Bergson and Philosophy: An Introduction

by John Mullarkey

Various schools of philosophy have tried to claim Henri Bergson as one of their own. In France he has been regarded primarily as an early phenomenologist. In the United States and Britain he is still regarded as a vitalist philosopher. This introductory study looks at Bergson’s use of philosophical form and aims to dispel the view that Bergson ever stuck to one type of philosophy at all, be it vitalism or phenomenology. The claim of any one form of thought to the title of “first philosophy” is challenged by the idea of a Bergsonian metaphilosophy, which states that, in a universe with no static foundations, there can never be first philosophies. In other words, if everything is changing, then this must be no less true of philosophy. Bergson and Philosophy is an important and lucid reassessment of an influential philosopher that sets his work in philosophical contexts.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published February 20, 2000

About the author

John Mullarkey is Professor of Film and Television Studies at Kingston University, UK since 2010.
In the past he taught philosophy and film theory at the University of Sunderland, England (1994-2004) and the University of Dundee, Scotland (2004 to 2010).
In 2014, his name reverted from the English ‘Mullarkey’ to the original Irish, ‘Ó Maoilearca’, which ultimately translates as ‘follower of the animal’. He now publishes under that name: John Ó Maoilearca.

Reviews

[Kamakana · Rating 4 out of 5]

if you like this review i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com

130412: great. only reason it is 4 is it refers to authors yet to read- levinas, deleuze- so it is my weakness, not text. unlike guerlac, this covers whole corpus of bergson, not that i have read all, so interests are spread out over several themes of philosophy.

bergson's use of very precise metaphors then blurred to capture various thoughts is enlightening. he does try but suggests the extensive difficulty in conceiving the movement of time, does insist on use of the term intuition that is neither vague, pre-conscious, naive, and contrasts openness of his systemless thought versus exclusionary metaphysics of realism or intellectualism. can see how inspiring bergson must have been for young merleau-ponty. focus on time, on experience, on the things themselves rather than predicated regions of ideas, on logic such as russell where entire range of experiential concepts eg math is located not beyond experience as kant, nor prejudiced logical categories as russell, shows how his thinking is not illogical hostage of imagination rather than thought.

inspiring to see even when confused he will continue to pursue his style of thought eg possible misunderstanding of special theory of relativity, general theory. admit this is most difficult part of book, and it is not like i understand enough to critique his critique. mullarkey also refers to others who promote process metaphysics, how this is description of bergsonism also, and again i feel undereducated. more titles to read. happy sigh...

[Steen Ledet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent and clear-eyed introduction to Bergson.