The Philosophy of Henri Bergson

Background Newtonian mechanics could not explain the microscopic world of the atom and the very nature of reality itself was no longer a future scientific certainty.

Introduction His math teacher disappointed, famously claimed: “You could have been a mathematician; you will be a mere philosopher.”

Mind and Brain “We do not experience the world moment by moment, but in a fashion essentially continuous, illustrated by the way we hear a melody, which cannot consist simply in hearing a succession of disjointed notes.”

Mind and Brain “Choice is creation, and creation is labor.”

Mind and Brain “I have simply tried to show that when we leave the domain of mathematics and physics to enter that of life and consciousness, we must make appeal to a certain sense of life which cuts across pure understanding and has its origin in the same vital impulse as instinct.

Creative Evolution Evolution is creative not simply in how it does its job, but in the fact that where it will go and what it will do is undetermined.

Summary “The true statement is of itself able to displace the erroneous idea, and becomes, without our having taken the trouble of refuting anyone, the best of refutations.”

Summary “Before him we were cogs and wheels in a vast and dead machine; now, if we wish it, we can help to write our own parts in the drama of creation.”