An Introduction to Metaphysics

Henri Bergson · Lieselotte Anderson

2014年11月 · Agora Publications, Inc.

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Bergson was born in 1859, the year Darwin published the Origin of the Species. He could not have imagined the philosophical impact of evolutionary theory, which is now so great that Bergson’s philosophy, which emphasizes “creative evolution,” is experiencing a significant revival. The basic principles that Bergson articulates, especially his way of thinking about reality as a dynamic process and his view of human beings as creative and evolving, should be helpful to anyone who seeks to go beyond simply dealing with the practical demands of daily life and consider the nature of things. Of special importance is Bergson’s claim that it is both possible and necessary to know from the inside rather than confining our attention to external perspectives and points of view. Intuition is able to get beyond what is relative and place us inside reality. In An Introduction to Metaphysics, Bergson traces the demise of metaphysics to the failure of both scientific materialism and dogmatism and to the immense success of a kind of pragmatism that promised liberation from the fruitless battles among various schools of philosophy. He also rejects relativism and criticizes the vacuum that is created when philosophers refuse to inquire about the nature of reality.

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Henri Bergson was a French philosopher who lived from 1859 to 1941. Although Bergson was widely known and extremely popular at the beginning of the 20th century, both Bergson and metaphysics have been eclipsed by a variety of philosophical movements. But things were radically different a century ago when Henri Bergson made his first trip to the United States to lecture at Columbia University. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the enthusiasm generated by his appearance was responsible for the first ever traffic jam in the history of Broadway. Perhaps Bergson’s philosophy will never regain that kind of popularity, but a fresh English translation might open a door for those who wonder why his philosophy once had the power to stop traffic in Manhattan.