New Philosophy: Henri Bergson

Edouard Le Roy, Vincent Benson

Description

Henri-Louis Bergson was a French scholar and philosopher who would eventually come to be recognized as one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century. This volume served as one of the first overviews of Bergson's work to be published. Geared toward a wider audience of general readers, it serves as a concise and comprehensive introduction to Bergson's philosophy, which emphasized the importance of intuition over scientific rationality.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Philosophy

Informations

• Publié par: The Floating Press
• Date de parution: 01 juillet 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781776583751
• Langue: English

Extrait

A NEW PHILOSOPHY: HENRI BERGSON
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EDOUARD LE ROY
Translated by
VINCENT BENSON
 
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A New Philosophy: Henri Bergson First published in 1912 Epub ISBN 978-1-77658-375-1 Also available: PDF ISBN 978-1-77658-376-8 © 2013 The Floating Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike. Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
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Preface A NEW PHILOSOPHY - GENERAL VIEW I - Method II - Teaching ADDITIONAL EXPLANATIONS I - Mr Bergson's Work and the General Directions of Contemporary Thought II - Immediacy III - Theory of Perception IV - Critique of Language V - The Problem of Consciousness Duration and Liberty VI - The Problem of Evolution: Life and Matter VII - The Problem of Knowledge: Analysis and Intuition VIII - Conclusion
Preface
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This little book is due to two articles published under the same titlein the "Revue des Deux Mondes", 1st and 15th February 1912.
Their object was to present Mr Bergson's philosophy to the public atlarge, giving as short a sketch as possible, and describing, without toominute details, the general trend of his movement. These articles Ihave here reprinted intact. But I have added, in the form of continuousnotes, some additional explanations on points which did not come withinthe scope of investigation in the original sketch.
I need hardly add that my work, though thus far complete, does not inany way claim to be a profound critical study. Indeed, such a study,dealing with a thinker who has not yet said his last word, would todaybe premature. I have simply aimed at writing an introduction which willmake it easier to read and understand Mr Bergson's works, and serve as apreliminary guide to those who desire initiation in the new philosophy.
I have therefore firmly waived all the paraphernalia of technicaldiscussions, and have made no comparisons, learned or otherwise, betweenMr Bergson's teaching and that of older philosophies.
I can conceive no better method of misunderstanding the point atissue, I mean the simple unity of productive intuition, than that ofpigeon-holing names of systems, collecting instances of resemblance,making up analogies, and specifying ingredients. An original philosophyis not meant to be studied as a mosaic which takes to pieces, a compoundwhich analyses, or a body which dissects. On the contrary, it is byconsidering it as a living act, not as a rather clever discourse, byexamining the peculiar excellence of its soul rather than the formationof its body, that the inquirer will succeed in understanding it.Properly speaking, I have only applied to Mr Bergson the method whichhe himself justifiably prescribes in a recent article ("Revue deMetaphysique et de Morale", November 1911), the only method, in fact,which is in all senses of the word fully "exact." I shall none the lessbe glad if these brief pages can be of any interest to professionalphilosophers, and have endeavoured, as far as possible, to allow themto trace, under the concise formulae employed, the scheme which I haverefused to develop.
It has become evident to me that even today the interpretation of MrBergson's position is in many cases full of faults, which it wouldundoubtedly be worth while to assist in removing. I may or may not havesucceeded in my attempt, but such, at any rate, is the precise end I hadin view.
In conclusion, I may say that I have not had the honour of being MrBergson's pupil; and, at the time when I became acquainted with hisoutlook, my own direct reflection on science and life had alreadyproduced in me similar trains of thought. I found in his workthe striking realisation of a presentiment and a desire. This"correspondence," which I have not exaggerated, proved at once a helpand a hindrance to me in entering into the exact comprehension of soprofoundly original a doctrine. The reader will thus understand that Ithink it in place to quote my authority to him in the following lineswhich Mr Bergson kindly wrote me after the publication of the articlesreproduced in this volume: "Underneath and beyond the method you havecaught the intention and the spirit...Your study could not be moreconscientious or true to the original. As it advances, condensationincreases in a marked degree: the reader becomes aware that theexplanation is undergoing a progressive involution similar to theinvolution by which we determine the reality of Time. To produce thisfeeling, much more has been necessary than a close study of my works: ithas required deep sympathy of thought, the power, in fact, of rethinkingthe subject in a personal and original manner. Nowhere is this sympathymore in evidence than in your concluding pages, where in a few words youpoint out the possibilities of further developments of the doctrine. Inthis direction I should myself say exactly what you have said."
Paris, 28th March 1912.
A NEW PHILOSOPHY - GENERAL VIEW
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I - Method
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There is a thinker whose name is today on everybody's lips, who isdeemed by acknowledged philosophers worthy of comparison with thegreatest, and who, with his pen as well as his brain, has overleapt alltechnical obstacles, and won himself a reading both outside and insidethe schools. Beyond any doubt, and by common consent, Mr Henri Bergson'swork will appear to future eyes among the most characteristic, fertile,and glorious of our era. It marks a never-to-be-forgotten date inhistory; it opens up a phase of metaphysical thought; it lays down aprinciple of development the limits of which are indeterminable; and itis after cool consideration, with full consciousness of the exact valueof words, that we are able to pronounce the revolution which it effectsequal in importance to that effected by Kant, or even by Socrates.
Everybody, indeed, has become aware of this more or less clearly. Elsehow are we to explain, except through such recognition, the suddenstriking spread of this new philosophy which, by its learned rigorism,precluded the likelihood of so rapid a triumph?
Twenty years have sufficed to make its results felt far beyondtraditional limits: and now its influence is alive and working from onepole of thought to the other; and the active leaven contained in it canbe seen already extending to the most varied and distant spheres:in social and political spheres, where from opposite points, and notwithout certain abuses, an attempt is already being made to wrench itin contrary directions; in the sphere of religious speculation, whereit has been more legitimately summoned to a distinguished, illuminative,and beneficent career; in the sphere of pure science, where, despite oldseparatist prejudices, the ideas sown are pushing up here and there;and lastly, in the sphere of art, where there are indications that itis likely to help certain presentiments, which have till now remainedobscure, to become conscious of themselves. The moment is favourable toa study of Mr Bergson's philosophy; but in the face of so many attemptedmethods of employment, some of them a trifle premature, the point ofparamount importance, applying Mr Bergson's own method to himself, isto study his philosophy in itself, for itself, in its profound trend andits authenticated action, without claiming to enlist it in the ranks ofany cause whatsoever.
I.
Mr Bergson's readers will undergo at almost every page they read anintense and singular experience. The curtain drawn between ourselvesand reality, enveloping everything including ourselves in its illusivefolds, seems of a sudden to fall, dissipated by enchantment, and displayto the mind depths of light till then undreamt, in which reality itself,contemplated face to face for the first time, stands fully revealed. Therevelation is overpowering, and once vouchsafed will never afterwards beforgotten.
Nothing can convey to the reader the effects of this direct and intimatemental vision. Everything which he thought he knew already finds newbirth and vigour in the clear light of morning: on all hands, in theglow of dawn, new intuitions spring up and open out; we feel them bigwith infinite consequences, heavy and saturated with life. Each of themis no sooner blown than it appears fertile for ever. And yet there isnothing paradoxical or disturbing in the novelty. It is a reply to ourexpectation, an answer to some dim hope. So vivid is the impression oftruth, that afterwards we are even ready to believe we recognise therevelation as if we had always darkly anticipated it in some mysterioustwilight at the back of consciousness.
Afterwards, no doubt, in certain cases, incertitude reappears, sometimeseven decided objections. The reader, who at first was under a magicspell, corrects his thought, or at least hesitates. What he has seenis still at bottom so new, so unexpected, so far removed from familiarconceptions. For this surging wave of thought our mind contains none ofthose ready-cut channels which render comprehension easy. But whether,in the long run, we each of us give or refuse complete or partialadhesion, all of us, at least, have received a regenerating shock, aninternal upheaval not readily silenced: the network of our intellectualhabits is broken; henceforth a new leaven works and ferments in us; weshall no longer think as we used to think; and be we pupils or critics,we cannot mistake the fact that we have here a principle of integralrenewal for ancient philosophy and its old and timeworn problems.
It is obviously impossible to sketch in brief all the aspects and allthe wealth of so original a work. Still less shall I be able to answerher