Bergson and His Philosophy Part 7

Much in Bergson would point to the need for the addition of a philosophy of Values. This, however, he does not give us. He shirks the deeper problems of the moral and spiritual life of man. He undervalues, indeed ignores, the influence of transcendent ideas or ideals on the life-history of mankind. The study of these might have led him to admit a teleology of some kind; for "in the thinking consciousness the order of growth is largely determined by choice; and choice is guided by valuation. We are, in general, only partially aware of the ends that we pursue. But we are more and more seeking to attain what is good, true and beautiful, and the order of human life becomes more and more guided by the consciousness of these ends." [Footnote: Professor Mackenzie: Elements of Constructive Philosophy, p. 111.] Bergson, however, will not ultimately be able to evade the work of attempting some reconciliation of moral ideas and ideals with their crude and animal origins and environment, to which they are so opposed and to which they are actually offering a very strong opposition. That he himself has seen this is proved by the attention he is now giving to the problems of social Ethics.

There are four problems which confront every evolutionary theory. These concern the origin of: Matter, Life, Consciousness, and Conscience.

Bergson finds it very difficult to account for the origin of Matter, and it is not clear from what he says why the original consciousness should have made Matter and then be obliged to fight against it in order to be free. Then, in speaking of the law of Thermodynamics, he says: "Any material system which should store energy by arresting its degradation to some lower level, and produce effects by its sudden liberation, would exhibit something in the nature of Life." This, however, is not very precise, for this would hold true of thunder-clouds and of many machines. In regard to Instinct, it has been pointed out by several experts that Instinct is not so infallible as Bergson makes out. Of the mistakes of Instinct he says little. Dr. McDougall in his great work Body and Mind says, when speaking of Bergson's doctrine of Evolution: "Its recognition of the continuity of all Life is the great merit of Professor Bergson's theory of Creative Evolution; its failure to give any intelligible account of individuality is its greatest defect.

I venture to think," he continues, "that the most urgent problem confronting the philosophic biologist is the construction of a theory of life which will harmonize the facts of individuality with the appearance of the continuity of all life, with the theory of progressive evolution, and with the facts of heredity and biparental reproduction." [Footnote: McDougall, Body and Mind, Footnote to p. 377.]

In the light of such criticism it is important to note that Bergson is now giving attention to the problem of personality which he made the subject of his Gifford Lectures. It is a highly important problem for humanity, and concentration on it seems the demand of the times upon those who feel the urgent need of reflection and who have the ability to philosophize. Can philosophy offer any adequate explanation of human personality, its place and purpose in the cosmos? Why should individual systems of energy, little worlds within the world, appear inside the unity of the whole, depending on their environment, physical and mental, for much, but yet capable of freedom and unforeseen actions, and of creative and progressive development? Further, why should ideals concentrate themselves as it were round such unique centres of indeterminateness as these are? On these problems of our origin and destiny, in short, on an investigation of human personality, thinkers must concentrate. Humanity will not be satisfied with systems which leave no room for the human soul. Human personality and its experience must have ample place and recognition in any philosophy put forward in these days.

Bergson's work is a magnificent attempt to show us how, in the words of George Meredith: "Men have come out of brutishness." His theory of evolution is separated from Naturalism by his insistence on human freedom and on the supra-consciousness which is the origin of things; on the other hand, he is separated from the Idealists by his insistence upon the reality of la duree. He contrasts profoundly with Absolute Idealism. While in Hegel, Mind is the only truth of Nature, in Bergson, Life is the only truth of Matter, or we may express it--whereas for Hegel the truth of Reality is its ideality, for Bergson the truth of Reality is its vitality.

The need for philosophical thought, as Bergson himself points out, [Footnote: See the closing remarks in his little work on French philosophy, La Philosophie.] is world-wide. Philosophy aims at bringing all discussion, even that of business affairs, on to the plane of ideas and principles. By looking at things from a truly "general" standpoint we are frequently helped to approach them in a really "generous" frame of mind, for there is an intimate connexion between the large mind and the large heart.

Bergson has rendered valuable service in calling attention to the need for man to examine carefully his own inner nature, and the deepest worth and significance of his own experiences. For the practical purposes of life, man is obliged to deal with objects in s.p.a.ce, and to learn their relations to one another. But this does not exhaust the possibilities of his nature. He has himself the reality of his own self-consciousness, his own spiritual existence to consider. Consequently, he can never rest satisfied with any purely naturalistic interpretation of himself. The step of realizing the importance of mental constructions to interpret the impressions of the external world, and the applying them to practical needs, was a great advance. Much greater progress, however, is there in man's realization of qualities within himself which transcend the ordinary dead level of experience, the recognition of the spiritual value of his own nature, of himself as a personality, capable even amid the fluctuations of the world about him, and the illusions of sense impressions, of obtaining a foretaste of eternity by a life that has the infinite and the eternal as its inheritance; "He hath set eternity in the heart of man." Man craves other values in life than the purely scientific. "There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of" in the philosophies of the materialist or the naturalist. Bergson a.s.sures us that the future belongs to a philosophy which will take into account THE WHOLE of what is given. Transcending Body and Intellect is the life of the Spirit, with needs beyond either bodily satisfaction or intellectual needs craving its development, satisfaction and fuller realization. The man who seeks merely bodily satisfaction lives the life of the animal; even the man who poses as an intellectual finds himself entangled ultimately in relativity, missing the uniqueness of all things--his own life included. An intuitive philosophy introduces us to the spiritual life and makes us conscious, individually and collectively, of our capacities for development. Humanity may say: "It doth not yet appear what we shall be," for man has yet "something to cast off and something to become."

APPENDIX

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Note on Bibliographies.

PART ONE.

Bergson's own writings chronologically arranged.

PART TWO.

Section 1. Books directly on Bergson: (a) French.

(b) English and American.

(c) Others.

Section 2. Books indirectly on Bergson: (a) French.

(b) English and American.

Section 3. Articles: English and American.

(a) Signed, under author.

(b) Unsigned, under date.

Section 4. English Translations of Bergson.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A NOTE ON BIBLIOGRAPHIES

The books and articles which have appeared, dealing with Bergson's thought, are truly legion. Three bibliographies have already been compiled, one in each of the countries: England, America and Germany, which are of value and merit attention.

In 1910, Mr. F. L. Pogson, M.A., prefixed to Time and Free Will (the English translation of the Essai sur les donnees immediates de la conscience) a comprehensive bibliography, giving a list of Bergson's own published works, and numerous articles contributed to various periodicals, and in addition, lists of articles in English, American, French, German and other foreign reviews upon Bergson's philosophy. This bibliography was partly reprinted in France two years later as an appendix to the little work on Bergson by M. Joseph Desaymard, La Pensee de Henri Bergson (Paris, Mercure de France, pp. 82, 1912).

Then in 1913, when Bergson paid his visit to America, Mr. W. Dawson Johnston, the Librarian of the Columbia University, New York, presented him with a copy of a little work of fifty-six pages ent.i.tled A Contribution to a Bibliography of Henri Bergson. This exhaustive work was prepared under the direction of Miss Isadore G. Mudge, the Reference Librarian, and includes all books published and all periodical literature of value by or on Bergson, complete up to 1913.

"The bibliography includes" (to quote the Preface) "90 books and articles by Professor Bergson (including translations of his works), and 417 books and articles about him. These 417 items represent 11 different languages divided as follows: French, 170; English, 159; German, 40; Italian, 19; Polish, 5; Dutch, 3; Spanish, 3; Roumanian, 2; Swedish, 2; Russian, 2; Hungarian, 1." For this work Professor John Dewey wrote an introduction. It was published by the Columbia University Press in 1913, and is the best evidence of the world-wide popularity of Bergson and the international interest aroused by his writings.

A more recent compilation, however, which contains later books and articles, is a German one, which appeared during the war. It is the work of Walter Meckauer and forms a valuable part of his book Der Intuitionismus und seine Elemente bei Henri Bergson, published in Leipsig in 1917 (Verlag Felix Meiner).

The bibliography which follows gives more up-to-date lists of works than those mentioned, bringing the list of Bergson's writings up to 1919, and it includes books and articles on Bergson which have appeared in the current year (1920). All the important books in French, English, or German on Bergson are given.

As the present work is designed mainly to meet the needs of English readers, lists of foreign articles are not given, but in order to show the wide interest aroused by Bergson's thought in the English speaking world, and for purposes of reference, a comprehensive list of articles which have appeared in English and American periodicals is appended. Finally, a list of the English Translations of Bergson's works is given in full under their publishers' names.

PART ONE

BERGSON'S OWN WRITINGS CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED

1878 SOLUTION OF A MATHEMATICAL PROBLEM.

This, his first published work, appeared when he was nineteen years of age in Annales de Mathematiques.

(Brisse et Gerono.) It is of interest, as it shows us an early ability in the study of this science.

1882 LA SPECIALITE.

Discours au Lycee d'Angers--a publication of sixteen pages; address given at the prize-giving in August of that year. Angers: Imprimerie Lacheze et Dolbeau.

1884 EXTRAITS DE LUCRECE avec un commentaire, des notes et une etude sur la poesie, la philosophie, la physique, le texte et la langue de Lucrece.

Published Delagrave, Paris, 1884. By 1914 ten editions had appeared. This work is of interest in showing his ability in cla.s.sical scholarship. Pp. xlvii l59.

1885 LA POLITESSE.

Another address. This one was given at Clermont- Ferrand, and was published on August 5, 1885, in the local paper Moniteur du Puy de Dome. It is of interest because in it is to be found his original view of "Grace"

which he developed later in the Essai sur les donnees immidiates de la conscience (1889).

1886 LA SIMULATION INCONSCIENTE DANS L'ETAT D'HYPNOTISME.

His first contribution to the Revue philosophique (Vol.

XXII, pp. 525-31). It is interesting to note that correspondence following the appearance of this article led to the inclusion in Myers' Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death of a case cited by Bergson (see Vol. I, p. 447), 1901.

1889 QUID ARISTOTELES DE LOCO SENSERIT.

A Latin thesis, presented along with the following French thesis, for the degree of Docteur-es-Lettres. Published Alcan, Paris, pp. 82.

1889 ESSAI SUR LES DONNEES IMMEDIATES DE LA CONSCIENCE.

French thesis, presented along with the above Latin thesis, for the degree of Docteur-es-Lettres. Published by Alcan, Paris, same year, in La Bibliotheque de philosophie contemporaine (pp viii-185) Eighteen editions called for by 1920.

English Translation: Time and Free Will, by F. L. Pogson, M.A. Published in 1910 by Swan & Sonnenschein (now George Allen & Unwin) in Library of Philosophy.

1891 LA GENESE DE L'IDEE DE TEMPS.

A review, published in the Revue philosophique (Vol. for 1891, pp 185-190), of the book by Jean Mane Guyau, La Genese de l'Idee de Temps, with an introduction by Alfred Fouillee which appeared posthumously in 1890, two years after Guyau's death.

1895 LE BON SENS ET LES ETUDES CLa.s.sIQUES.

Discours au concours general des lycees et colleges, 1895-- another prize-giving address. Published in Revue scientifique, 4th Ser., No. 15, pp. 705-713, June, 1901, and by Delalain, Paris, 1895.

1896 MATIERE ET MEMOIRE.