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Jan 1, 1859 — Jan 1, 1941· 82 yrs

FRANCE AUTHOR · PHILOSOPHY · FRENCH PHILOSOPHY

Henri Bergson

Also known as: Henri Louis Bergson, Henri-Louis Bergson

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Henri-Louis Bergson (; French: [bɛʁksɔn]; 18 October 1859 – 4 January 1941) was a French philosopher who was influential in the traditions of analytic philosophy and continental philosophy, especially during the first half of the 20th century until the Second World War, but also after 1966 when Gilles Deleuze published Le Bergsonisme. Bergson is known for his arguments that processes of immediate experience and intuition are more significant than abstract rationalism and science for understanding reality. Bergson was awarded the 1927 Nobel Prize in Literature "in recognition of his rich and vitalizing ideas and the brilliant skill with which they have been presented". In 1930, France awarded him its highest honour, the Grand-Croix de la Legion d'honneur. Bergson's great popularity created a controversy in France, where his views were seen as opposing the "secular and scientific" attitude adopted by the Republic's officials.

Paris, France
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IT is usually admitted that states of consciousness, sensations, feelings, passions, efforts, are capable of growth and diminution; we are even told that a sensation can be said to be twice, thrice, four times as intense as another sensation of the same kind.

— from Time and free will, 1910

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#1

Time and free will

1910

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Bergson proposes a theory of time and freedom. Considered an influence on the French New Wave filmmakers, and a philosopher interested in humor and creativity, Bergson's works are generally a little awkward in translation (originals in French), but are well worth the effort. Bergson's basic argument here is that we (in literate Western cultures generally) use ideas and images associated with space to think about time, clocks and calendars as obvious examples. He says this tends to limit spontaneity and creativity in the present, because we are always using familiar images and expectations to confront the new, and we tend to think of moments in time as hardened rather than fluid as they are. This reviewer found this book to be life-changing, particularly to the degree it echoes some aspects of Eastern philosophies, psychologists interested in the experience of time, and even contemporary cultural critics like Marshal McLuhan.

#2

The world of dreams

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#3

Duration and simultaneity

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"Bergson's central contention is that time is not measurable by any objective standard; in Duration and Simultaneity, that position is tried out against the major movement in physics of the day - Relativity. Bergson argues that Relativity fails to live up to the promise of a truly relative physics, and counter to its own spirit retains some of the objectivist assumptions of previous world views. Duration and Simultaneity was conceived in the desire to make good the new paradigm to which Relativity was bound to lay claim; in the desire to be more Einsteinian than Einstein."--BOOK JACKET.

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