Human personality and its experience
must have ample place and recognition in any philosophy put forward in
these days.
Bergson's work is a magnificent attempt to show us how, in the words of
George Meredith: "Men have come out of brutishness." His theory of
evolution is separated from Naturalism by his insistence on human
freedom and on the supra-consciousness which is the origin of things; on
the other hand, he is separated from the Idealists by his insistence
upon the reality of la duree. He contrasts profoundly with Absolute
Idealism. While in Hegel, Mind is the only truth of Nature, in Bergson,
Life is the only truth of Matter, or we may express it--whereas for
Hegel the truth of Reality is its ideality, for Bergson the truth of
Reality is its vitality.
The need for philosophical thought, as Bergson himself points out,
[Footnote: See the closing remarks in his little work on French
philosophy, La Philosophie.] is world-wide. Philosophy aims at bringing
all discussion, even that of business affairs, on to the plane of ideas
and principles. By looking at things from a truly "general" standpoint
we are frequently helped to approach them in a really "generous" frame
of mind, for there is an intimate connexion between the large mind and
the large heart.
Bergson has rendered valuable service in calling attention to the need
for man to examine carefully his own inner nature, and the deepest worth
and significance of his own experiences. For the practical purposes of
life, man is obliged to deal with objects in space, and to learn their
relations to one another.
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