



Produced by Sue Asscher





A NEW PHILOSOPHY: HENRI BERGSON

by Edouard le Roy

Translated from the French by Vincent Benson




Preface

This little book is due to two articles published under the same title
in the "Revue des Deux Mondes", 1st and 15th February 1912.

Their object was to present Mr Bergson's philosophy to the public at
large, giving as short a sketch as possible, and describing, without too
minute details, the general trend of his movement. These articles I
have here reprinted intact. But I have added, in the form of continuous
notes, some additional explanations on points which did not come within
the scope of investigation in the original sketch.

I need hardly add that my work, though thus far complete, does not in
any way claim to be a profound critical study. Indeed, such a study,
dealing with a thinker who has not yet said his last word, would today
be premature. I have simply aimed at writing an introduction which will
make it easier to read and understand Mr Bergson's works, and serve as a
preliminary guide to those who desire initiation in the new philosophy.

I have therefore firmly waived all the paraphernalia of technical
discussions, and have made no comparisons, learned or otherwise, between
Mr Bergson's teaching and that of older philosophies.

I can conceive no better method of misunderstanding the point at
issue, I mean the simple unity of productive intuition, than that of
pigeon-holing names of systems, collecting instances of resemblance,
making up analogies, and specifying ingredients. An original philosophy
is not meant to be studied as a mosaic which takes to pieces, a compound
which analyses, or a body which dissects. On the contrary, it is by
considering it as a living act, not as a rather clever discourse, by
examining the peculiar excellence of its soul rather than the formation
of its body, that the inquirer will succeed in understanding it.
Properly speaking, I have only applied to Mr Bergson the method which
he himself justifiably prescribes in a recent article ("Revue de
Metaphysique et de Morale", November 1911), the only method, in fact,
which is in all senses of the word fully "exact." I shall none the less
be glad if these brief pages can be of any interest to professional
philosophers, and have endeavoured, as far as possible, to allow them
to trace, under the concise formulae employed, the scheme which I have
refused to develop.

It has become evident to me that even today the interpretation of Mr
Bergson's position is in many cases full of faults, which it would
undoubtedly be worth while to assist in removing. I may or may not have
succeeded in my attempt, but such, at any rate, is the precise end I had
in view.

In conclusion, I may say that I have not had the honour of being Mr
Bergson's pupil; and, at the time when I became acquainted with his
outlook, my own direct reflection on science and life had already
produced in me similar trains of thought. I found in his work
the striking realisation of a presentiment and a desire. This
"correspondence," which I have not exaggerated, proved at once a help
and a hindrance to me in entering into the exact comprehension of so
profoundly original a doctrine. The reader will thus understand that I
think it in place to quote my authority to him in the following lines
which Mr Bergson kindly wrote me after the publication of the articles
reproduced in this volume: "Underneath and beyond the method you have
caught the intention and the spirit...Your study could not be more
conscientious or true to the original. As it advances, condensation
increases in a marked degree: the reader becomes aware that the
explanation is undergoing a progressive involution similar to the
involution by which we determine the reality of Time. To produce this
feeling, much more has been necessary than a close study of my works: it
has required deep sympathy of thought, the power, in fact, of rethinking
the subject in a personal and original manner. Nowhere is this sympathy
more in evidence than in your concluding pages, where in a few words you
point out the possibilities of further developments of the doctrine. In
this direction I should myself say exactly what you have said."

Paris, 28th March 1912.


CONTENTS

Preface


GENERAL VIEW


I. Method.

Scope of Henri Bergson's Philosophy. Material and Authorities.
Investigation of Common-sense. Value of Science. Perception Discussed.
Practical Life and Reality. Concepts and Symbolism. Intuition and
Analysis. Use of Metaphor. The Philosopher's Task.


II. Teaching.

The Ego. Space and Number. Parallelism. Henri Bergson's View of Mind
and Matter. Qualitative Continuity. Memory. Real Duration Heterogeneous.
Liberty and Determinism. Meaning of Reality. Evolution and Automatism.
Triumph of Man. The Vital Impulse. Objections Refuted. Place of Religion
in the New Philosophy.


ADDITIONAL EXPLANATIONS

I. Henri Bergson's Work and the General Directions of Contemporary
Thought.

Mathematics and Philosophy. The Inert and the Living. Realism and
Positivism. Henri Bergson and the Intuition of Duration.


II. Immediacy.

Necessity of Criticism. Utilitarianism of Common-sense. Perception of
Immediacy.


III. Theory of Perception.

Pure and Ordinary Perception. Kant's Position. Relation of Perception to
Matter. Complete Experience.


IV. Critique of Language.

Dynamic Schemes. Dangers of Language. The Eleatic Dialectic. Scientific
Thought and the Task of Intuition. Discussion of Change.


V. The Problem of Consciousness: Duration and Liberty.

States as Phases in Duration. The Scientific View of Time. Duration
and Freedom. Liberty and Determinism in the Light of Henri Bergson's
Philosophy.


VI. The Problem of Evolution: Life and Matter.

Evolution and Creation. Laws of Conservation and Degradation. Quantity
and Quality. Secondary Value of Matter.


VII. The Problem of Knowledge: Analysis and Intuition.

Difficulties of Kant's Position. Insufficiency of Intelligence. Henri
Bergson and the Problem of Reason. Geometric and Vital Types of Order.


VIII. Conclusion.

Moral and Religious Problems. Henri Bergson's Position.




A NEW PHILOSOPHY




GENERAL VIEW




I. Method.

There is a thinker whose name is today on everybody's lips, who is
deemed by acknowledged philosophers worthy of comparison with the
greatest, and who, with his pen as well as his brain, has overleapt all
technical obstacles, and won himself a reading both outside and inside
the schools. Beyond any doubt, and by common consent, Mr Henri Bergson's
work will appear to future eyes among the most characteristic, fertile,
and glorious of our era. It marks a never-to-be-forgotten date in
history; it opens up a phase of metaphysical thought; it lays down a
principle of development the limits of which are indeterminable; and it
is after cool consideration, with full consciousness of the exact value
of words, that we are able to pronounce the revolution which it effects
equal in importance to that effected by Kant, or even by Socrates.

Everybody, indeed, has become aware of this more or less clearly. Else
how are we to explain, except through such recognition, the sudden
striking spread of this new philosophy which, by its learned rigorism,
precluded the likelihood of so rapid a triumph?

Twenty years have sufficed to make its results felt far beyond
traditional limits: and now its influence is alive and working from one
pole of thought to the other; and the active leaven contained in it can
be seen already extending to the most varied and distant spheres:
in social and political spheres, where from opposite points, and not
without certain abuses, an attempt is already being made to wrench it
in contrary directions; in the sphere of religious speculation, where
it has been more legitimately summoned to a distinguished, illuminative,
and beneficent career; in the sphere of pure science, where, despite old
separatist prejudices, the ideas sown are pushing up here and there;
and lastly, in the sphere of art, where there are indications that it
is likely to help certain presentiments, which have till now remained
obscure, to become conscious of themselves. The moment is favourable to
a study of Mr Bergson's philosophy; but in the face of so many attempted
methods of employment, some of them a trifle premature, the point of
paramount importance, applying Mr Bergson's own method to himself, is
to study his philosophy in itself, for itself, in its profound trend and
its authenticated action, without claiming to enlist it in the ranks of
any cause whatsoever.


I.

Mr Bergson's readers will undergo at almost every page they read an
intense and singular experience. The curtain drawn between ourselves
and reality, enveloping everything including ourselves in its illusive
folds, seems of a sudden to fall, dissipated by enchantment, and display
to the mind depths of light till then undreamt, in which reality itself,
contemplated face to face for the first time, stands fully revealed. The
revelation is overpowering, and once vouchsafed will never afterwards be
forgotten.

Nothing can convey to the reader the effects of this direct and intimate
mental vision. Everything which he thought he knew already finds new
birth and vigour in the clear light of morning: on all hands, in the
glow of dawn, new intuitions spring up and open out; we feel them big
with infinite consequences, heavy and saturated with life. Each of them
is no sooner blown than it appears fertile for ever. And yet there is
nothing paradoxical or disturbing in the novelty. It is a reply to our
expectation, an answer to some dim hope. So vivid is the impression of
truth, that afterwards we are even ready to believe we recognise the
revelation as if we had always darkly anticipated it in some mysterious
twilight at the back of consciousness.

Afterwards, no doubt, in certain cases, incertitude reappears, sometimes
even decided objections. The reader, who at first was under a magic
spell, corrects his thought, or at least hesitates. What he has seen
is still at bottom so new, so unexpected, so far removed from familiar
conceptions. For this surging wave of thought our mind contains none of
those ready-cut channels which render comprehension easy. But whether,
in the long run, we each of us give or refuse complete or partial
adhesion, all of us, at least, have received a regenerating shock, an
internal upheaval not readily silenced: the network of our intellectual
habits is broken; henceforth a new leaven works and ferments in us; we
shall no longer think as we used to think; and be we pupils or critics,
we cannot mistake the fact that we have here a principle of integral
renewal for ancient philosophy and its old and timeworn problems.

It is obviously impossible to sketch in brief all the aspects and all
the wealth of so original a work. Still less shall I be able to answer
here the many questions which arise. I must decide to pass rapidly
over the technical detail of clear, closely-argued, and penetrating
discussions; over the scope and exactness of the evidence borrowed from
the most diverse positive sciences; over the marvellous dexterity of