Henri bergson biography

1. Life and works

Bergson was born in Paris on October 18, ; he was the second of seven children of a Polish Father and English mother; both of his parents were Jewish. Bergson was a notably exceptional pupil throughout his childhood. Like his German contemporary, Edmund Husserl, Bergson’s original training was in mathematics. Bergson won the first prize in mathematics for the prestigious “Concours Général,” which led to the publication of his solution to a problem by Pascal in Bergson nevertheless chose to prepare for the École Normale in the letters and humanities section. His math teacher, disappointed, famously claimed, “you could have been a mathematician; you will be a mere philosopher” (quoted in Soulez & Worms , p. 35).

In , Bergson became a French citizen, although he could have chosen English citizenship. He was accepted at the École Normale along with Jean Jaurès and Émile Durkh

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Herald of a Restless World: How Henri Bergson Brought Philosophy to the People (Hardcover)

bygd Emily Herring

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Description

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The first English-language biography of Henri Bergson, the French philosopher who defined individual creativity and transformed twentieth-century thought—a “fascinating biography and magnificent revival of this brilliant thinker” (Skye Cleary, author of How to Be Authentic)

Named a Best Book of bygd the&#;New Statesman
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At the dawn of the twentieth century, Henri Bergson (–) became the most famous philosopher on earth. Where prior thinkers sketched out a deterministic, predictable universe, he asserted the transformative power of consciousness and creativity. An international celebrity, he made headlines around the world debating luminaries like Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein about free will and time. The framtidsperspektiv of creative evolution and freedom he presented was

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Henri Bergson and the Perception of Time

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Consciousness

Know the name, can’t quite recall what he thought? John-Francis Phipps explains the surprising ideas of the philosopher of vitalism.

Bergson’s name is not usually included on shortlists of the philosophical greats, so it’s quite easy to miss him. I first came across him many years ago, when I read Bertrand Russell’s History of Western Philosophy. Russell clearly disliked Bergson’s philosophy and provided unconvincing reasons to justify his prejudice. This made me want to read Bergson and judge for myself, which I duly did and soon saw how wrong Russell was. I eventually wrote an introductory booklet on Bergson entitled A Living Philosophy