening avenues for new research into Bergson and analytic philosophy of religion, such as the philosophy of religious language, the relation between God and modality, religious experience, and religious pluralism. (shrink)

Maria Rosa Antognazza's work has issued a historical challenge to the thesis that the analysis of knowledge (as justified true belief) attacked by epistemologists from Gettier onwards was indeed the standard view traditionally upheld from Plato onwards. This challenge led to an ongoing reappraisal of the historical significance of intuitive knowledge, in which the knower is intimately connected to what is known. Such traditional accounts of intuition, and their accompanying claims to epistemological primacy, constituted the precise target of Moritz Schlick's (...) critique. Schlick engages with this topic throughout his oeuvre, from some of his early epistemological writings, to his anti-metaphysical stance as a leading Logical Empiricist. Schlick crucially distinguishes knowledge from mere acquaintance, denying that the latter has epistemic status. He therefore argues that the very notion of ‘intuitive knowledge’ is a contradictio in adjecto. (shrink)

En este artículo buscamos mostrar que, tanto en la filosofía de Schopenhauer como también en la de Bergson, la experiencia estética se constituye como el paradigma del conocimiento intuitivo. A diferencia de lo que establece la teoría kantiana, para Schopenhauer y Bergson la intuición no sólo es la única forma de conocimiento inmediato, sino que no necesita de conceptos para aprehender aquello dado en la sensibilidad. Asimismo, puesto que actualmente no encontramos demasiada literatura sobre la influencia de Schopenhauer en la (...) filosofía de Bergson, dicho análisis pretende contribuir al establecimiento de los posibles vínculos entre ambas teorías. (shrink)

근대과학은 시공간 속에서 물질의 운동을 계산가능한 양적 법칙으로 다룸으로써 세계의 구조와 변화를 설명한다. 결정론은 우주의 구조를 이루는 모든 요소들과 전개의 법칙들이 미리 결정되어 있다는 입장이다. 베르그손과 드브로이는 공통적으로 이러한 고전역학의 전제와 설명방식을 문제삼는 데서 출발한다. 베르그손이 시간과 운동의 관념들을 철학적으로 심화시키는 과정에서 고전역학의 태도를 직접 겨냥하고 있다면 드브로이는 소립자의 파동성과 입자성의 관계라는 구체적인 문제를 해명하는 과정에서 고전역학적 사고방식의 한계에 봉착한다. 드브로이는 베르그손철학과 양자역학의 유사성을 세 가지로 분석해 보여준다. 첫째는 위치변화로서의 운동 개념에 대한 비판이다. 둘째는 전통적 인과율을 벗어나는 예측불가능성 개념의 부상이다. (...) 셋째는 견고한 실체성에 대한 부정이다. 우리는 드브로이의 논의를 따라 고전적 결정론이 붕괴되는 과정과 근거를 철학과 물리학의 양면에서 고찰하면서 그 수렴의 지점을 발견하고자 한다. (shrink)

Henri Bergson (1859-1941) was once the most famous philosopher in the world, but his reputation waned in the latter half of the 20th century. Barry Allen here makes the case for Bergson as a great philosopher, one whose thought has much to contribute to contemporary philosophical questions. Living in Time presents chapters on each of Bergson's four major works, explaining his theories of time, perception, memory, and panpsychic consciousness, his innovative concept of virtual existence, his objection to Darwin, his controversy (...) with Einstein, his philosophy of creative evolution, and his social philosophy of closed and open society. In particular Allen focusses on Bergson's powerful ideas on time. Classical arguments for determinism fallaciously apply spatial concepts to consciousness; once we take time seriously, which means acknowledging its reality as duration and its difference from space, Bergson showed that the arguments for determinism become insupportable. Bergson's ideas on time and evolution offer a comparison with Nietzsche, which Allen develops, exposing both philosophical concurrence and systematic difference. The book's conclusion discusses the question of Bergson and naturalism and summarizes the ontology of the virtual that emerges as a core part of Bergson's thought. (shrink)

Der Gegenstand der Erziehung ist sicherlich nicht der erste, den man mit der Philosophie Henri Bergsons in Verbindung bringt. Weit eher denkt man an solche Konzeptionen und Begriffe seines Œuvres, die eine Zuordnung Bergsons zur philosophiegeschichtlichen Strömung der Lebensphilosophie erleichtern, beispielsweise an die Dauer als Formprinzip unserer subjektiven Zeiterfahrung, die Intuition als Erkenntnismodus unseres Lebensvollzugs und ein umfassendes abstraktionskritisches Programm, das eine szientistische Vereinseitigung und Überanwendung des Intellekts forsch zurückweist. Betrachtet man weite Strecken des bergsonschen Werkes, so lässt sich dieses (...) in der Tat durchaus als eine schrittweise Verallgemeinerung der Dauer als dem zeitlichen Prinzip unseres Lebensvollzugs hin zum élan vital als dem Kreationsprinzip von Wirklichkeit überhaupt beschreiben. (shrink)

L’entreprise intellectuelle de Théodule Ribot est fondamentale pour l’œuvre et la trajectoire d’Henri Bergson, qu’on pourrait considérer comme un de ses collaborateurs. Les combats de Ribot pour la psychologie aboutissent à la formulation de principes méthodologiques (l’introspection et le recours aux études médicales) et de principes scientifiques (les concepts de réflexe et de mouvement) utilisés librement dans Matière et mémoire. Et avec le projet de « métaphysique positive » qu’il soutient entre 1901 et 1904, Bergson prend au Collège de France (...) le relais du « positif », après que Ribot en a pacifié le terme. (shrink)

La rencontre entre Bergson et Einstein en 1922 est souvent présentée comme un cas exemplaire d’incompréhension réciproque entre le philosophe et le physicien. Pourtant, la même année, Bergson publiait _Durée et simultanéité_, analyse et interprétation de cette même Relativité. Il serait erroné de présenter Bergson comme le philosophe ignorant des sciences dures. Entre le texte de 1922 de _Durée et simultanéité_ et celui de 1934 du _Nouvel Esprit Scientifique_, il n’y a pas passage d’une interprétation erronée de la Relativité à (...) une intelligence philosophique de ses enjeux. Bergson avait parfaitement compris la Relativité, tout du moins autant que cela se pouvait pour quelqu’un qui n’était pas un physicien et peut-être autant que certains physiciens à la même époque. Si erreurs il y a dans _Durée et simultanéité_, elles reposent sur la démarche philosophique plutôt que sur la non-maîtrise des éléments de physique. Par conséquent, le passage de Bergson à Bachelard, en ce domaine, est bien un renversement dans la démarche philosophique. C’est ce renversement philosophique qu’il s’agit d’expliciter. (shrink)

The purpose of this chapter is to argue that the work of Susan Stebbing, an analytic philosopher and proponent of both common sense philosophy and logicism at the time of their emergence in English scholarship, provides a better model for an analysis of continental thought than the work of her contemporary, Bertrand Russell. The comparison is important as it shows why Stebbing’s work should be chosen over Russell’s if the goal is to find a quintessential analytic approach to continental thought (...) from an influential and early figure of analytic philosophy whose approach also engages and does justice to the continental thought it addresses. To do so the article demonstrates why the methods Stebbing utilised when analysing philosophy from traditions different from her own were superior to Russell’s tactics for the same purposes. Their respective interpretations of the philosophy of Henri Bergson are compared to give a concrete example of the results of their respective methods of understanding. The article begins with a general account of what makes Stebbing’s approach particularly effective. This includes the premises she adopts and her tactics of analysis. It then gives a more elaborate account of these vis-à-vis her study of Bergson’s philosophy. Following is an explanation of Russell’s tendencies when analysing philosophical frameworks different to his own, including Bergson’s. Finally, Stebbing and Russell’s respective understanding of Bergson’s philosophy is compared on four general pillars: classification of Bergson’s work (with focus on its purported rapport with pragmatism); Bergson’s stance on intellectualism; the philosophical pertinence of his style; and the place of argumentation in his philosophy. These comparisons demonstrate the superiority of Stebbing’s approach. (shrink)

Resenha do curso ministrado por Henri Bergson no Collège de France, no ano universitário de 1901-1902. Tradução Débora Cristina Morato Pinto. Editora da Unesp 2022.

Aunque el propio Bergson llegó a afirmar que no siempre había manejado una misma noción de tiempo en cada una de sus obras, en este artículo pretendo reconstruir la filosofía bergsoniana del tiempo y tratar de demostrar que hay una concepción unitaria de la _durée_, solo que desde diversas perspectivas. Un examen atento de algunos pasajes clave de sus obras nos muestra que en Bergson hay una progresiva profundización en la noción de tiempo, que comienza por la duración en la (...) conciencia y culmina en el tiempo del universo. De este modo, Bergson no psicologiza el tiempo, sino que más bien “temporaliza” el mundo y la conciencia. (shrink)

In the selections that follow, Grace Neal Dolson offers a critical reading of experience, intuition, and duration in Bergson’s thought.

Levinas is almost solely studied from the perspective of phenomenology, and this is evidently quite justifiable by the fact that the philosopher claims to be Husserl’s heir, although it is very importante to consider other influences for a deeper understanding of his thought, such as talmudism and Russian literature. But, in general, an important reference remains forgotten that Levinas never fails to mention in his interviews and even in the preface to the German edition (1987) of his important book Totalité (...) et infini: Bergson’s philosophy. Our objective is to seek the elements of this approach, often mentioned but little explored, between the ethical intuitions of Levinas and Bergson. Although it is not the work Les deux sources de la morale et de la religion that Levinas likes to remember when referring to Bergson, it is what we will evoke to suggest an intuitive communication that connects the bergsonian concept of open and the levinasian concept of the infinite. Levinas takes a step beyond phenomenology when he elaborates one of his fundamental concepts, that of visage, and it is he himself who admits in the conversation with Philippe Nemo entitled Éthique et infini (1984), but we should be surprised if the most important notion of Levinas ethics, that of infinity, would reveal what is most essential in Bergson’s ethics, the sense of openness through which unlimited, in other words, unconditional, responsibility is announced? (shrink)

This paper seeks to highlight the importance of spatial cognition in Bergson’s Données immédiates by engaging with Robert Watt’s reconstruction of Bergson’s argument that every idea of number involves the idea of space. We focus on the second stage of Watt’s reconstruction, where Bergson argues that only space can provide the distinction required for our counting of otherwise identical items. Watt bases his reconstruction on a premise regarding the possibility that identical objects, in the absence of spatial distinction, might remain (...) identical across different “temporal locations”. Our paper raises the prospect that Bergson is committed to a stronger thesis, namely one implying that identical objects would necessarily remain indistinguishable without the intervention of space. The paper thus concludes by emphasizing the indispensability of space for knowledge according to Bergson. (shrink)

Bergson a toujours voulu séparer science et philosophie soulignant que chacune suit une méthode radicalement différente de l’autre. Bachelard, critiquant les concepts fondamentaux de la philosophie de Bergson, voit dans cette séparation un danger très grave tant pour la science que pour la philosophie. Il faut montrer selon lui les faiblesses du bergsonisme afin d’empêcher que la philosophie ait le dernier mot sur ce qu’est la réalité et le temps. On verra donc, mot par mot, comment les deux philosophes traitent (...) le temps, la durée, la multiplicité, la continuité et la discontinuité. On aboutira ainsi à une sorte de dialogue entre sourds, analogue à celui qui eut lieu entre Bergson et Einstein en 1922. (shrink)

This study concerns the ideas of one particular philosopher, Henri Bergson, whose views of time, intuition, and creativity have had a significant impact on art, literature, and the humanities, both in his time and in our own. Although it is generally recognized that Bergson's ideas have significantly impacted the arts and the humanities, it has not been recognized how they have also had a creative influence on the sciences as well. Nor has it been realized that this was one of (...) his most basic contentions. Bergson's conception of intuition--his fundamental insight into reality--was not limited to fugitive insights into human existence. By realizing previously unsuspected possibilities for research and discovery, his endeavors were also meant to make possible new advances in the sciences. If it enabled his cousin by marriage, Marcel Proust, to explore human memory in depth, it also inspired psychologists like Daniel Schachter to use Bergson's ideas to make real contributions to contemporary memory science. If his notion of creative evolution brought many thinkers to a belief in human creative freedom, it brought others (notably Alexis Carrel and Pierre Lecomte de Noüy) to a scientific study of biological time. Among his successful speculations was the theory of the Big Bang cosmology. 'Getting Bergson Straight' shows many points at which Bergson's ideas anticipated future developments in the sciences. This was seen clearly by the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Luis de Broglie who viewed Bergson's physics as presaging quantum physics. Thus, the text is well situated for arts, humanities, social science, and natural science classrooms studying creative thinking and/or intellectual history. (shrink)

In this article, Marjorie Silliman Harris offers a critical reading of Henri Bergson’s view of freedom as a creative act by the fundamental self.

This volume brings Bergson's key ideas from Matter and Memory into dialogue with contemporary themes on memory and time in science, across analytic and continental philosophy. Focusing specifically on the application of Bergson's ideas to cognitive science, the circuit between perception and memory receives full explication in 15 different essays. By re-reading Bergson through a cognitive lens, the essays provide a series of alternative analytic interpretations to the standard continental approach to Bergson's oeuvre, without fully discounting either approach. The relevance (...) of philosophies of mind and memory sit alongside the role of a metaphysics of time in exploring connections to psychology, biology, and physics. This eclecticism includes an exciting focus on numerous topics that are not given sufficient attention in extant studies of Bergson, including the precise nature of his ideas on dualism, memory, and ecological theories of perception, especially in relation to his contemporaries. Led by leading Bergson scholars from France and Japan, this book maps the rich terrain of Bergson's contemporary relevance alongside the historical context of his ideas. (shrink)

Il est cinq heures, le cours est terminé? sont les dernières paroles prêtées à Henri Bergson sur son lit de mort début janvier 1941 à Paris.00Avec Bergson disparaissait ± le dernier grand nom de l'intelligence européenne? (Paul Valéry). Né au milieu du siècle précédent, Bergson avait suivi un itinéraire à nul autre pareil qui le conduisit des salles obscures d'une pension israélite à Paris où ses parents l'avaient abandonné enfant, aux cimes éblouissantes de l'École normale supérieure, de l'agrégation de philosophie, (...) du Collège de France, de l'Académie française et du Prix Nobel de littérature, en laissant derrière lui une oeuvre magistrale nimbée, comme d'une poussière d'étoiles, d'honneurs, de distinctions, de récompenses et de titres.00Ascension vertigineuse, qui porta Bergson à l'apogée de la gloire et même de cette ± rallonge bizarre de la gloire qu'est la légende? (Thibaudet), mais qui s'acheva dans la désolation d'une nuit d'hiver où la France qu'il chérissait tant, s'enfonçait dans la honte de la collaboration et de la persécution des Juifs dont il ne voulut pas se désolidariser en renonçant à une conversion catholique annoncée.00Plus de quatre-vingts ans après sa disparition, la figure de Bergson s'est estompée comme sur ces vieilles photographies qui avec le temps ne laissent voir que des silhouettes fantomatiques.00Il est cinq heures, le cours est terminé veut replacer dans la lumière celui que Raymond Aron sacrait ± le plus français des philosophes?. (shrink)

Cent ans après sa parution, il est possible de lire le livre de Bergson sur la relativité de façon moins polémique qu’à l’époque. La maturation et la stabilisation de la théorie d’Einstein, devenue une composante banale de l’arsenal des physiciens, permettent une évaluation précise des méprises commises par Bergson dans son exégèse, en même temps qu’elles amènent à reconnaître leur intérêt épistémologique. Nous entendons ici réfléchir sur cette lecture bergsonienne de la Rélativité einsteinienne.

This article explores the temporal nature of philosophy and the concept of duration (durée) in Henri Bergson's (1859–1941) philosophical methodology. The aim is to examine how time, particularly the concept of duration, is present in Bergson's philosophical approach and his understanding of the nature of philosophy itself. The analysis primarily relies on Bergson's works, including Creative Mind (1934), Mind-Energy (1920), and his 1916 speech delivered at the student residence in Madrid, while utilizing the definition of duration found in Time and (...) Free Will and Duration and Simultaneity. The focus is on the role of duration in Bergson's methodology and the resulting implications for the nature of philosophy. I will exemplify the practical application of the concept of duration with examples, especially from Creative Evolution. (shrink)

Henri Bergson (1859–1941) oli yksi 1900-luvun alkupuolen merkittävimpiä ranskalaisia filosofeja. Hän nousi kansainväliseen maineeseen pääteoksensa L’évolution créatrice (Luova evoluutio, 1907) myötä. Bergsonin filosofian kantavana ajatuksena on todellisen muutoksen luonteen ymmärtäminen. Bergsonin ajattelulle ominaista on erityistieteiden filosofinen analysointi ja tieteellisten tutkimustulosten tuominen osaksi filosofiaa. Vaikka Bergsonin omat filosofiset tavoitteet keskittyivät erityisesti tieteenteoreettisiin aiheisiin psykologiassa, biologiassa ja sosiologiassa sekä metafyysisiin kysymyksiin, hänen ajattelunsa vaikutus näkyy erityisesti myöhemmässä ranskalaisessa filosofiassa, fenomenologiassa ja eksistentialismissa. Urallaan Bergson osallistui aktiivisesti demokraattisen kansalaisyhteiskunnan toimintaan. Hänen uraansa värittivätkin erilaiset (...) filosofiset, tieteelliset ja poliittiset kiistat. (shrink)

The research focuses on the problem of freedom from that point of view which puts captiveness by being and openness to being in the middle of non-dialectical examination. This perspective clarifies not only the major course of Bergson’s thought, but also the subsequent incorrect shift to the pole of openness in the hermeneutical interpretation of facticity, implemented by Heidegger. The work is conventionally divided into two parts. The first one inquires about specifics of the method used by Bergson. It is (...) emphasized the proximity in between Bergson's orientation to the common sense and phenomenological research, despite all differences in these approaches. Also it’s gives a general analysis of Bergson’s concepts used in “Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness” and in “Matter and Memory” in order to adequately questioning about the freedom of a person, acting on the basis of specific practical conditions of his existence. Bergson draws the roads of freedom through the adaptability of the intelligible to the prose of life, establishing the plane of immanence with its unbreakable boundaries. The second part analyzes aesthetic consequences of Bergson’s theory of perception and memory, thus opening access to descending pathways in sensory data processing. The theory of duration and the emphasis it places on retrospection in clarifying what accompanies the act of perception, argues for the connection of creativity with the process of actualization of the virtual. With reference to Deleuze, it is criticized the irrational attempt to assert the beginning of creativity both in nothingness and in the realization of the possible by its limiting. Thus, the appeal to Bergson’s ontological intuitions allows to refuse both the aesthetics of the origin and the logic of the readiness-to-hand-being as primarily encountered in the world. In conclusion, it is considered Bergson's polemic with Einstein, in the resolution of which the logic of differentiation seems preferable to the logic of dialectical sublation. (shrink)

Nosso objetivo é discutir sobre o papel da ação na constituição da inteligência e suas implicações para a ação estética na filosofia de Henri Bergson. Sendo, para esse filósofo, o conhecimento humano moldado, em larga medida, pela inteligência – faculdade intimamente relacionada a uma compreensão determinista – como poder- se-ia compreender a atividade criadora, em particular a criação artística, a qual está intimamente relacionada com a noção de imprevisibilidade? O artista, como um pintor, por exemplo, por mais que planeje, não (...) sabe como será no final a sua pintura, assim como os momentos e ações de sua vida. Com a criação, ele apresenta a fluidez da duração, a sua criação contínua. Procuramos mostrar que para Bergson a criação artística envolve um distanciamento da inteligência e o envolvimento de outra capacidade humana, liberta das necessidades da ação, ou seja, a intuição. Palavras-chave: Ação. Inteligência. Intuição. Duração. Criação. (shrink)

The question of the nature of free will remains a perennial challenge for philosophy. The French philosopher Henri Bergson was one who sought to address this challenge. He argued that traditional conceptions of the free-will debate would not suffice. He suggested that both determinist and libertarian accounts fall foul of spatializing tendencies. Bergson's first major work, Time and Free Will, sought to ground his understanding of freedom, in contrast to traditional understandings, in the concept of duration. Bergson, however, actively resisted (...) attempts to define clearly freedom, which he believed ultimately leads to a spatializing of freedom. By attending to Bergson's concept of duration in Time and Free Will, and how this concept relates to freedom, it becomes possible to articulate a positive conception of freedom. This becomes important when arguing for the validity of Bergson's ideas in the current climate. Thus, a positive conception of freedom for Bergson can be “defined” as “the creation of the new within the flow of duration.” It is, however, not something that can be defined, but is something that can be located. (shrink)

Review of Olkowski, D. (2021). Deleuze, Bergson, Merleau-Ponty: The Logic and Pragmatics of Creation, Affective Life, and Perception. Indiana: Indiana UP.

Review of Lovasz, A. (2021). Updating Bergson: A Philosophy of the Enduring Present. Lanham: Lexington books.