Henri Bergson (1859-1941) was a leading French philosopher of the early twentieth century, whose work profoundly influenced figures like William James and Alfred North Whitehead. His philosophy represents a powerful revolt against traditional reason and a celebration of life, intuition, and creative evolution.
Unlike many systems of the past, Bergson’s philosophy is fundamentally dualistic. It divides the world into two disparate portions: life (a creative force climbing upward) and matter (an inert resistance falling downward). The entire universe, for Bergson, is a dynamic clash and conflict between these two opposing motions, with life constantly struggling to break through the obstacles posed by matter.
Bergson argued that evolution is not primarily explicable by adaptation to the environment, nor is it a predetermined process. Instead, he saw it as truly creative, akin to the work of an artist, where an undefined impulse exists beforehand, but the nature of what will satisfy it cannot be known until it is achieved. This makes evolution unpredictable and supports the notion of free will.
He believed that the initial division of life’s current was into plants (which store energy) and animals (which use energy for movement). Later, among animals, a new bifurcation emerged: instinct and intellect. Though never wholly separate, these became increasingly differentiated, with intellect often seen as a “misfortune” for humanity, while instinct (or intuition) represents a deeper, more direct understanding of life.
🧠 Intuition vs. Intellect: Two Ways of Knowing
The distinction between intellect and instinct/intuition is fundamental to Bergson’s philosophy. Intellect, he argued, is primarily designed to grasp the inorganic solid. It dissects the world into separate, discontinuous, and immobile concepts, operating like a “cinematographic” representation that shows change as a series of static states. Geometry and logic, the typical products of intellect, are strictly applicable only to solid bodies and are fundamentally inadequate for understanding life, which is continuous and constantly becoming.
Conversely, instinct, or intuition (which he defined as instinct that has become disinterested and self-conscious), is a form of knowledge at a distance. It is capable of grasping the continuous flow of duration and the interpenetration of past and present. It apprehends a multiplicity of interpenetrating processes, not spatially external bodies, revealing that “there are no things, there are only actions.”
Bergson’s theory of duration is central to his philosophy. It asserts that true time is not a mathematical succession of external instants, but a continuous, qualitative flow where the past survives in the present. This is most evident in memory, where the past lives on and interpenetrates present things.
He argued that real freedom is possible when our acts spring from our “whole personality,” expressing an indefinable resemblance to the artist and his work.
While Bergson’s philosophy is often criticized for its reliance on analogies and its lack of rigorous argumentation, his imaginative picture of the world, his celebration of life’s creative impulse, and his profound insights into the nature of time and consciousness continue to resonate. They offer a powerful alternative to traditional rationalistic and materialistic worldviews.
Source: Russell, Bertrand. A History of Western Philosophy. Simon and Schuster, 1945.
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