Product Description
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free.This is an OCR edition with typos.Excerpt from book:the knowledge of an artificial or mathematical system applies only to the extremity.Continuity of change, preservation of the past in the present, real duration—the living being seems, then, to share these attributes with consciousness. Can we go further and say that life, like conscious activity, is invention, is unceasing creation?It does not enter into our plan to set down here the proofs of transformism. We wish only to explain in a word or two why we shall accept it, in the present work, as a sufficiently exact and precise expression of the facts actually known. The idea of transformism is already in germ in the natural classification of organized beings. The naturalist, in fact, brings together the organisms that are like each other, then divides the group into sub-groups within which the likeness is still greater, and so on: all through the operation, the characters of the group appear as general themes on which each of the sub-groups performs its particular variation. Now, such is just the relation we find, in the animal and in the vegetable world between the generator and the generated: on the canvas which the ancestor passes on, and which his descendants possess in common, each puts his own original embroidery. True, the differences between the descendant and the ancestor are slight, and it may be asked whether the same living matter presents enough plasticity to take in turn such different forms as those of a fish, a reptile and a bird. But, to this question, observation gives a peremptory answer. It shows that up to a certain period in its development the embryo of the bird is hardly distinguishable from that of the reptile, and that the individual develops, throughout the embryonic life in general, a series of transformations comparable to those through which,... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Professor Bergson Begins Modern Science and Intuits Quantum Physics' Improbable Secrets
This book must be read slowly and deliberately -- do so and it will give you an insight into the brilliance of one of the most revolutionary and extraordinarily perceptive philosopher scientists of the 20th Century, IMO.
Bergson changed the way scientists see the world by introducing his conception of an "original impetus", which began simply (if "intelligently") and evolved matter into living, increasingly complex lifeforms and concurrently evolved an increasingly complex consciousness within it -- as an "imperceptable thread" (my wording) ultimately called the elan vital.
In my case, after reading carefully and filling the book's margins with notes, Professor Bergson seems to be proving (showing) that all science up until his time (circa 1930's) was concerned with objects as they were at a particular moments, whereas in fact these objects were and are in a state of continual "being" (duration), making their actuality or essence unknowable.
He chronologically takes us through the writings of Plato and Aristotle (the natural trend of the intellect)-- Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz (becoming in modern science) -- and even through the Criticism of Kant and the evolutionism of Spencer. Bergson thoroughly critques each philosophy and shows us why they are not dealing the world as it really is.
Through this he weaves his own philosophical system based on Creation and Evolution by (quote):
". . . showing us in the intellect a local effect of evolution, a flame, perhaps accidental, which lights up the coming and going of living beings in the narrow passage open to their action: an lo! . . . (making) of this lantern glimmering in a tunnel a Sun which can illuminate the world.
"Boldly (Kantian and Spencerian science) proceeds with the powers of conceptual thought alone, to the ideal reconstruction of things, even of life. . . . But the essence of things escapes us, and will escape us always; WE MOVE AMONG RELATIONS; THE ABSOLUTE IS NOT IN OUR PROVINCE; WE ARE BROUGHT TO STAND BEFORE THE UNKNOWABLE.
" . . . BUT AN INTELLECT BENT UPON THE ACT TO BE PERFOMED AND THE REACTION TO FOLLOW . . . WOULD DIG TO THE VERY ROOT OF NATURE AND MIND."
In simpler words, the observation of any object changes reality for that object. It is only real as a moving "being", animated by an original impetus and kept real by an "elan vital" which cannot be known because "being" cannot be defined. What we call "real things" are illusions which beomce "real" to us only when we stop their duration. Heidegger spends thousands of pages unsuccessfully trying to define "being", which ultimately he can only label as "dasein". What we observe as the real world is matter and consciousness evolving concurrently from simple to complex as they move through space and time.
This means that the original impetus, the spark, the first flame, began neither in space nor time. Later quantum physics would support Bergson's insight, considering that an electron (as one example) cannot be seen without turning it into something else, or ever stranger, disappearing into what can only be other universes parallel to our own.
IMO, this means a creative force must exist that animates matter and consciousness; and that could only have originated in that Singularity outside time and space which I in my particular need call the thought of "God". You can call "it" what you will: the Tao, Bhudda, Nature, et al.
In my possession is a 1932 edition of "Creative Evolution" which had lingered on a library shelf over eighty years but had been checked out only three times after 1970. Sometimes I wonder where are my fellow philosophers and why I seem in my pained isolation to be the last of the 20th Century philosophers of mind. But that is because I am a crazed crackpot in the collective mind of those who measure men by their wealth. My contemporaries are in the universities, religious orders and lecture tours, where they belong. Yet even I am animated by the elan vital. Even I am part of the "God" finally perceived by Henri Bergson.
"Creative Evolution" was a sensation when it first appeared in 1932, the work of an already distinguished Professor Bergson of the College de France. It gave the world at last a new and scientific conception of the God long intuited by prophets, priests, poets, writers and grizzled, scarred, aging gray bearded philosophers like myself, dumb beasts of intellectual burdens, who desperately need a new physics to help us embrace an unknowable God created out of a Singularity and connecting our minds and bodies to what the Apostle Paul called Love.

Richard Lee Fulgham, Bel Air, 2009

Recommended for fans of Rupert Sheldrake's theories
Bergson's thesis is that Darwinian and Lamarkian evolution are only half the story and that there is a creative urge inherent in life that defines the direction of evolution.It is distinguished from Creationism in that his system does not posit and eschaton or final perfect form, nor an external agent (God).

It has some similarity with biologist Rupert Sheldrake's theory of morphic fields.In his theory, there is an energy field (as yet undetected by modern physics) that controls the shape of organic molecules, i.e., one protein is shaped one way and the same collection of atoms gets shaped another way under the same pH and temperature.

Aldous Huxley mentions Bergson's theory of consciousness several times in his writings.Bergson thinks that consciousness pervades everything, and that intellect serves as a filter that presents only what is comprehensible to mental categories.This has several implications.One is the possibility for a monistic metaphysic.The other is that it leaves open the possibility of perceiving an alternate reality (what excited Huxley).

Chapter 3 is about his metaphysics, which are not very clearly expressed.There appear to be avenues unexplored by him.What are the consequences of matter being infused with consciousness?Magic?Why is it that intellect and geometrical thinking is what produces objects in perception?What is the mechanism.

What does have value is his theory that chaos is not the absence of repeatability, but is a stochastic process that can be understood as an aggregate of individual "wills."This is used to support his vital theory of evolution.That each organism "wills" its variation in seemingly random fashion, but at a higher order, it produces the regularity of genera.

Chapter 4 is a critique of various philosophic systems after establishing his "cinematographic" theory of perception.His basic point is that matter is in continual flux, yet we are only able to perceive it as a sequence of discrete states, hence the illusion of permanence.

A work of monumental importance
Creative Evolution is not so much a work, but a milestone in print of a new direction of thought. It is a book that is of immense importance to anyone who wants to understand the mystery of humanity.

From Miller to Ibsen
I first came across Ibsen's monumental work when reading 'Tropic of Capricorn' by Henry Miller.Despite my complete lack of evolutionary and biological knowledge, I found Ibsen's eschatology mind blowing.Several times I was forced to leave the book for days in order to fully contemplate the philosophical ramifications of his insights.From this great stride forward into the fringes of human understanding Ibsen states: 'A conduct that is truly our own, on the contrary, is that of a will which does not try to counterfeit intellect, and which, remaining itself - that is to say, evolving - ripens gradually into acts which the intellect will be able to resolve indefinitely into intelligible elements without ever reaching its goal.The free act is incommensurable with the idea, and its "rationality" must be defined by this very incommensurability, which admits the discovery of much intelligibility within it as we will.Such is the character of our own evolution; and such also, without doubt, that of the evolution of life."No one, despite their educational backgrounds or lack thereof, should feel intimidated by the possibility of transcending one's very own intellect.

the opus of the advocate of vitality....
Despite Lord Russell's criticism that "intuition works best in bats, bees, and Bergson," in this work Bergson not only finishes the uprooting of the Western and Platonic disembodied intellect (adeconstruction taken only so far by Kant), he presents us with thespectacle of unbridled life creatively shaping, not only its world, butitself in accord with its own telos:the need for eyesight creating theeye, so to speak.Difficult in places but a treasure, although one couldwish he gave more credit to Nietzsche's obviously great impact on him. Jungians would do well to peruse Bergson too. ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!Amazon.com Review
Clem Kadiddlehopper wore a funny hat. Even animals other thanhumans seem to laugh, because they, too, possess emotions. Andsometimes, when you're by yourself, you just start giggling for noreason. But that's not funny. As Henri Bergson, proto-existentialistFrench philosopher and author of Laughter: An Essay on the Meaningof the Comic, would say, you can stop laughing now. We mustrethink what tickles us. For Bergson, laughter is a purelyintellectual response that serves the social purpose of assuagingdiscomfort over the unaccustomed and unexpected. We chuckle at Lucyattempting to wrap the bonbons speeding by on a candy-factory conveyorbelt because she's stuck in one place, performing the same task overand over, and failing; we hope that in similar situations we could bemore flexible. Bergson recaps: "Rigidity is the comic, and laughter isits corrective."

Bergson's thinking typifies a peculiarly Gallic tendency to rationalize the apparently ephemeral and subjective (in this case, humor), discussing it in exquisitely rarefied language in order to assert that which defies common sense (a funny hat is not funny, laughter expresses no emotion, no one laughs alone) but partakes nonetheless of a logical inevitability. Laughter, first published in 1911, clearly draws upon the early years of European modernism, yet also prefigures the movement in some ways. In recognizing the comic as it embodies itself in a "rigid," absentminded person, locked into repetitious, socially awkward behavior, Bergson--even as he looks backward, primarily to Molière--seems to be spawning the sophisticated visual and physical comedy of Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd; the transformation of Léger's figures into anthropoid machines; and Nijinsky's starring role in Stravinsky's satirical clockwork ballet Pétrouchka.

This little book resurrects a British translation that has long been out of print. While Laughter won't quite explain why the French love Jerry Lewis, or keep you in stitches, it's a bracing read that will make you think twice about laughing the next time someone stumbles into a lamppost. --Robert Burns Neveldine ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Does that man remind you of a machine? Then laugh at him!
Like Socrates, French Philosopher and Nobel Prize Winner for Literature Henri Bergson is associated with a "method." Socrates piled question after question upon the hapless denizens of Athens. Bergson posed questions not to citizens but to situations, gestures, stage plays, puns, quips, oddities and mannerisms. He asked: what makes this so funny, laughable, risible?

If his book LAUGHTER were a prize fight, it would still be going on: for it never delivers a knock-out punch. LAUGHTER never quite succeeds in defining what makes the humorous uniquely what it is. Perhaps Bergson never intended to deliver a crushing blow or write the last word. Perhaps he was more thebutterfly gathering nurture first here then somewhere else. Certainly, his thought was always in motion. But then so was life, in his view.

The way Henri Bergson analyzes humor is consistent with his theory of life. Not for him Descartes's view of man as a mind locked into a machine. Henri Bergson does accept that spirit is not matter and that a man's soul is always being tempted by his body to cease growing, cease adapting to reality, tempted to grow lazy, "inattentive" and eccentric.

We laugh when we see people layering themselves with something alien to their best nature. They wear disguises, like clowns or the emperor who preened himself on his invisible clothes. They repeat cliches from the ceremonial side of life that don't apply to the spontaneous challenges of love, politics or art.

When men lose interactive, supportive touch with their society, we laugh at them. We thereby simultaneously salute their spirit while rebuking their giving in to the downward tug of their flesh. Laughter is the medicine by which society, a living thing, heals itself. Laughter is the abrasive scouring away thebarnacles growing on living flesh. Laughter is what the doctor ordered.

Next time you chuckle over a cartoon, try out a little Bergsonian analysis. Does that talking dog remind you of a person? Does that man trapped against his will in an office romance remind you of an animal caught in a trap? Does that robot seriously think itself in love with the scientist who created it? Laughter thrives on imperfection, exaggeration, the conquest of the living by the mechanical. Or so says Henri Bergson. -OOO-

Early, provocative, but slight work on the subject.
One of the more accessible books by an underrated philosopher whose usefulness, especially with regard to literary narrative, is being rediscovered, "Laughter" must qualify as one of Bergson's slighter works.Much of its importance stems from its place among the very first essays to take seriously an elusive and slippery subject.As a result, the author's thesis that laughter derives from "the mechanical encrusted upon the living" is at once somewhat dated and limiting.A reader wishes more distinctions between "comedy" and "laughter" (since many of the most revered comedies, from Shakespeare to Keaton, no longer provoke laughter from their modern audiences).Moreover, the author's thesis, though consistent with his views of "real time" (la duree), is applied too broadly to illuminate the dark let alone grey areas of "black comedy" along with numerous sub-genres, ranging from witty and garrulous, so-called "screw-ball comedy" to parody and the mock-heroic (both of the latter presenting major obstacles to appreciation let alone laughter because of what the post-modernists call "cultural amnesia").

Nevertheless, it's a readable start.

Admirable
The blessed healing of laughter and of those who are gifted in bringing it to us.A great read for anyone who wants to live and look at the lighter side of life.

A bit dated.Somewhat incomplete.Astoundingly insightful
Before reading this essay, you should be forewarned that it was written by the same great opponent of Cartesian dualism that resisted the reduction of psychological phenomena to physical states.In other words, this is an early 20th century French philosophical essay.To go further, it's a bit dry.Still, it is hard to argue with many of the axioms that Bergson espouses in this essay.For the most part, the laughter caused by much of modern comedy can be explained using one of his primary axioms or their many corollaries.Bergson's biggest miss here, however, is that although he adequately explains why a comic may cause an individual to laugh at either the comic himself or a third party, he doesn't sufficiently explain, or even realize, that much of what the comic intends is for his audience to laugh at themselves.Even so, youcan still ascribe Bergson's incisive deductions to include the comic audience and still come to the heart of why people laugh.In any event, to my knowledge the subject has never been tackled so logically.Certainly, no (funny) comedian will ever attempt to publicly disclose the nature of laughter, but don't suppose that there aren't many famous comedians out there today who are familiar with this essay.It is obvious that many comedians and writers are familiar with this essay and that they have put these axioms directly to the test to great comic effect on many occasions.A word of advice to anyone who has difficulty wading through the chapters of Bergson's dry, recondite language: Read it in your head with the voice of baby Stewie from the Family Guy in mind.This technique amused me through the first half of the book, and by that time the language didn't bother me so much anymore.

Still profound after all these years
Why is a pun amusing?In brief, it treats something human as if it were something mechanical.Language is a way of conveying meanings from one human to another, and the most inflexible, most mechanical, most artifiial POSSIBLE way of looking at words is to classify them by their sound alone.That's precisely what a pun does.

When Mel Brooks is playing a Polish actor playing Hitler, he says: "All I want is peace.A little piece of Poland, a tiny piece of France...."That is amusing -- the juxtaposition of the vital and the mechanical.

More sophisticated jokes than such puns are based on the same juxtaposition.Here is one of Bergson's example, from a play by Labiche."Just as M. Perrichon is getting into the railway carriage, he makes certain of not forgetting any of his parcels: 'Four, five, six, my wife seven, my daughter eight, and myself nine.'" ... Read more

Product Description
A New Philosophy: Henri Bergson is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Edouard Louis Emmanuel Julien Le Roy is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of Edouard Louis Emmanuel Julien Le Roy then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more

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THIS translation of Monsieur Bergson's Matiere et Mentoire has been made from the fifth edition of I908, and has had the great advantage of being revised in proof by the author. Monsieur Bergson has also written a new Introduction for it. which supersedes that which accompanied the original work. The translators offer their sincere thanks to the author for his invaluable help in these matters and for n1any suggestions made by him while the book was in manuscript. They beg leave to call the reader's attention to the fact that all the marginal notes are peculiar to the English edition; and that, although Monsieur Bergson has been good enough to revise them, he is not responsible for their insertion or character, since they fonn no part of his own plan for the book.

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Forgotten Books' Classic Reprint Series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of historically important writings. Careful attention has been made to accurately preserve the original format of each page whilst digitally enhancing the difficult to read text. Read books online for free at www.forgottenbooks.org ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Poor print quality
This is a SCANNED COPY of the standard English translation. As such, the text is distorted and highly annoying to read. It is also printed in HUGE letters and there is absolutely no margin to write notes in. I don't understand why 'Forgotten Books' is willing (and allowed) to publish such a poor printing of the text. I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND getting any other version of Matter and Memory than this garbage edition.

not proofread by a person
Whatever you think of Bergson, you shouldn't read this edition of Matter and Memory.
As the publisher notes in the book (though I don't recall seeing it on Amazon's page), this is a scanned reproduction--all typing, proofreading, and design were automated. The text is filled with typos, footnotes appear to be run into the body of the text, and it is barely readable.

Matter and memory
This book is not an edited text and I would not recommend it to anyone! The formatting is all off and it's practically impossible to read.

Actually, not a review but a suggestion
Read Elizabeth Grosz's new book, In the Nick of Time, for a lucid account of Matter and Memory that could serve as a guidebook for the uninitiated who might find Deleuze equally tricky.

extremely difficult work by a forgotten genius
Matter and Memory is often taken as the cornerstone of Bergson's work by the few who still read him, and I can't disagree with them.This is certainly his most radical work, but unfortunately, it is also his most difficult.Speaking for myself, even though I was very well read in the literature on Bergson--especially Deleuze's--I still had to read the first chapter almost four times before I felt comfortable enough to move on to the second.And it really isn't that Bergson is just obscure here.He does not use neologisms, and he tries very hard to be as precise as possible.I would say, I guess, that this is why it is still necessary to bother with this work, because it's difficulty is quite evidently related to its profundity.The concepts of matter and memory developed at length by Bergson in this work were so novel in his time that they're pretty much still as novel today.That's partly because, as some reviewers below say, there's a general feeling that science has made his "queer" views obsolete.This is palpably false.And then, on the other hand, it's because this book is terribly dry and, as Leonard Lawlor has said, doesn't have any entertaining "characters," like Merleau-Ponty's Schneider, to keep people plastered to the page.Consequently, not many people, even professional philosophers, have read the book in its entirety.
In sum: unless you're some sort of deity, you probably won't be drooling with a thirst for Bergson after reading this for the first time.The book is poorly organized and the chapters are all around 70-80 pages long, so ideas and arguments are jumbled about like lottery balls, and oftentimes Bergson just seems to write whatever pops into his mind at the moment.However, I re-iterate that with an open mind and some patience, the difficulty will be forgiveable, and the effort to get inside of it well worth your time.This gets five stars for the ideas, three for style. ... Read more

Product Description
Bergson's essay looks at comedy within a wider field of vision, focusing on laughter and on what makes us laugh. His study examines comic characters and comic acts, comedy in literature and in children's games, comedy as high art and base entertainment, to develop a psychological and philosophers theory of the mainsprings of comedy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Two major theories of ' comedy'
This review is partial, and does not include the major essay of Wylie Sypher that serves as epilogue for the essays of Meredith and Bergson.
Meredith, Bergson, and Freud are among the few who so far as I knowhavepresented major theories of comedy and laughter. Meredith's discussion of comedy involves a distinction between the low comedy of laughing, slapstick and its varieties, and the high comedy of intellectual perception. This latter is his main interest and involves as he understands it our discernment of some distinction between ideal and real. It is this high comedy which is a moral corrective and enables us to put the arrogant, and rude in their place.
For Bergson the theory is a theory of laughter. It has to do with his own major philosophical distinction between the 'mechanical ' and the ' spontaneous' between the rigid and that which flows. For Bergson laughter can come at our observation of someone walking along and falling down, comes as some kind of break in the expected pattern of motion and action.
Neither of these theories begins to cover all the different kinds and ways we smile and laugh at others. They are , as I understand it a start at trying to find the essence of a set of realities which may in fact have more than one essence.
These works then as I understand it are invaluable starting points for thinking more deeply about the subjects of what comedy and laughter are .
And writing this I am quite dismayed how humorless it is.
And this as if to remind that true comedy ( at least as literature( requires a power of invention and creation out of the ordinary.
Is this perhaps the ' germ' of another way of thinking about comedy i.e. as a special kind of human inventiveness involving surprise

The best theoretical study of comedy available
Bergson's _Laughter_ has been out of print for too long. It's the best theoretical study of comedy available. A meditation by the great philosopher of "elan vital" about our natural response to humansacting mechanically, _Laughter_ is also about the nuts and bolts of comedy.Moliere is the main model, but it works for Shakespeare, Chaplin andPreston Sturges just as well.

Euphoria
Bergson offers a taxonomy of laughter.The description is concise, realistic, and rife with examples.He begins with a broad definition of anything that is laughable and further narrows the definition where appropriate.Never have I encountered an example not explainable by this.

Henri Bergson is brilliant.
Henri Bergson describes why we laugh, and subdivides this description further into three characteristics.Each of these characteristics is then divided further occassionally.Example: >We laugh at mechanical rigidity.The three typesare repetition, inversion, and reciprocal interference of series.An example of repetition is a frozen facial expression (repetition) and is comical only if it's imitatable.Read more

Product Description
Henri Bergson (1859-1941) wrote seminal texts on topics that remain at the heart of current philosophical inquiry, such as time, consciousness, and evolution. His impact on the philosophical, scientific, and literary modernism of the first half of the 20th century was extraordinary. Interest in Bergson's ideas is undergoing a timely and welcome renaissance. This volume acts as a textbook for pedagogic purposes and a helpful source book for philosophers working across the analytic/continental divide. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (6)

Intellectual Intuition
I haven't read this work in a while, though I read it many times at various points in my adult life.It does, however, stand out for me as the most difficult subject that Philosophy has yet to answer.Or, can it be answered, is probably closer to the point.This is the problem of what we call Intuition.For Bergson, Intuition is a definite, cognative thing.While it might not reflect modern thinking on the mind-brain as a bio-mechanism, this does not mean that it is wrong.In fact, it might well be better to ask is the current view wrong because Bergson doesn't fit within it?

Bergson is set apart from most of his French counterparts like Sartre because his philosphy tends to go after niche subjects, such as Time, Laughter, and Intuition.Issues that rarely get attention by "serious" Philosophy.His works have been discredited by Bertrand Russell only to see a rennaisance of sorts in view of the darkness left by Russell and his logically minded cronies.

This specific book is probably an interesting starting point for Bergson.It allows the reader to ask questions along the way.Since these are lectures, there is a broad latitude given to the subject at hand.Metaphysics is not a subject that anyone has successfully defined, unless its by negation, so I will not endeavor to explain it.But, the clear area that Bergson seems to wish to cover is that Intuition is not some primal instinct nor is it a superstition, but rather a complex function of the mind.

Waiting for proper translation
Great stuff from Bergson, as always, but the publisher needs to be reprimanded for their lack of effort. No bibliographic information, no footnotes (present in the French), no notes of translation, and no index. How can such a work be given so little care?

great intro to Bergson
This is the English edition of a book called "La Pensee et le mouvant" in its original French. It is a collection of essays, written across quite a long period. The first two essays, which are called I and II (they are the two parts of the title essay, that is "Le Pensee et le mouvant") are the heart of the book. They amount to an intellectual autobiography by Bergson, and they actually provide important clarifications to some points of his thought, that is, they don't merely recapitulate his earlier writings, but in some cases add important further information (hence this book is essential not just for beginners, but for serious Bergson scholars as well). The title requires a remark. This book (the same translation) has been in and out of print in English several times. It has appeared as "The Creative Mind" and as "Introduction to Metaphysics". This edition appears to combine the two titles. Of course neither of the two English titles is a translation of the French title. Presumably the original translator didn't feel that "Time and Movement" was catchy enough. The original French is literally "Time and the Moving," with "moving" in the sense of "that which is moving" or "the moving thing". Perhaps the original translator felt that since the title couldn't felicitously be rendered directly into English, that he might as well completely re-title it. In any event the title isn't that important. Where the translator really did us a disservice is in leaving out the footnotes. The French text includes a number of quite lengthy footnotes, that provide lots of interesting commentary by Bergson himself. This collection was assembled by Bergson toward the end of his life, and it includes essays, such as "Introduction to Metaphysics" that were written some thirty-five years earlier. The early essays are reprinted as they were first published, but Bergson uses the footnotes to draw attention to where and how his views have changed. Perhaps the lay reader won't miss the footnotes, but the serious scholar should be advised to consult a French copy to look at alongside this.

An example of intuitive writing.
As has been noted by others in previous reviews this book is about several issues: one a kind of autobiography of his life's work and as well a lesson in what philosophy is and should be in comparison to science. Bergson points out that science much as other fields such as literature, philosophy, art and so on rely on two ways of approaching reality one is the scientific systematic, mechanical way which is practiced by the majority of researchers and the intuitive way which is used occasionally to make headway. The first of these approaches clarifies succinctly what has been discovered in a systematic way which aims to make the phenomenon explicit as a whole, the second of these, the intuitive approach, is that which is required to make the initial leap, the creative surge needed to make sense of a phenomenon which no longer makes sense when old approaches are applied. As such, both of these approaches need to be practised side by side with scientists and artists both making use of them. Unfortunately the first of these, the standard methodical approach, is prone to be considered the only way of attack on a problem given the intellect which is a system to analyse and make use of the world's phenomena. This ensures a mechanical way of thought comes to the fore. Bergson stresses that this method is well and good where it applies, mostly after a discovery has been made, but in the stages where something is to be understood as a whole rather than as made of parts, intuition comes in providing the guiding light, a sort of vague feeling of rightness or truth which cannot be denied. From this pont it is developed using the first method, but the first method cannot succeed without this creative step.

It needs to be noted that the systematic approach is relatively easy to implement for a mind trained in it, as are most of today's researchers, and unfortunately it is difficult to escape the confining modes of thought which prevail once this method has gained a firm foothold of the mind. The creative approach is vague and fleeting seeming to glide past you as you attempt to grab hold. This is the wrong approach, it needs to be cultivated without a method otherwise it is a sham intuition and just another form of the first method. Strangely enough once such an intuition has overwhelmed the mind it convinces not by argument or proof but by a strong sense of rightness, "this is true and that is all", it cannot be denied. Any attempt to deny this makes no sense as even those who argue against this possibility themselves suffer from these intuitions which they cannot explain either.

Bergson was a man who lived this intuitive mode more than most, especially through his experience of duration. He is qualified more than most in describing this way of "thinking", actually sensing, and he brings it out in this fine book. Although not as illuminating as his "Creative Evolution" it is still a very well written book and he deserves his Nobel prize for literature. Compare this with for example "Process and Reality" by Whitehead which is so full of obscurity it stands as a prime example of how not to write. It is Whitehead's attempt to be clear which is his downfall in fact.

As always Bergson's books are themselves examples of intuitive writing if there is such a thing.

valuable despite of any flaws
This book is composed of two introductory essays accompanied by several other essays from various period's in Bergson's life. Thus, there is no flow in the book; one can probably start on any of the essays. However, because the book lacks a direct flow of thought, I found it necessary to often go back and reread sections that are further elaborated on elsewhere. Prior to this book, i was only familiar with Bergson through Deleuze, yet Bergson does not assume that his reader is familiar with concepts such as "duration" that are developed more completely elsewhere and gives adequate explanations in "The Creative Mind." Bergson's main task in this book is to explore "philosophical intution". He admirably points out the necessity for such a way of knowing, namely, its abilty to grasp pure movement, duration. He argues against the idea that philosophy should attempt to be a grand synthesis of positive science and instead argues that philosophy should be complementary to science, such that they have "points in common" at which they can verify one another. In addition to this, there are several other topics discussed, such as the "possible" in relation to the "real". Overall, although i really enjoyed reading this book as it is full of clever insights and is written with an honesty and passion that is rare in philosophy, i find that Bergson ultimately fails to distinguish metaphysics from science in the manner in which he desires. Despite this, as the title suggests, this is a book that encourages us to recognize what is unique and novel in things, including our own thought, as opposed to thinking of ourselves and other thinkers as merely part of a historical norm and things as existing only in relation to some higher essence-- that is, what is unique and novel in things, their essence, comes from within and is immanent to the things themselves and does not come "from above". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

The definitive text on Metaphysics
William James hailed Bergson as an ally. In 1903 he wrote: "I have been rereading Bergson's books, and nothing that I have read since has so excited and stimulated my thoughts. I am sure that that metaphysical philosophy has a great future, it breaks through old cadres and brings things into a solution from which new crystals can be got."

Bergson is a master in this field - I highly recommend that you read him.

Informative
A great starting place for someone considering the study of metaphysics. This short treatise will help your understanding of the field and propel you into further and deeper study.

Underappreciated
Sure, Bergson's ideas may not have been as revolutionary as Descartes' or Kant's, but I find them just as intriguing.In fact, it is his critique of the Empiricists (one of my favorite "ists") which I found most interesting in this work, along with his distinction between intellect and intuition.Scarcely sixty pages, "An Introduction to Metaphysics" is the type of work that can be read in one sitting (at your local Commercial Book Store if you are short on dinero) and I think you will find well worth the time.

An Interesting work of Metaphysics/Epistemology
"An Introduction to Metaphysics," is less an introduction to metaphysics than a criticism of its previous ideas.Bergson provides very interesting criticisms of empiricism and rationalism as well as interesting solutions to these problems.Bergson is one of the more intriguing of 20th Century Philosophers and I found this work enjoyable enough to recommend it to anyone with an interest in AND knowledge of the subject.However, if you are looking for an ACTUAL introduction to metaphysics, look elsewhere.Might I suggest starting with Aristotle?

Great book for students considering Metaphysics.
The author Bergson has written a book that is ideal for students and or anybody considering studying or learning about "Metaphysics". However, I personally feel that somebody who is not a philosopher would dobetter to study some of Aristotle before looking into studying metaphysics.Nevertheless this book does it's job and does it well in the introductionof metaphysics by telling the reader what it's good for and why it'sworthless. Having a good understanding of the benefits of studyingmetaphysics is truly the best way to pursued somebody into studyingmetaphysics. If your considering studying of metaphysics, good for you, Isuggest you buy this book. ... Read more

Product Description
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free.This is an OCR edition with typos.Excerpt from book:CHAPTER IITHE MULTIPLICITY OF CONSCIOUS STATES1 THE IDEA OF DURATION Number may be defined in general as a collection of units, or, speaking more exactly, as the synthesis what is num- of tne one and the many. Every num- bert, ber is one, since it is brought before the1 I had already completed the present work when I read in the Critique philosophique (for 1883 and 1884) F. Pillon's very remarkable refutation of an interesting article by G. Noel on the interconnexion of the notions of number and space. But I have not found it necessary to make any alterations in the following pages, seeing that Pillon does not distinguish between time as quality and tune as quantity, between the multiplicity of juxtaposition and that of interpenetration. Without this vital distinction, which it is the chief aim of the present chapter to establish, it would be possible to maintain, with Pillon, that number may be built up from the relation of co-existence. But what is here meant by co.existence ? If the co-existing terms form an organic whole, they will never lead us to the notion of number; if they remain distinct, they are in juxtaposition and we are dealing with space. It is no use to quote the example of simultaneous impressions received by several senses. We either leave these sensations their specific differences, which amounts to saying that we do not count them; or else we eliminate their differences, and then how are we to distinguish them if not by their position or that of their symbols ? We shall see that the verb " to distinguish " has two meanings, the one qualitative, the othermind by a simple intuition and is given a name; but the unity which attaches to it is that of a sum, it covers a multiplicity of parts which can be considered separately. Without attempting for ... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Book was obviously a fake
I needed this book for a college course. When it came, it looked like it was a xeroxed copy and although the book title and author was right, my professor had never seen anything like it. It was obviously a pirated copy and didn't even resemble the real copy. Luckily, I only needed the book for the last two weeks of my class...the professor was workable. If he had not been, I would have been screwed. I will never buy anything from this seller again.

Unreadable format filled with typos
Bergson is a philosopher worth reading and it's wonderful that his work is available in English BUT... this edition is inexcusably faulty with strange page breaks, unitelligible characters dispersed throughout and an overall poor format making the text unreadable. The publisher makes a disclaimer about the possibility of inaccuracies but this in itself is inexcusable. When publishing any kind of work - and especially one that is generally used in the academic setting, it seems to me that the publisher would want to be certain to be accurate and spend adequate time and resources to edit the work properly. Hire an editor and stop charging people for inept work!!

Completely defective optically scanned edition - do not buy!
Please note this is a review of *this edition*, not of the work itself. This edition is an unedited optical scan of the original. It is completely defective and unusable. The following is a representative passage:


"In truth, psychophysics merely formulates with precision and pushes to its extreme consequences a conception familiar to common sense.
Lies merely . , , .
Pushes to iti As speech dominates over thought,
extreme conse- , 1 1 . ,
nuenoes the as external objects, which are common
fundamental , ,.,
bnt natural to us all, are more important to us
mistake ol n , ,,.... , ,
garding sensa- than the subjective states through
tions as mag- , . , , , ` ,
which to each of us passes, we have every
thing to gain by objectifying these states, by introducing into them, to the largest possible extent, the representation of their external cause."

Even had this edition been edited, which it clearly has not, I'm not sure how much that could have improved it, given that the creators of the edition clearly speak only rudimentary English. From the copyright section:

"You may not reproduce this book, stored [sic] it in a retrieval system, or transmitted [sic] in any form ..."

Read the other one star reviews and do not buy this edition. Find a copy online or get one from a library. My copy is going back to Amazon tomorrow.

A Horrible Edition
I was seriously so excited to receive my copy of Time and Free Will.This edition disappoints on all levels.I can't help but imagine that all of the reviewers of this book just happened to like Bergson, read his essay a long time ago, and decided to try to influence others to do the same.Not a bad goal, except I looked at the good reviews, bought this copy, and ended up wasting my money.This book is a scanned copy of the online version of the original text.The translation is horrible, and there are textual errors, strange spacings, and phrases of complete gibberish throughout. For example: "Therefore timeis?joilndi ordConstructed as..."Tons of errors like this.Find another copy, but do not buy this edition.It sucks.

Edition is defective
The General Books LLC edition is entirely defective, a conservative estimate would put 1000 errors per page rendering the text unreadable. Serious lack of quality control ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Open philosophy or closed mind?
Today, the French philosopher Henri Bergson (1859-1941) is more or less forgotten. However, he was an important person during most of his lifetime, and even something of a celebrity. He met the US president Woodrow Wilson and participated in the creation of the League of Nations, heading its cultural and educational branch. In 1927, Bergson was awarded the Nobel literature prize by the Swedish Academy, ostensibly because of his philosophy books, but (I guess) really as a form of general recognition. During World War Two, when France was occupied by the Nazis, the fascist Vichy regime offered to exempt Bergson from the anti-Semitic laws (he was part-Jewish), an offer the aged philosopher turned down, no doubt as a protest against anti-Semitism and Nazism. However, some people still believe that Bergson converted to Catholicism in secret during the war.

The most well known book by Bergson is, of course, "Creative Evolution". Being something of a non-conformist, I decided to start by reading Bergson's last and most controversial work, "The Two Sources of Morality and Religion", published in 1932 (in English in 1935). Bergson's philosophy took an explicitly religious and mystical turn with the publication of this book. It's difficult to label Bergson, but pantheistic mysticism might be the best description. At the same time, he is very sympathetic to Christianity, in particular Christian mystics.

Unfortunately, Bergson's book is very difficult to read: he takes a hundred pages or more to get to the point, and when he finally makes it, he ruminates the same point for another hundred pages! Frankly, "The Two Sources" could have been half as long. The work also feels like an intellectual roller coaster ride. Sometimes, Bergson hits the nail squarely on the head. At other times, he sounds nebulous or...well, religious.

Bergson believes that what we call "morality" are really two entirely different phenomena. They can and do blend, to the extent that we don't recognize their distinctiveness in daily life. Yet, the two kinds of "morality" have different origins. None of them come from human reason. "Closed morality" (in-group morality) is a product of nature and regular evolution. It's a system of societal sanctions and obligations, enabling (and sometimes forcing) humans to co-operate and survive. Philosophers often imagine that this kind of morality is eminently reasonable, can be deduced from categorical imperatives, and that somehow it's intrinsically motivating. Not so, says Bergson. "Closed" morality works only because it has the sanction of society behind it, a sanction the individual has more or less internalized. That's why it looks "reasonable" to him, but without the material sanction, humans would be egoists. This is obviously a criticism of Kantians, but Bergson also waxes sarcastic over utilitarians, at one point saying that "only a subtle utilitarian philosopher" would refrain from being egoistic in a world where reason isn't backed up by societal sanctions.

But there is also an "open" morality, a morality that sees beyond the in-group, transcends its limitations, and reaches to embrace all of humanity. This morality has no connection to reason either. Nor is it derived from "nature" as we usually understand the term. It's source is spiritual, mystical and religious. The ultimate source of "open" morality is the élan vital, the life force that permeates the entire cosmos. I must admit that I never really understood what exactly this élan vital is supposed to *be*, and yet it was a central tenet of Bergson's philosophy almost from the start. In "The Two Sources", at any rate, the concept is clearly religious in character. Élan vital (sometimes translated "vital impulse") is the later Bergson's equivalent to Brahman. In opposition to Hinduism, however, Bergson imagines the pantheistic deity to be active rather than passive. The vital impulse creates matter, takes hold of it, and forces it to evolve into more and more complex forms. There is no preconceived plan, so in that sense the entire universe is "open". Suffering is inevitable, but so is creativity, freedom and the unexpected - and, in the end, some kind of joyful life after death (although Bergson says very little about this). As civilization progresses, "closed" and "open" forms of morality are combined, but unless humanity creates a world community, "closed" morality will always remain somewhere. Bergson points out that Western nations nominally believe in "the brotherhood of man", even on the morrow of destructive wars! The process towards a completely "open" morality isn't completed.

Bergson also makes a distinction between "closed" and "open" religion. This part of the book is quite boring, as Bergson strides into comparative religion and anthropology, speculating about the exact origins of this or that superstitious belief. His main point is that "closed" religion is nature's response to human intelligence. It's essentially a way of constraining intelligence. Without the superstitions and taboos of "closed" religion, humans would feel lost in the immensity of space, not to mention the fact that we would constantly fear our own deaths. Also, we would become egoists without "closed" religion lending sanction to "closed" morality. Thus, "closed" religion is a psychological and sociological phenomenon, and hence unreal. Bergson calls it absurd, hallucinatory, and so on. By contrast, "open" religion is the religion that bases itself on mystical experiences, and justifies "open" morality.

The high point of both "open" morality and "open religion" is Christianity, especially the Sermon on the Mount and various Christian mystics. Bergson is more critical of Buddhism. As for Hinduism, he is sympathetic to Ramakrishna and Vivekananda, but believes that they represent a recent phase of Hindu evolution (he is right in Vivekananda's case). In a footnote, he actually mentions Evelyn Underhill, pointing out that she appropriated some of Bergson's own ideas!

Bergson further believes that "open" morality and religion become influential due to the charismatic power and example of strong personalities. Thus, it's not simply mystical experiences that moves the crowds to accept "open" morality. Apparently, it can be spread by external means as well, but in Bergson's opinion, this is not group pressure, but rather a kind of instinctive sympathy which makes men follow strong, saintly persons. For rather obvious reasons, this part of Bergson's work is very hard to swallow. Charismatic leaders, as we all know, can have quite another effect on people than moral ones!

But there are other problems with "The Two Sources" as well. Bergson apparently didn't believe that "normal" Darwinism could explain why some humans would be morally open to out-groups, and hence felt the need to postulate a religious explanation for this phenomenon. But why should this be a problem? Humans are intelligent. Surely an intelligent creature can transcend the "closed" morality of the in-group? Wherein lays the mystery? There is a mystery only if you have a very deterministic, sociobiological view of what evolution might accomplish: "We can't teach altruism, for we are born selfish". (With apologies to Richard Dawkins!) Bergson's work also suffers from internal inconsistencies. He rejects teleology, seeing it as determinist, and instead favours the unbounded freedom to create of the élan vital. But he also regards humans and social insects (!) as the end points of evolution, the one having perfect intelligence, the other being endowed with pure instinct, both being social. This implies that there is a kind of teleology after all, although our author graciously allows that ants and bees might be an alternative goal of creative evolution. (Overall, Bergson seems fascinated by bees and ants.) There is also an obvious tension between the superstitions of the "closed" religions, which Bergson almost contemptuously rejects, and his own "open" religion, which might also be accused of serving purely psychological and sociological needs, as when Bergson writes that although there is a lot of suffering, there is also hope that it will cease one day, etc.

Finally, I note that while Bergson was condemned by the Catholic Church during his lifetime, this edition of "The Two Sources of Morality and Religion" is published by Notre Dame Press, and has a positive blurb from the magazine Catholic World (and also from the Protestant Christian Century). It seems his pantheistic mysticism has been "opened" after Vatican II! Still, I don't think Bergson is very influential today, although Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Sri Aurobindo may have said something similar. But Bergson himself seems to have been forgotten.

"The Two Sources of Morality and Religion" probably doesn't contain the solution to the world riddle. Open philosophy or closed mind? That is the question.

about as deep as it gets
Here is a work of such scope that it seems very difficult to summarize. One of the main ideas is that the human intellect was evolved as a tool for survival through problem-solving. This tool worked so well that it threatened to become self-defeating, as individuals began to realize they could use their intelligence to take advantage of their fellow beings. This development posed a risk to society as a whole, whose preservation is nature's primary aim. Thus, regulating mechanisms; duty, obligation, morality and religion are supplied to limit intelligence to its role of serving society as a whole. This is of course a very incomplete thumbnail sketch of ideas which Bergson develops in great depth. He advances concepts to explain the mechanism of how this might have happened, and goes on to draw conclusions about what he thinks it might mean for the future of mankind. Though not overtly religious, his presentation shows a belief in the possibility of mystical revelation as a further advancement of the intellect. Bergson presents this not as an article of faith, but as a concept based on his ideas of the dynamic nature of the evolutionary process. Whether or not it is entirely accurate in its conclusions, I believe the book merits 5 stars as a brilliant treatment of the derivation of fundamental elements of human behavior.

A brilliant exposition by a great thinker.
In Bergson's "Two Sources," the famous french thinker applies his relational methodology and metaphysic to an analysis of religion and morality. Bergson himself was certainly very careful about how he presented his own religious sentiments, and this book continues to show that care, coupled now with his meticulous attention to phenomenological detail. Hence, this is not a proselytizing sermon, but a close analysis of phenomenological *sources* of religious and moral sentiment.

This is a later work of Bergson's, and as such, it might not be the best introduction to his work. One can see a great deal of Bergson's previous metaphysical thought operating in the background if one knows what to look for. To catch up on that background, one might want to read _Time and Freewill_ or _Matter and Memory_, for instance.

However, its also not clear that one really needs that background to appreciate this book. For one thing, this volume gives one of the clearest examples of Bergson's methodology that I have encountered (in my admittedly limited studies). This method has come to be known as Bergson's "qualitative calculus" (QC, a term coined by Pete Gunther). The QC has certain obvious similarities with Hegel's dialectic: a phenomenon gets analyzed as a product of two tensional poles which define a spectum of relations between them. But the differences are also manifest. The poles, for Bergson, have none of the ontological status of Hegel's objective idealism. Nor are they so much Ideal Opposites, as they are the two ends of a relational spectrum. Bergson's relational approach is not built around a sharp, black/white oppositional structure the way Hegel's is (or at least appears to be in some readings).

The two poles for Bergson are, in this instance, what might be called "habit" and "inspiration," which lead to, respectively, static and dynamic structures. These structures are rarely if ever encountered in their pure forms, and as such the two poles are the abstracted ideal elements of a phenomenological analysis. Chapter one of _Two Sources_ focuses on morality, and gives the initial development of QC structures that Bergson will then apply throughout the rest of the book. Chapter two takes religion in its static, habit based form, and further delves into this structure along the lines of Bergson's QC. (Here, again, we see the debt to Hegel, where each stage of the dialectic leads to a deeper analysis.) Chapter three takes religion in its dynamic phase, and the final chapter summarizes and offers conclusions.

Once again, this is not a book looking to convert the faithless, nor is it preaching to the choir. It is a careful analysis along the lines of James' _Varieties of Religious Experience_. (By the by, for those who don't already know, Bergson and James were frequent correspondents, and admirers of one anothers work.)It may not be the best introduction to Bergson's thought, but it is certainly worthy of reading.

Judge For Yourself
This book is an evangelical revival for intellectuals.Here's a quote:

"And all great mystics declare that they have the impression of a current passing from their soul to God, and flowing back again from God to mankind.
Let no one speak of material obstables to a soul thus freed!"

It might delight a religious scholar but what little I was able to penetrate left me desparate for clear meaningful statements. ... Read more

Product Description
What does laughter mean? What common ground can we find between the grimace of a merry-andrew, a play upon words, an equivocal situation in a burlesque and a scene of high comedy? What method of distillation will yield us invariably the same essence from which so many different products borrow either their obtrusive odour or their delicate perfume? The greatest of thinkers, from Aristotle downwards, have tackled this little problem, which has a knack of baffling every effort, of slipping away and escaping only to bob up again, a pert challenge flung at philosophic speculation. Our excuse for attacking the problem in our turn must lie in the fact that we shall not aim at imprisoning the comic spirit within a definition. We regard it, above all, as a living thing. However trivial it may be, we shall treat it with the respect due to life. We shall confine ourselves to watching it grow and expand. ... Read more

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"In recent years, we have grown accustomed to philosophical language that is intensely self-conscious and rhetorically thick, often tragic in tone. It is enlivening to read Bergson, who exerts so little rhetorical pressure while exacting such a substantial effort of thought. . . . Bergson’s texts teach the reader to let go of entrenched intellectual habits and to begin to think differently—to think in time. . . . Too much and too little have been said about Bergson. Too much, because of the various appropriations of his thought. Too little, because the work itself has not been carefully studied in recent decades."—from Thinking in Time

Henri Bergson (1859–1941), whose philosophical works emphasized motion, time, and change, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1927. His work remains influential, particularly in the realms of philosophy, cultural studies, and new media studies. In Thinking in Time, Suzanne Guerlac provides readers with the conceptual and contextual tools necessary for informed appreciation of Bergson’s work.

Guerlac’s straightforward philosophical expositions of two Bergson texts, Time and Free Will (1888) and Matter and Memory (1896), focus on the notions of duration and memory—concepts that are central to the philosopher’s work. Thinking in Time makes plain that it is well worth learning how to read Bergson effectively: his era and our own share important concerns. Bergson’s insistence on the opposition between the automatic and the voluntary and his engagement with the notions of "the living," affect, and embodiment are especially germane to discussions of electronic culture. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Read the original(s)
A introductory book on the philosophy of Bergson, which ends with two (short) chapters discussing the recent "return to Bergson." Guerlac's monograph reads as though it were rather hastily put together, as though she ran out of time to properly develop the material.
An example: chapter 5 (Channels of Contemporary Reception) is a particularly useful subject and the chapter begins well, but it swiftly descends to uselessness, stitched together by a series of quotes and paraphrases from various theorists, as well as endless footnotes which include further quotes and paraphrases (there are 97 footnotes for a chapter 23 pages long). (It doesn't help either that Guerlac moves much too quickly through the Bergsonian influence on Deleuze's Cinema books - relying, it seems to me, too heavily on Mark Hansen's commentary - as well as Deleuze and Guattari's concept of "the machinic.")
Worse is the treatment of Bergson's texts, but for a different reason. The majority of Guerlac's book is an explication of two Bergson works: Time and Free Will and Matter and Memory. (Why Creative Evolution is not given the same treatment is a mystery to me.) Having just re-read Matter and Memory, I have to say that I found Guerlac's chapter on this great work completely without point: she simply repeats his argument but in her own words (except when she is directly quoting the original). Why not read the original instead, which is exquisitely written and endlessly fascinating?
The purpose of such an introductory work should be to clarify and contextualize; to give a student some footholds as they explore the difficult (but richly rewarding) original texts. What is the purpose of a 67-page paraphrase of Matter and Memory except to discourage the student from reading the original (by having the student believe they have somehow already done so - and not by reading the 200 page original but the 67 page copy)?
The book is not without some merit, but it needed several more rewrites and some judicious pruning. (And instead of 2 LONG chapters on Bergson's first two philosophical texts, it should have had 4 shorter chapters on ALL of his major philosophical works: Time and Free Will, Matter and Memory, Creative Evolution, and Two Sources of Morality and Religion.)
I'd give the book 2 1/2 stars, if it were possible, but since it is not I will go for the lower rating, because it is closer to 2 stars than 3. ... Read more

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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

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Henri Bergson was an early 20th century French philosopher. Bergson's essay on laughter states that laughter is an intellectual response.We laugh because we feel uncomfortable when the unexpected occurs.When in a situation over which we have no control laughter is a release. ... Read more

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Kolakowski shows how Henri Bergson sought to reconcile Darwin’s theory with his own beliefs about the nature of the universe. Bergson believed that time could be thought of in two different ways: as an abstract measuring device used for practical purposes, or as durée, the "real" time we actually experience. He also held that all matter is propelled by an internal élan vital, or life-drive, and that the life of the universe is constantly creative and unpredictable. On the basis of these ideas he constructed a system of thought that embraced his views on memory, matter, consciousness, movement, religious morality, and the nature of laughter. His pantheistic and dynamic vision of the universe, which emerged at a time of crisis in Western intellectual life, was symptomatic of the struggle between a rigid scientific determinism and the Christian tradition of a divine creation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A good introduction to a highly creative thinker
Bergson was an admirable figure in many ways. He was at one time the star of European and world- philosophy but the star has dimmed with the years. He was born Jewish but was a convert to Catholicism. When the Nazis ordered the Jews of Paris to line up to receive the yellow- star Bergson( who could have been exempted by his Catholicism and his fame)got out into the street with his fellow Jews. He stood in the cold for hours.Old and unwell he died shortly thereafter.
His philosophy was a philosophy whose emphasis was on ' lived experience,' on the time of 'duree'' on the inner sense we have in being alive .For him as for his American correspondent William James life was a creative stream. And newness and innovation came naturally with it. It was almost as if for him creation ex nihilo occurred in every instant. He opposed in his thought mechanical thinking, rigid determinism.
I myself have always found grasping his thought very difficult, and this is still true despite Kolakowski's excellent work. I do however believe many of the themes of his thought, and especially those related to the inherent creative quality of humanity are ones which are true and deserve a lasting place in our understanding and definition of ourselves and the world. ... Read more

Product Description
INTRODUCTION:
Before the dawn of history mankind was engaged in the study of dreaming. The wise man among the ancients was preeminently the interpreter of dreams. The ability to interpret successfully or plausibly was the quickest road to royal favor, as Joseph and Daniel found it to be; failure to give satisfaction in this respect led to banishment from court or death. When a scholar laboriously translates a cuneiform tablet dug up from a Babylonian mound where it has lain buried for five thousand years or more, the chances are that it will turn out either an astrological treatise or a dream book. If the former, we look upon it with some indulgence; if the latter with pure contempt. For we know that the study of the stars, though undertaken for selfish reasons and pursued in the spirit of charlatanry, led at length to physical science, while the study of dreams has proved as unprofitable as the dreaming of them. Out of astrology grew astronomy. Out of oneiromancy has grown--nothing.

That at least was substantially true up to the beginning of the present century. Dream books in all languages continued to sell in cheap editions and the interpreters of dreams made a decent or, at any rate, a comfortable living out of the poorer classes. But the psychologist rarely paid attention to dreams except incidentally in his study of imagery, association and the speed of thought. But now a change has come over the spirit of the times. The subject of the significance of dreams, so long ignored, has suddenly become a matter of energetic study and of fiery controversy the world over.

The cause of this revival of interest is the new point of view brought forward by Professor Bergson in the paper which is here made accessible to the English-reading public. This is the idea that we can explore the unconscious substratum of our mentality, the storehouse of our memories, by means of dreams, for these memories are by no means inert, but have, as it were, a life and purpose of their own, and strive to rise into consciousness whenever they get a chance, even into the semi-consciousness of a dream. To use Professor Bergson's striking metaphor, our memories are packed away under pressure like steam in a boiler and the dream is their escape valve.

That this is more than a mere metaphor has been proved by Professor Freud and others of the Vienna school, who cure cases of hysteria by inducing the patient to give expression to the secret anxieties and emotions which, unknown to him, have been preying upon his mind. The clue to these disturbing thoughts is generally obtained in dreams or similar states of relaxed consciousness. According to the Freudians a dream always means something, but never what it appears to mean. It is symbolic and expresses desires or fears which we refuse ordinarily to admit to consciousness, either because they are painful or because they are repugnant to our moral nature. A watchman is stationed at the gate of consciousness to keep them back, but sometimes these unwelcome intruders slip past him in disguise. In the hands of fanatical Freudians this theory has developed the wildest extravagancies, and the voluminous literature of psycho-analysis contains much that seems to the layman quite as absurd as the stuff which fills the twenty-five cent dream book.

It is impossible to believe that the subconsciousness of every one of us contains nothing but the foul and monstrous specimens which they dredge up from the mental depths of their neuropathic patients and exhibit with such pride. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more