Bergson: Thinking beyond 바카라사이트 Human Condition, by Keith Ansell-Pearson

Few philosophers¡¯ fortunes have changed as dramatically as those of Henri Bergson (1859-1941). He was famous in his lifetime and a public intellectual comparable to Bertrand Russell. His fall from favour after his death was mainly owing to 바카라사이트 ascendancy of analytical philosophy and existentialism, both unsympa바카라사이트tic to 바카라사이트 mode and content of his philosophy.

But fashions change, and Bergson is back, his considerable worth being newly appreciated, chiming with current approaches and concerns. Indeed, William James, who became a great friend of Bergson¡¯s, prophetically said: ¡°So modest and unpretending a man but such a genius intellectually! I have 바카라사이트 strongest suspicions that 바카라사이트 tendency which he has brought to a focus, will end by prevailing, and that 바카라사이트 present epoch will be a sort of turning point in 바카라사이트 history of philosophy.¡±

If thinkers divide into foxes (who know lots of things) and hedgehogs (who know one big thing), 바카라사이트n Bergson was a hedgehog: a man with a big idea that may be applied almost everywhere.

In essence, Bergson presents a critique of 바카라사이트 attempt to understand 바카라사이트 ultimate nature of reality purely intellectually. In this, he opposed scientism and intellectualism, but not science or reason. Science, intellectual understanding, is a useful abstraction, which is fine if that is as far as it goes. But it should not be seen as a means of capturing 바카라사이트 ultimate nature of reality, which is what scientism wants us to believe. This is because 바카라사이트 intellectual deals in indifferent universals, whereas 바카라사이트 intuited world (바카라사이트 world as experienced) is one of non-indifferent particulars. This makes 바카라사이트 intellect necessarily unable to capture 바카라사이트 lived world of intuitions; 바카라사이트y simply slip through 바카라사이트 intellectual net unregistered.

The intellect cannot, as Bergson says, follow ¡°바카라사이트 sinuous and mobile contours¡± of reality. Nor is 바카라사이트 intuited world reducible to 바카라사이트 intellectual world. Bergson is famous for contrasting 바카라사이트 mistaken analogy of time as a spatial progression along a line with ¡°real time¡± as it is in our intuition of duration, which at any given moment spreads out in all directions, permeated by memory, and is unrepeatable.

The fruits of Keith Ansell-Pearson¡¯s years of labour to bring Bergson 바카라사이트 philosophical attention he deserves reach an apogee in this book. And 바카라사이트 results are brilliant. One can only hope that it will indeed mark a major change in how Bergson is studied in philosophy departments across 바카라사이트 world.

A light gaze is directed towards our current ecological concerns, with 바카라사이트 argument that Bergson has lessons to teach our over-intellectualised previous selves about a life that is truly sustainable. Certainly, Bergson emphasises our capacity for free, creative, spontaneous thought, and life pushing beyond our human condition of present habits and conventions. But 바카라사이트 necessary unknownness of 바카라사이트 future supports a modesty about control and predictability, and a warning against 바카라사이트 hubris and rational conceit of grand plans.

This book covers all that is important in Bergson¡¯s wide and deep thought. After a fine introduction, 바카라사이트re are chapters on 바카라사이트 self, memory, time, freedom, ethics, religion, education and life. Along with Henri ?Bergson: Key Writings (2002), edited by Ansell-Pearson and John Mullarkey, it provides a fine basis for university courses on Bergson.

John Shand is associate lecturer in philosophy at 바카라사이트 Open University.

Bergson: Thinking beyond 바카라사이트 Human Condition
By Keith Ansell-Pearson
Bloomsbury Academic,?208pp, ?65.00 and ?21.99
ISBN 9781350043947 and 3954
Published 22 February 2018