Bergson

Henri Bergson · French philosopher (1859–1941) · 1859–1941

Appears in 28 videos · 32 passages, 14 of them in depth.

What Dominique Pagani says

Dominique Pagani sees Bergson as the great thinker of duration, memory and music, whose masterpiece is Matter and Memory, and he considers it wrong to treat him as outdated1 2. He nonetheless faults him for spending his life refuting a science that had already been superseded3. He also rejects Bergson's hostility to language, which Bergson accuses of breaking the continuity of the real with crude concepts, and sets against it a complicity between language and music4. He presents him as the champion of intuition against the concept, a vitalist fashionable in reactionary circles and co-opted by Vichy, but subtler than his followers. He takes from Bergson the formula of Laughter ("something mechanical encrusted on the living") and credits him with the saying about every philosopher's two philosophies. He often returns to Bergson's 1937 testament: Bergson gives up converting to Catholicism and refuses honours from Vichy in order to stay with the persecuted, which, in his view, renews the Socratic gesture5 6.

Summary produced automatically from 32 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.

Who is this?

Henri-Louis Bergson (; French:; 18 October 1859 – 4 January 1941) was a French philosopher who was influential in the traditions of analytic philosophy and continental philosophy, especially during the first half of the 20th century until the Second World War, but also after 1966 when Gilles Deleuze published Le Bergsonisme. […]

Read the article on Wikipedia

Text: Wikipédia, CC BY-SA 4.0, excerpt · Portrait: Henri Manuel, Public domain

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Talks · 14 Jul 2022From Plato to world revolution, by Dominique Pagani

34:38Darling of reactionary circles, he defends intuition against the concept and duration against physicists' time; he is worth more than the Bergsonians.
36:39His 1937 testament: he gives up converting in order to remain among the persecuted of tomorrow.

Series · 27 Dec 2014M for Music

7:03Reflected deeply on musical duration; he has wrongly been opposed to Kant in the context of war.
8:48His hostility to language, which supposedly breaks the continuity of the real through crude concepts, is rejected in favor of a complicity between language and music.

Season 11 · 18 Mar 2023A SPRINGTIME OF THE PEOPLES?

49:45A champion of intuition against the concept, co-opted by Vichy; he refuses to convert so as not to break solidarity with the persecuted.

Series · 18 Jan 2021Musicosophy 10. The two Klemperers and Bruno Walter in Wagner

51:54On the verge of converting to Catholicism, he gives it up out of solidarity with the persecuted.
1:12:29Example of a Jew integrated into French culture and then excluded.

Season 9.2 · 7 Jan 20219 #11 How can sciences of history be real?

25:42A great thinker of time, duration, and memory, wrongly dismissed as outdated, but who wasted time refuting sciences already superseded.

Season 8 · 2 Jul 2020#12 • Return to the logics of the subject

1:19:05In a text on sleep, he argues that to sleep is to lose interest; he commits the same error as Kant.

Season 6 · 29 Mar 2020#6.6 • The Logic of the Subject in the face of the reconstitution of Nazism

1:35:08A spiritualist philosopher of the supplement of soul; refuses Vichy's honors out of fidelity to the persecuted.

Talks · 21 Sept 2019Pagani without detours

1:12:18He refuses to convert to Catholicism under Pétain so as not to dissociate himself from the persecuted.

Season 5.2 · 30 Jun 2019#5.8 Nature or Landscape?

1:47:50LaughterLaughter is the mechanical encrusted on the living; he refused honors from Vichy out of solidarity with the persecuted.

Season 2 · 15 Feb 2016#2.1 Between crisis and war: Philosophising?

1:25:38Fashionable philosopher in reactionary circles, he refuses the honors of Vichy and conversion in order to remain with the persecuted: he renews the Socratic gesture.