He brings together, without being eclectic, action and
reflection, free will and determinism, motion and rest, intellect and
intuition, subjectivity and externality, idealism and realism, in a most
unconventional way. His whole philosophy is destructive of a large
amount of the "vested interests" of philosophy. "We are watching the
rise of a new agnosticism," remarked Dr. Bosanquet. A similar remark
came from one of Bergson's own countrymen, Alfred Fouillee, who, in his
work Le Mouvement idealist et la reaction contre la science positive,
expressed the opinion that Bergson's philosophy could but issue in le
scepticisme et le nihilisme (p. 206). Bergson runs counter to so many
established views that his thought has raised very wide and animated
discussions. The list of English and American articles in the
Bibliography appended to the present work shows this at a glance. In his
preface to the volume on Gabriel Tarde, his predecessor in the chair of
Modern Philosophy at the College de France, written in 1909, we find
Bergson remarking: On mesure la portee d'une doctrine philosophique a la
variete des idees ou elle s'epanouit et a la symplicite du principe ou
elle se ramasse. This remark may serve us as a criterion in surveying
his own work. The preceding exposition of his thought is a sufficient
indication of the wealth of ideas expressed. Bergson is most suggestive.
Moreover, no philosopher has been so steeped in the knowledge of both
Mind and Matter, no thinker has been at once so "empirical" and so
"spiritual.
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