Henri Bergson

Freedom (eBook, PDF)

Lectures at the Collège de France, 1904-1905
Redaktion: Schott, Nils F.; Lefebvre, Alexandre

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

For 15 years, Henri Bergson, the most important French philosopher of the early 20th-century, taught at the Collège de France. Speaking without notes, most of his classes are now lost to history, but records of a handful of courses fortuitously survived thanks to stenographic transcripts. Conveying Bergson's very voice, these extraordinary documents are finally presented here in English.

The 1904-1905 lectures are dedicated to the topic of freedom, or as Bergson put it, "the evolution of the problem of freedom." Building on the philosophy of freedom from his first book, Time and Free Will, he proposes that freedom is not only a fundamental human experience but characteristic of all life as such. By retracing how ancient and modern philosophers have dealt with the delicate question of freedom, Bergson demonstrates the necessity, and also the radically new character, of his own theory of freedom.

Bergson's lectures are a feast for many audiences. For philosophers, they give a fuller picture of his thought and contain deep reflections on many core topics in philosophy today, from the nature of time to the difference between brain and mind, the relation between memory and perception, and the vindication of freedom over determinism. For intellectual historians, the lectures are a treasure trove: as a slice of the living thought of a great thinker; as an extended analysis of the natural and human sciences of his day; and as a rich commentary on the history of ancient and modern philosophy. Finally, for cultural historians and literary scholars, the lectures were the cultural capital of Belle Époque France, consumed by elites and a vast educated public. They are also part of an exceedingly rare genre in modern philosophy: spoken, not written, lectures and expressed as a veritable stream of philosophical consciousness that is remarkably structured and analytically lucid.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury UK eBooks
• Seitenzahl: 288
• Erscheinungstermin: 2. Mai 2024
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781350029156
• Artikelnr.: 70707544

Autorenporträt

Henri Bergson (1859-1941) was one of the most important philosophical figures of the earlier twentieth-century, a cult figure in his day and a profound influence on such thinkers and writers as William James, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Gilles Deleuze. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1927.

Inhaltsangabe

Series Preface: Henri Bergson at the Collège de France Acknowledgments Introduction: Henri Bergson
Freedomist 1. December 6
1904 2. December 16
1904 3. December 22
1904 4. January 13
1905 5. January 20
1905 6. January 27
1905 7. February 3
1905 8. February 10
1905 9. February 17
1905 10. February 24
1905 11. March 3
1905 12. March 10
1905 13. March 17
1905 14. March 24
1905 15. March 31
1905 16. April 7
1905 17. April 14
1905 18. May 5
1905 19. May 12
1905 20. May 19
1905 Abbreviations Notes Bibliography