Appearing here in English for the first time, Vladimir Jankélévitch's _Henri Bergson_ is one of the two great commentaries written on Henri Bergson. Gilles Deleuze's _Bergsonism_ renewed interest in the great French philosopher but failed to consider Bergson's experiential and religious perspectives. Here Jankélévitch covers all aspects of Bergson's thought, emphasizing the concepts of time and duration, memory, evolution, simplicity, love, and joy. A friend of Bergson's, Jankélévitch first published this book in 1931 and revised it in 1959 to treat (...) Bergson's later works. This unabridged translation of the 1959 edition includes an editor's introduction, which contextualizes and outlines Jankélévitch's reading of Bergson, additional essays on Bergson by Jankélévitch, and Bergson's letters to Jankélévitch. (shrink)

Philosopher Vladimir Jankélévitch has only recently begun to receive his due from the English-speaking world, thanks in part to discussions of his thought by Jacques Derrida, Emmanuel Lévinas, and Paul Ricoeur. His international readers have long valued his unique, interdisciplinary approach to philosophy’s greatest questions and his highly readable writing style. Originally published in 1967, Le Pardon, or Forgiveness, is one of Jankélévitch’s most influential works. In it, he characterizes the ultimate ethical act of forgiving as behaving toward the perpetrator (...) as if he or she had never committed the action, rather than merely forgetting or rationalizing it—a controversial notion when considering events as heinous as the Holocaust. Like so many of Jankélévitch’s works, Forgiveness transcends standard treatments of moral problems, not simply generating a treatise on one subject but incorporating discussions of topics such as free will, giving, creativity, and temporality. Translator Andrew Kelley masterfully captures Jankélévitch’s melodic prose and, in a substantive introduction, reviews his life and intellectual contributions. Forgiveness is an essential part of that legacy, and this indispensable English translation provides key tools for understanding one of the great Western philosophers of the twentieth century. (shrink)

"Although the original version of Vladimir Jankelevitch's book La mauvaise conscience appeared in 1933, and a second, significantly expanded version appeared in 1951, the present translation corresponds to the 1966 version of the book as it is found in the anthology Vladimir Jankelevitch, philosophie morale."--Translator's introduction.

"L'Aventure, l'Ennui et le Sérieux sont trois manières dissemblables de considérer le temps. Ce qui est vécu, et passionnément espéré dans l'aventure, c'est le surgissement de l'avenir. L'ennui, par contre, est plutôt vécu au présent : dans cette maladie l'avenir déprécie rétroactivement l'heure présente, alors qu'il devrait l'éclairer de sa lumière. Quant au sérieux, il est une certaine façon raisonnable et générale non pas de vivre le temps, mais de l'envisager dans son ensemble, de prendre en considération la plus longue (...) durée possible. C'est assez dire que si l'aventure se place surtout au point de vue de l'instant, l'ennui et le sérieux considèrent le devenir surtout comme intervalle : c'est le commencement qui est aventureux, mais c'est la continuation qui est, selon les cas, sérieuse ou ennuyeuse." Publié en 1963, L'Aventure, l'Ennui, le Sérieux est un jalon majeur de la pensée de Vladimir Jankélévitch. Cet ouvrage constitue une première synthèse de sa pensée, où l'on peut distinguer deux critères essentiels qui fondent l'unité de son oeuvre : la dignité philosophique donnée à des objets jugés mineurs, et la volonté radicale de mettre en lumière la dimension temporelle de l'action. (shrink)