Creative Evolution - Henry Bergson (ePub)

Winner of the 1927 Nobel Prize, Henri-Louis Bergson (1859 - 1941) was born in Paris, France, and emerged as one of the greatest French thinkers during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was a writer, academic, philosopher, and the originator of what came to be known as process philosophy, a line of thought whose primary characteristic was the prioritization of dynamic values over static ones, emphasizing movement, change, and evolution. Bergson's philosophy offered a fresh interpretation of four concepts: time, freedom, memory, and evolution. These ideas were constructed to form a doctrine that opposed materialism, as well as the mechanistic and deterministic theories of living beings. The doctrine emphasized the phenomenon of change (or process), which is responsible for creating unpredictable novelties in cosmic history. It also underscored the importance of direct and conscious experience as the most reliable source of human knowledge. Bergson's scientific and literary contributions were liberating. His influence in the early 20th century was of great significance for his contemporaries and future generations. Although he took science very seriously, there was still room in Bergson's universe for intuition, morality, and religion, as much as for the mechanics of things. Henri Bergson was a talented writer who built a bridge between literature, philosophy, and science.