Henri Bergson

French philosopher (1859-1941) · France · Academics · Died at 81

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He argued that lived time - the felt flow of now - matters more than the clock, and that intuition sees deeper than logic. The idea rattled both laboratories and lecture halls, made him a literary Nobel laureate, and split French opinion down the middle.

Academics Academic Philosophy Literature France Europe 19th Century

A life in dates

1941Died4 January 19411932“The remembrance of forbidden fruit is the earliest thing in the memory of each of us, as it is in that of mankind.”In their wordsChapter I: Moral ObligationRead the whole statement

“The spectacle of what religions have been in the past, of what certain religions still are to-day, is indeed humiliating for human intelligence. What a farrago of error and folly!”In their wordsChapter II : Static ReligionRead the whole statement

“Religion is to mysticism what popularization is to science.”In their wordsChapter III : Dynamic ReligionRead the whole statement

1927Nobel Prize in LiteratureAward1924Honorary Doctorate from the National Autonomous University of MexicoAwardMore about this1914Member of the Académie françaiseOffice1914-19411907“All the living hold together, and all yield to the same tremendous push.”In their wordsCreative Evolution (1907), Chapter III. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1911, p. 271Read the whole statement

1903“I cannot escape the objection that there is no state of mind, however simple, that does not change every moment.”In their wordsAn Introduction to Metaphysics (1903), translated by T. E. Hulme. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1912, p. 44Read the whole statement

1887“Intuition is a method of feeling one's way intellectually into the inner heart of a thing to locate what is unique and inexpressible in it.”In their wordsQuoted in Georgia O'Keeffe, 1887-1986 : Flowers in the Desert (2000) by Britta Benke, p. 28Read the whole statement

1859Born18 October 1859

Also in Deutsch

Photos 8

Henri Bergson 02

BergsonNitobeIntellectualCooperation

Book signed by Roger Mauduit and offered to Henri Bergson

Copie de Henri Bergson au concours général de mathématiques - Archives nationales - AJ-16-799 page 1

Copie de Henri Bergson au concours général de mathématiques - Archives nationales - AJ-16-799 page 2

Copie de Henri Bergson au concours général de mathématiques - Archives nationales - AJ-16-799 page 3

Copie de Henri Bergson au concours général de mathématiques - Archives nationales - AJ-16-799 page 4

Copie de Henri Bergson au concours général de mathématiques - Archives nationales - AJ-16-799 page 5

In their own words 8

Henri Bergson

8 statements, newest first

The remembrance of forbidden fruit is the earliest thing in the memory of each of us, as it is in that of mankind.
1932, Chapter I: Moral Obligation, Own words
Why did we obey? The question hardly occurred to us. We had formed the habit of deferring to our parents and teachers.
1932, Chapter I: Moral Obligation, Own words
The spectacle of what religions have been in the past, of what certain religions still are to-day, is indeed humiliating for human intelligence. What a farrago of error and folly!
1932, Chapter II : Static Religion, Own words

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Awards

Nobel Prize in Literature1927

Honorary Doctorate from the National Autonomous University of Mexico1924

Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour

Concours général

Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Honorary doctor of the University of Oxford

Honorary Doctorate from the University of Cambridge

Family

Father Michał Bergson

Henri Bergson

Partners

Spouse Louise Neuberger

Sibling Moina Mathers

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About this person

Henri-Louis Bergson was born in Paris on 18 October 1859 and built a philosophy that placed immediate experience above abstract reason, insisting intuition could grasp reality where science could not. The position made him a force in both analytic and continental thought through the first half of the 20th century, then faded until Gilles Deleuze revived him with Le Bergsonisme in 1966. In 1927 he won the Nobel Prize in Literature for the richness and skill of his ideas. France gave him the Grand-Croix de la Légion d'honneur in 1930, even as officials wedded to secular rationalism saw his work as a threat. He died on 4 January 1941, having spent decades at the center of a argument about what kind of knowing counts.

Country

France

Academics from France 6

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Joseph Fourier76.7

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