Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness is Henri Bergson's doctoral thesis, first published in 1889. In it, he tries to dispel the arguments against free will. These arguments, he says, come from a confusion of different ideas of time. Physicists and mathematicians conceive of time as a measurable construct, much like the spatial dimensions. But in human experience, life is perceived as a continuous and unmeasurable flow, rather than as a succession of marked-off states of consciousness--something that can be measured only qualitatively, not quantitatively. And because human personalities express themselves in acts that cannot be predicted, Bergson declares free will to be an observable fact.
French philosopher Henri-Louis Bergson (1859-1941) was influential in the tradition of continental philosophy, especially during the first half of the 20th century until the Second World War. Bergson is known for his arguments that processes of immediate experience and intuition are more significant than abstract rationalism and science for understanding reality.
He was awarded the 1927 Nobel Prize for Literature in recognition of his rich and vitalizing ideas and the brilliant skill with which they have been presented. In 1930, France awarded him the Grand-Croix de la Legion d'honneur.
Matter and Memory: An Essay on the Relation of Body and Spirit, is a complex exploration of human nature and the spirituality of memory. In this work, Henri Bergson investigates the function of the brain, and opposes the idea of memory being of a material nature, lodged within a particular part of the nervous system. He claims that Matter and Memory is frankly dualistic, leading to a careful consideration of the problems in the relation of body and mind. His theories on sense, dualism, pure perception, the concept of virtuality, and his image of the memory cone may make this a confusing and challenging existentialist work. However, the years of research and extensive pathological investigations he spent in preparation for this and other essays have gained him great a justly deserved distinction as a brilliant theorist and philosopher.
Bergson wrote Matter and Memory in reaction to The Maladies of Memory (1881) by Th odule Ribot, in which he claimed that the findings of brain science proved that memory is lodged within a particular part of the nervous system; localized within the brain and thus of a material nature. Bergson opposed this reduction of spirit to matter. Defending a clear anti-reductionist position, he considered memory to be of a deeply spiritual nature, the brain serving the need of orienting present action by inserting relevant memories. The brain thus being of a practical nature, certain lesions tend to perturb this practical function, but without erasing memory as such. The memories are, instead, simply not incarnated, and cannot serve their purpose.
French philosopher Henri-Louis Bergson (1859-1941) was influential in the tradition of continental philosophy, especially during the first half of the 20th century until the Second World War. Bergson is known for his arguments that processes of immediate experience and intuition are more significant than abstract rationalism and science for understanding reality.
He was awarded the 1927 Nobel Prize for Literature in recognition of his rich and vitalizing ideas and the brilliant skill with which they have been presented. In 1930, France awarded him the Grand-Croix de la Legion d'honneur.
In Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic (first published in 1900), Henri Bergson develops a theory not of laughter itself, but of how laughter can be provoked. He describes the process of laughter (refusing to give a conceptual definition which would not approach its reality), used in particular by comics and clowns, as caricature of the mechanistic nature of humans (habits, automatic acts, etc.), as one of the two tendencies of life (degradation towards inert matter and mechanism, and continual creation of new forms). However, Bergson warns us that laughter's criterion of what should be laughed at is not a moral criterion and that it can in fact cause serious damage to a person's self-esteem. This essay made his opposition to the Cartesian theory of the animal-machine obvious.
Monty Python co-founder John Cleese recommends Laughter, telling us Bergson says it's a social sanction because we laugh together as a group in society, and it's a sanction because we're trying to get people to behave flexibly.
This volume also includes the short lectures Dreams and The Meaning of the War, which was delivered as the presidential address to the Acad mie des sciences morales et politiques in December 1914.
French philosopher Henri-Louis Bergson (1859-1941) was influential in the tradition of continental philosophy, especially during the first half of the 20th century until the Second World War. Bergson is known for his arguments that processes of immediate experience and intuition are more significant than abstract rationalism and science for understanding reality.
He was awarded the 1927 Nobel Prize for Literature in recognition of his rich and vitalizing ideas and the brilliant skill with which they have been presented. In 1930, France awarded him the Grand-Croix de la Legion d'honneur.
Matter and Memory: An Essay on the Relation of Body and Spirit, is a complex exploration of human nature and the spirituality of memory. In this work, Henri Bergson investigates the function of the brain, and opposes the idea of memory being of a material nature, lodged within a particular part of the nervous system. He claims that Matter and Memory is frankly dualistic, leading to a careful consideration of the problems in the relation of body and mind. His theories on sense, dualism, pure perception, the concept of virtuality, and his image of the memory cone may make this a confusing and challenging existentialist work. However, the years of research and extensive pathological investigations he spent in preparation for this and other essays have gained him great a justly deserved distinction as a brilliant theorist and philosopher.
Bergson wrote Matter and Memory in reaction to The Maladies of Memory (1881) by Th odule Ribot, in which he claimed that the findings of brain science proved that memory is lodged within a particular part of the nervous system; localized within the brain and thus of a material nature. Bergson opposed this reduction of spirit to matter. Defending a clear anti-reductionist position, he considered memory to be of a deeply spiritual nature, the brain serving the need of orienting present action by inserting relevant memories. The brain thus being of a practical nature, certain lesions tend to perturb this practical function, but without erasing memory as such. The memories are, instead, simply not incarnated, and cannot serve their purpose.
French philosopher Henri-Louis Bergson (1859-1941) was influential in the tradition of continental philosophy, especially during the first half of the 20th century until the Second World War. Bergson is known for his arguments that processes of immediate experience and intuition are more significant than abstract rationalism and science for understanding reality.
He was awarded the 1927 Nobel Prize for Literature in recognition of his rich and vitalizing ideas and the brilliant skill with which they have been presented. In 1930, France awarded him the Grand-Croix de la Legion d'honneur.
In Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic (first published in 1900), Henri Bergson develops a theory not of laughter itself, but of how laughter can be provoked. He describes the process of laughter (refusing to give a conceptual definition which would not approach its reality), used in particular by comics and clowns, as caricature of the mechanistic nature of humans (habits, automatic acts, etc.), as one of the two tendencies of life (degradation towards inert matter and mechanism, and continual creation of new forms). However, Bergson warns us that laughter's criterion of what should be laughed at is not a moral criterion and that it can in fact cause serious damage to a person's self-esteem. This essay made his opposition to the Cartesian theory of the animal-machine obvious.
Monty Python co-founder John Cleese recommends Laughter, telling us Bergson says it's a social sanction because we laugh together as a group in society, and it's a sanction because we're trying to get people to behave flexibly.
This volume also includes the short lectures Dreams and The Meaning of the War, which was delivered as the presidential address to the Acad mie des sciences morales et politiques in December 1914.
French philosopher Henri-Louis Bergson (1859-1941) was influential in the tradition of continental philosophy, especially during the first half of the 20th century until the Second World War. Bergson is known for his arguments that processes of immediate experience and intuition are more significant than abstract rationalism and science for understanding reality.
He was awarded the 1927 Nobel Prize for Literature in recognition of his rich and vitalizing ideas and the brilliant skill with which they have been presented. In 1930, France awarded him the Grand-Croix de la Legion d'honneur.
Creative Evolution was published in 1907, and translated into English in 1911. In it, Henri Bergson proposes a version of orthogenesis in place of Charles Darwin's mechanism of evolution, suggesting that evolution is motivated by an lan vital, a vital impetus, that can also be understood as humanity's natural creative impulse.
In Creative Evolution, Bergson also developed concepts of time which significantly influenced modernist writers and thinkers such as Marcel Proust and Thomas Mann. For example, his term duration refers to a more individual, subjective experience of time, as opposed to mathematical, objectively measurable clock time. He suggests that the experience of time as duration can best be understood through intuition.
Discussing the meaning of life, Bergson considers the order of nature and the form of intelligence, including the geometrical tendency of the intellect, and examines mechanisms of thought and illusion. In addition, he presents a critique of the idea of immutability and the concept of nothingness, from Plato and Aristotle through the evolutionism of his contemporaries.
French philosopher Henri-Louis Bergson (1859-1941) was influential in the tradition of continental philosophy, especially during the first half of the 20th century until the Second World War. Bergson is known for his arguments that processes of immediate experience and intuition are more significant than abstract rationalism and science for understanding reality.
He was awarded the 1927 Nobel Prize for Literature in recognition of his rich and vitalizing ideas and the brilliant skill with which they have been presented. In 1930, France awarded him the Grand-Croix de la Legion d'honneur.
Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness is Henri Bergson's doctoral thesis, first published in 1889. In it, he tries to dispel the arguments against free will. These arguments, he says, come from a confusion of different ideas of time. Physicists and mathematicians conceive of time as a measurable construct, much like the spatial dimensions. But in human experience, life is perceived as a continuous and unmeasurable flow, rather than as a succession of marked-off states of consciousness--something that can be measured only qualitatively, not quantitatively. And because human personalities express themselves in acts that cannot be predicted, Bergson declares free will to be an observable fact.
French philosopher Henri-Louis Bergson (1859-1941) was influential in the tradition of continental philosophy, especially during the first half of the 20th century until the Second World War. Bergson is known for his arguments that processes of immediate experience and intuition are more significant than abstract rationalism and science for understanding reality.
He was awarded the 1927 Nobel Prize for Literature in recognition of his rich and vitalizing ideas and the brilliant skill with which they have been presented. In 1930, France awarded him the Grand-Croix de la Legion d'honneur.
Creative Evolution was published in 1907, and translated into English in 1911. In it, Henri Bergson proposes a version of orthogenesis in place of Charles Darwin's mechanism of evolution, suggesting that evolution is motivated by an lan vital, a vital impetus, that can also be understood as humanity's natural creative impulse.
In Creative Evolution, Bergson also developed concepts of time which significantly influenced modernist writers and thinkers such as Marcel Proust and Thomas Mann. For example, his term duration refers to a more individual, subjective experience of time, as opposed to mathematical, objectively measurable clock time. He suggests that the experience of time as duration can best be understood through intuition.
Discussing the meaning of life, Bergson considers the order of nature and the form of intelligence, including the geometrical tendency of the intellect, and examines mechanisms of thought and illusion. In addition, he presents a critique of the idea of immutability and the concept of nothingness, from Plato and Aristotle through the evolutionism of his contemporaries.
French philosopher Henri-Louis Bergson (1859-1941) was influential in the tradition of continental philosophy, especially during the first half of the 20th century until the Second World War. Bergson is known for his arguments that processes of immediate experience and intuition are more significant than abstract rationalism and science for understanding reality.
He was awarded the 1927 Nobel Prize for Literature in recognition of his rich and vitalizing ideas and the brilliant skill with which they have been presented. In 1930, France awarded him the Grand-Croix de la Legion d'honneur.
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