ime, Duration and Freedom – Bergson’s Critical Move Against Kant

• Authors: Arjen Kleinherenbrink
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Research into Bergson’s philosophy downplays a key development in his first work, Time and free will. It is there that Bergson explicitly opposes himself to Kant by arguing that succession is not a temporal concept, but a spatial one. This is the crucial point of departure for Bergson’s entire philosophy, one that allows him to radically dismiss Kant’s notion of freedom in favor of one based on duration and multiplicity. This text has two aims. Firstly to add to Bergson scholarship by explicating the structure and force of Bergson’s initial argument against Kant, demonstrating that his engagement with Kant is much less incremental than has been suggested in secondary literature. Secondly, to reconstruct the consequences regarding freedom that Bergson immediately draws in departing from Kant, which illustrates the profundity and originality of his thought at the very inception of his oeuvre.

Keywords

EN

Time; duration; freedom; Kant; Bergson

• Publisher: Instytut Filozofii - Uniwersytet Jagielloński
• Journal: Diametros
• Year: 2014
• Issue: 39
• Pages: 203-230

Contributors

author

Arjen Kleinherenbrink

• Radboud University Nijmegen

References

• Allison [1990] – H.E. Allison, Kant's theory of freedom, Cambridge University Press, New York 1990.
• Ansell Pearson [2002] – K. Ansell Pearson, Philosophy and the adventure of the virtual – Bergson and the time of life, Routledge, London 2002.
• Ansell Pearson, Mullarkey [2002] – K. Ansell Pearson, J. Mullarkey, Henri Bergson – key writings, Continuum, London 2002.
• Barthélemey-Madaule [1966] – M. Barthlémey-Madaule, Bergson adversaire de Kant, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris 1966.
• Beets [1988] – M.G.J. Beets, Reality and freedom, Eburon, Delft 1988.
• Bergson [1971] – H. Bergson, The creative mind, Philosophical Library Inc, New York 1971.
• Bergson [1991] – H. Bergson, Matter and memory, trans. N.M. Paul, W.S. Palmer, Zone Books, New York 1991.
• Bergson [1998] – H. Bergson, Creative evolution, Dover Publications Inc, Mineola 1998.
• Bergson [2000] – H. Bergson, Duration and simultaneity, trans. L. Jacobson, M. Lewis, Clinamen Press, Manchester 2000.
• Bergson [2001] – H. Bergson, Time and free will: an essay on the immediate data of consciousness, trans. F.L. Pogson, Dover Publications Inc, Mineola 2001.
• Deleuze [1980] – G. Deleuze, Leibniz, seminar given at Vincennes on 20.05.1980, URL = http://www.webdeleuze.com/php/texte.php?cle=129&groupe=Leibniz&langue=1 [09.04.2013].
• Deleuze [1980] – G. Deleuze, Spinoza, seminar given at Vincennes on 25.11.1980, URL = http://www.webdeleuze.com/php/texte.php?cle=15&groupe=Spinoza&langue=1 [09.04.2013].
• Deleuze [1986] – G. Deleuze, Cinema 1 - the movement image, trans. H. Tomlinson, B. Habberjam, Athlone Press, London 1986.
• Deleuze [1988] – G. Deleuze, Bergsonism, trans. H. Tomlinson, Zone Books, New York 1988.
• Deleuze [1994] – G. Deleuze, Difference and repetition, trans. P. Patton, Columbia University Press, New York 1994.
• Deleuze [2004] – G. Deleuze, Desert islands and other texts 1953–1974, trans. M. Taormina, Semiotext(e) / MIT Press, Cambridge, MA 2004.
• Deleuze, Guattari [1987] – G. Deleuze, F. Guattari, A thousand plateaus – capitalism and schizophrenia 2, trans. B. Massumi, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 1987.
• Guerlac [2006] – S. Guerlac, Thinking in time: an introduction to Henri Bergson, Cornell University Press, New York 2006.
• Gunter [2005] – P.A.Y. Gunter, Introduction, [in:] Henri Bergson, Creative Evolution, Barnes & Noble, New York 2005.
• Guyer [1993] – P. Guyer, Kant and the experience of freedom, Cambridge University Press, New York 1993.
• Guyer [2005] – P. Guyer, Kant's system of nature and freedom, Oxford University Press, New York 2005.
• Guyer [2007] – P. Guyer, Kant's groundwork of the metaphysics of morals, Continuum, New York 2007.
• Guyer [2009] – P. Guyer, Problems with freedom: Kant's argument in Groundwork III and its subsequent emandations, [in:] J. Timmerman (ed.), Kant's groundwork of the metaphysics of morals, Cambridge University Press, New York, 2009.
• Harris [1933] – M.S. Harris, Bergson's conception of freedom, “The philosophical review” 42 (5) 1933.
• Jacobs, Perri [2010] – H. Jacobs, T. Perri, Intuition and freedom: Bergson, Husserl and the movement of philosophy, [in:] M.R. Kelly (ed.), Bergson and phenomenology, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010.
• Jordan [1912] – B. Jordan, Kant and Bergson, “Monist” 22(1) 1912.
• Kant [1956] – I. Kant, Critique of practical reason, trans. L.W. Beck, Bobs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis 1956.
• Kant [1959] – I. Kant, Foundations of the metaphysics of morals & What is enlightenment?, trans. L.W. Beck, Bobs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis 1959.
• Kant [1998] – I. Kant, Critique of pure reason, trans. P. Guyer, A.W. Wood, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1998.
• Kolakowski [1985] – L. Kolakowski, Bergson, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1985.
• Lawlor [2010] – L. Lawlor, Intuition and duration: an introduction to Bergson's 'Introduction to metaphysics’, [in:] M.R. Kelly (ed.), Bergson and phenomenology, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2010.
• Merleau-Ponty [1964] – M. Merleau-Ponty, Bergson in the making, [in:] Signs, Northwestern University Press, Evanston 1964.
• Merleau-Ponty [1988] – M. Merleau-Ponty, In praise of philosophy, [in:] J. O'Neill (ed.), In praise of philosophy and other essays, Northwestern University Press, Evanston 1988.
• Merleau-Ponty [2001] – M. Merleau-Ponty, The incarnate subject: Malebranche, Biran, and Bergson on the union of body and soul, Prometheus books, Amherst 2001.
• Mullarkey [1999] – J. Mullarkey (ed.), The new Bergson, Manchester University Press, Manchester 1999.
• Mullarkey [2000] – J. Mullarkey, Bergson and philosophy, University of Notre Dame Press, Indiana 2000.
• Rauscher [2009] – F. Rauscher, Freedom and reason in Groundwork III, [in:] J. Timmerman (ed.), Kant's groundwork on the metaphysics of morals, Cambridge University Press, New York 2009.
• Velkley [1989] – R.L. Velkley, Freedom and the end of reason, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1989.
• Watts Cunningham [1914] – G. Watts Cunningham, Bergson's conception of duration, “The philosophical review” 23 (5) 1914.
• Worms [2009] – F. Worms, La philosophie en France au 20e siècle – moments, Éditions Gallimard, Paris 2009.

Identifiers

DOI

10.13153/diam.39.2014.572