Synopses & Reviews
At the threshold of the twentieth century, Bergson reset the agenda for philosophy and its relationship with science, art and even life itself. Concerned with both examining and extolling the phenomena of time, change, and difference, he was at one point held as both "the greatest thinker in the world" and "the most dangerous man in the world." Yet the impact of his ideas was so all-pervasive among artists, philosophers and politicians alike, that by the end of the First World War it had become impossibly diffuse. In a manner imitating his own cult of change, the Bergsonian school departed from the scene almost as quickly as it had arrived. As part of a current resurgence of interest in Bergson, both in Europe and in North America, this collection of essays addresses the significance of his philosophical legacy for contemporary thought.
Synopsis
Henri Bergson, central to European philosophy at the beginning of the C20th, is returning to that position at the beginning of the C21st. Bergson's legacy reaches across the disciplines of philosophy, humanities and the arts, and has especial relevance for recent film and video studies (in the area of time, change and difference). This collection includes an original essay by Gilles Deleuze, translated into English for the first time. Hugely impressive international cast including not only Deleuze, but also Worms, Gunter, Ansell Pearson and Timothy S. Murphy. The first in the acclaimed Angelaki Humanities series.
Synopsis
At the threshold of the twentieth century, Bergson reset the agenda for philosophy and its relationship with science, art and even life itself. Concerned with both examining and extolling the phenomena of time, change, and difference, he was at one point held as both "the greatest thinker in the world" and "the most dangerous man in the world." Yet the impact of his ideas was so all-pervasive among artists, philosophers and politicians alike, that by the end of the First World War it had become impossibly diffuse. In a manner imitating his own cult of change, the Bergsonian school departed from the scene almost as quickly as it had arrived. As part of a current resurgence of interest in Bergson, both in Europe and in North America, this collection of essays addresses the significance of his philosophical legacy for contemporary thought.
About the Author
John Mullarkey is Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Sunderland.
Table of Contents
Introduction *
Part I: History and Method * Philo, Spinoza, Bergson: The Rise of an Ecological Age * Method in Philosophy *
Part II: Ontology * Bergson's Conception of Difference * Beneath Relativity: Bergson and Bohm on Absolute Time *
Part III: Mind * A Letter from Bergson to Dewey * Matter and Memory on Mind and Body: Final Statements and New Perspectives * Bergson: The Keyboards of Forgetting * Bergson's Concept of a Person * Magic *
Part IV: Life * Bergson and Creative Evolution/Involution: Exposing the Transcendental Illusion of Organismic Life * Bergson and the War Against Nature *
Part V: Art * The Rhythms of Duration: Bergson and the Art of Matisse * Bergson and Cinema: Friends or Foes?