Cover of A New Philosophy: Henri Bergson
    Philosophical

    A New Philosophy: Henri Bergson

    by LovelyMay
    A New Philosophy by Henri Bergson presents a series of essays in which Bergson argues for the primacy of intuition and lived experience over intellectual analysis, offering a dynamic view of time, consciousness, and reality.

    It is drawn by the future rather than pushed by the past, achiev­ing progress through both the accu­mu­la­tion of expe­ri­ences and the intrin­sic push for exper­i­men­ta­tion and nov­el­ty inher­ent to life itself. At the core of this phi­los­o­phy is the notion that life is fun­da­men­tal­ly a cre­ative and for­ward-mov­ing force. This fun­da­men­tal­ly coun­ters any notion of ‘non-moral­i­ty.’ Instead, it sug­gests a uni­verse inher­ent­ly inclined towards com­plex­i­ty, con­scious­ness, and, per­haps implic­it­ly, towards high­er forms of moral rea­son­ing and social orga­ni­za­tion as expres­sions of life’s inher­ent push for cre­ativ­i­ty and nov­el­ty.

    The cri­tique label­ing this phi­los­o­phy as “roman­tic” due to its embrace of intu­ition, feel­ing, and cre­ativ­i­ty sim­i­lar­ly miss­es the mark. While Berg­son val­ues these aspects of human expe­ri­ence, he does not ele­vate them at the expense of ratio­nal­i­ty or log­ic. Instead, he pro­pos­es a more holis­tic view where­in intu­ition and intel­lect are not opposed but com­ple­men­tary, each play­ing its role in nav­i­gat­ing and under­stand­ing life’s com­plex­i­ties. This syn­the­sis is not a rejec­tion of moral­i­ty but a broad­er frame­work with­in which moral prin­ci­ples can be re-exam­ined, reaf­firmed, or rede­fined in align­ment with life’s cre­ative evo­lu­tion.

    Bergson’s phi­los­o­phy, far from being amoral­ly indif­fer­ent, invites a deep­er engage­ment with life, imbued with a sense of respon­si­bil­i­ty towards the cre­ative poten­tial inher­ent in exis­tence. It prompts a recon­sid­er­a­tion of moral­i­ty, not from a sta­t­ic set of rules, but as evolv­ing prin­ci­ples that must adapt to the con­tin­ued unfold­ment of life’s cre­ative process. This dynam­ic view of moral­i­ty is not less rig­or­ous; it is sim­ply more alive, reflec­tive of the com­plex­i­ty and nuance of life itself.

    In essence, Berg­son sug­gests that our moral frame­works should evolve in har­mo­ny with our deep­en­ing under­stand­ing of life as a cre­ative, for­ward-mov­ing force. This implies a moral­i­ty that is not fixed and dog­mat­ic but flu­id and respon­sive, capa­ble of guid­ing human action in a uni­verse where cre­ativ­i­ty, change, and progress are the very fab­ric of exis­tence. Far from advo­cat­ing for a moral vac­u­um, Bergson’s work points towards a vision of moral­i­ty that is deeply root­ed in the vital­i­ty and cre­ative thrust of life itself.

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