Henri Bergson

Fred Dervin (University of Turku)

Ed. by David Houston Jones, University of Exeter
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.06: French Writing and Culture: Early Twentieth-century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: Kate Averis (University of Western Australia), Hugo Azerad (University of Cambridge), Patrick ffrench (King's College London), Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Akane Kawakami (Birkbeck, University of London), Siobhán McIlvanney (King's College London), Sinan Richards (King's College London), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield)

Dates

Born 18 Oct 1859
Died 4 Jan 1941
Activity 1889-1936

Places

Born in France
Active in France

Activities

Primary

Philosopher

Resources

Bergson's Works

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Although Henri Bergson has been viewed negatively by most British philosophers – unreasonably dominated by the hostility of Bertrand Russell (whose simplistic and waspish essay about Bergson of 1914 reappears almost word for word in his widely influential and endlessly reprinted

History of Western Philosophy

of 1945), and hence by the Logical Positivists – he was generally considered one of the greatest French philosophers of all time and was certainly hugely influential on the European continent and in America in the years 1900-1939. Bergson’s particular achievement was to extend our understanding of the subjective nature of experience, and thus to critique those philosophies which presumed objective and factual understanding of persons and the world. Bergson argued that words and…

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2983 words

Citation: Dervin, Fred. "Henri Bergson". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 August 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=382, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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