Henri Bergson
Lived time flows and cannot be cut into measurable pieces, and intuition grasps this creative flow of life better than the intellect does.
Placement
Lived duration (durée) instead of measurable time; the élan vital as creative life force.
Key ideas
- Durée
- Élan vital
- Intuition
Influence
Influenced by 3
Plotinus
influenced by ✓
Bergson lectured on Plotinus at the Collège de France; The Two Sources (1932) saw in him the height of contemplative mysticism, which stops short of action. H. Bergson, Les Deux Sources de la morale et de la religion (1932); lectures on Plotinus, Collège de France; SEP “Henri Bergson”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Plotinus › 204–270
Baruch de Spinoza
influenced by ✓
In ‘Philosophical Intuition’ (1911) Bergson took Spinoza as his example of a simple intuition behind a complex system, felt beneath the geometrical apparatus of the Ethics. H. Bergson, “L’intuition philosophique” (1911), in La Pensée et le mouvant (1934); SEP “Henri Bergson”
Baruch de Spinoza › 1632–1677
Charles Darwin
influenced by ✓
In Creative Evolution (1907) Bergson accepted evolution but argued that Darwin’s insensible accidental variations cannot explain convergent organs such as the eye, positing a vital impetus. H. Bergson, L’Évolution créatrice (1907); SEP “Henri Bergson”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Charles Darwin › 1809–1882
Influenced 16
William James
influenced
In A Pluralistic Universe (1909) James devoted a lecture to Bergson and his critique of intellectualism, taking from him that concepts cut up the continuous flux of experience. W. James, A Pluralistic Universe (1909), “Bergson and His Critique of Intellectualism”; letter to Bergson, 13 June 1907; SEP “William James”
Evidence: AI draft
William James › 1842–1910
Alfred North Whitehead
influenced
In Science and the Modern World (1925) Whitehead linked his ‘fallacy of misplaced concreteness’ to Bergson’s protest against the intellect’s spatialisation of nature, while denying it is inevitable. A. N. Whitehead, Science and the Modern World (1925); SEP “Alfred North Whitehead”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Alfred North Whitehead › 1861–1947
Nishida Kitarō
influenced
In essays collected in Thinking and Experience (1915) Nishida discussed Bergson’s method and pure duration as a kindred account of experience before subject and object divide. Nishida Kitarō, Shisaku to taiken (1915); SEP “Nishida Kitarō”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Nishida Kitarō › 1870–1945
Muhammad Iqbal
influenced ✓
Iqbal took up Bergson’s real duration to describe the self as free creative activity and God’s time as pure duration, and later met Bergson in Paris. M. Iqbal, The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (1930; 1934); S. B. Diagne, Bergson postcolonial (2011)
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Muhammad Iqbal › 1877–1938
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
influenced
Merleau-Ponty valued Bergson’s return to perception and to being in the making, discussing him in his inaugural lecture (Éloge de la philosophie, 1953) and ‘Bergson se faisant’ (1959). M. Merleau-Ponty, Éloge de la philosophie (1953); “Bergson se faisant” (1959), in Signes (1960); L’union de l’âme et du corps chez Malebranche, Biran et Bergson (lectures 1947–48; publ. 1968); SEP “Maurice Merleau-Ponty”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Maurice Merleau-Ponty › 1908–1961
Gilles Deleuze
influenced ✓
Deleuze read Bergson’s duration as a qualitative multiplicity and the virtual as real without being actual (Le bergsonisme, 1966), and built Cinema 1–2 (1983–85) on Matter and Memory. G. Deleuze, Le bergsonisme (1966); Cinéma 1. L’image-mouvement (1983); Cinéma 2. L’image-temps (1985); SEP “Gilles Deleuze”; SEP “Henri Bergson”
Gilles Deleuze › 1925–1995
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José Vasconcelos
influenced
Vasconcelos drew on Bergson’s creative evolution and intuition for an aesthetic monism in which history rises towards a spiritual, aesthetic stage (La raza cósmica, 1925). J. Vasconcelos, La raza cósmica (1925); El monismo estético (1918)
Evidence: AI draft
José Vasconcelos › 1882–1959
Florian Znaniecki
influenced
Znaniecki translated Bergson’s Creative Evolution into Polish (Ewolucja twórcza, 1913) and took up his idea of creative becoming in his early philosophy of culture (Cultural Reality, 1919). H. Bergson, Ewolucja twórcza, trans. F. Znaniecki (Warsaw, 1913); F. Znaniecki, Cultural Reality (1919)
Evidence: AI draft
Florian Znaniecki › 1882–1958
Kuki Shūzō
influenced
Kuki came to know Bergson personally in Paris and in ‘Bergson au Japon’ (1928) described how Bergson’s philosophy of intuition had been received in Japan. Kuki Shūzō, “Bergson au Japon”, Les Nouvelles littéraires, 15 Dec. 1928; S. Light, Shūzō Kuki and Jean-Paul Sartre (1987)
Evidence: AI draft
Kuki Shūzō › 1888–1941
Liang Shuming
influenced
Liang Shuming took over Bergson’s intuition (zhijue), set against calculating intellect, as the core of Confucian life (Eastern and Western Cultures and Their Philosophies, 1921). Liang Shuming, Dong Xi wenhua ji qi zhexue (1921); G. Alitto, The Last Confucian: Liang Shu-ming and the Chinese Dilemma of Modernity (1979)
Evidence: AI draft
Liang Shuming › 1893–1988
Jean Piaget
influenced
Piaget recalled that reading Bergson’s L’Évolution créatrice as a youth made him seek a biological explanation of knowledge, the programme of his genetic epistemology (Autobiography, 1952). J. Piaget, “Autobiography”, in E. G. Boring et al. (eds.), A History of Psychology in Autobiography, vol. IV (1952); H. Bergson, L’Évolution créatrice (1907)
Evidence: AI draft
Jean Piaget › 1896–1980
Alfred Schutz
influenced
Schutz grounded meaning in Bergson’s inner duration: lived experience becomes meaningful when a reflective glance turns back on it (Der sinnhafte Aufbau der sozialen Welt, 1932). A. Schütz, Der sinnhafte Aufbau der sozialen Welt (1932); Theorie der Lebensformen (manuscripts 1925–27, ed. I. Srubar, 1981); SEP “Alfred Schutz”
Evidence: AI draft
Alfred Schutz › 1899–1959
Nishitani Keiji
influenced
The same thesis of 1924 paired Bergson with Schelling; Bergson was among the authors Nishitani studied most in his early years. Nishitani Keiji, thesis “The Ideal and the Real in Schelling and Bergson” (Kyoto 1924); Nanzan Institute, Philosophers Database “Nishitani Keiji”
Evidence: AI draft
Nishitani Keiji › 1900–1990
Emmanuel Levinas
influenced
Levinas counted Bergson’s Essai (1889) among the books that formed him and credited Bergsonian duration with breaking with the time of clocks (Ethics and Infinity, 1982). E. Levinas, Éthique et infini (1982); Le temps et l’autre (1948); SEP “Emmanuel Levinas”
Evidence: AI draft
Emmanuel Levinas › 1906–1995
Léopold Sédar Senghor
influenced
Senghor drew on Bergson’s intuition, set against analytic intellect, to describe an African way of knowing by participation (‘Ce que l’homme noir apporte’, 1939). L. S. Senghor, “Ce que l’homme noir apporte” (1939), in Liberté I: Négritude et humanisme (1964); S. B. Diagne, Bergson postcolonial (2011)
Evidence: AI draft
Léopold Sédar Senghor › 1906–2001
Souleymane Bachir Diagne
influenced
Diagne showed how Bergson’s philosophy of intuition and of the élan vital shaped both Senghor and Iqbal, and used it to read Négritude. S. B. Diagne, African Art as Philosophy (2011); Bergson postcolonial (2011)
Evidence: AI draft
Souleymane Bachir Diagne › b. 1955
Criticism
Criticized by 3
Bertrand Russell
criticised by
Russell rejected Bergson’s intuition as anti-intellectualism: his attack on the intellect rests on misunderstandings of mathematics and of Zeno’s paradoxes (‘The Philosophy of Bergson’, 1912). B. Russell, “The Philosophy of Bergson”, The Monist 22 (1912), 321–347; A History of Western Philosophy (1945), ch. 28
Evidence: AI draft
Bertrand Russell › 1872–1970
Gaston Bachelard
criticised by
Bachelard set a time of discontinuous instants against Bergson’s continuous duration (L’intuition de l’instant, 1932; La dialectique de la durée, 1936). G. Bachelard, L’intuition de l’instant (1932); La dialectique de la durée (1936); SEP “Gaston Bachelard”
Evidence: AI draft
Gaston Bachelard › 1884–1962
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
criticised by
Three chapters of The Reign of Religion in Contemporary Philosophy (1920) argue that Bergson’s philosophy, consistently thought through, leads not to pluralism but to absolute idealism. S. Radhakrishnan, The Reign of Religion in Contemporary Philosophy (1920), chs. V–VII; “Bergson and Absolute Idealism”, Mind 28 (1919)
Evidence: AI draft
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan › 1888–1975
Criticizes 3
Zeno of Elea
criticised
Bergson traced Zeno’s paradoxes to confusing movement with the divisible line it traverses; each step of Achilles is indivisible (Matter and Memory, 1896, ch. 4). H. Bergson, Matière et mémoire (1896), ch. IV; L’Évolution créatrice (1907), ch. IV
Evidence: AI draft
Zeno of Elea › c. 490–430 BCE
Immanuel Kant
criticised
Bergson objected that Kant took time for a homogeneous medium like space and so had to banish freedom to a timeless noumenal realm (Time and Free Will, 1889). H. Bergson, Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience (1889), Conclusion; SEP “Henri Bergson”
Evidence: AI draft
Immanuel Kant › 1724–1804
Herbert Spencer
criticised
Bergson, once drawn to Spencer, charged his ‘false evolutionism’ with rebuilding evolution out of fragments of the already evolved, missing real duration (Creative Evolution, 1907, ch. 4). H. Bergson, L’Évolution créatrice (1907), ch. IV; SEP “Henri Bergson”
Evidence: AI draft
Herbert Spencer › 1820–1903
Works
Lived duration instead of spatialized time.
The élan vital as an answer to the mechanism of evolution.
Position
Bergson started from a simple observation: the time of clocks and physics is spatialised – a line of identical, measurable moments. Lived time, which he called duration (durée), is different: a flowing, indivisible whole in which past and present interpenetrate like the notes of a melody. Grasping this requires intuition, not analytical intellect, which cuts reality into fixed pieces. From here he defended free will, and in Creative Evolution described life as an élan vital, a creative impulse that cannot be reduced to mechanism. His philosophy of life fascinated artists and writers such as Proust, and later inspired Deleuze.
Life & context
Bergson was born in Paris to a Polish-Jewish father and an English mother, studied at the École normale supérieure and taught at lycées before being appointed to the Collège de France in 1900. His lectures drew crowds far beyond the academic world. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1927 and died in occupied Paris in 1941.
Further main works
- Matter and Memory (1896)
- The Two Sources of Morality and Religion (1932)
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