Henri Bergson

Text extracted from opening pages of book: HENRI BERGSON BY JACQUES CHEVALIER BROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF GRENOBLE Translation by LILIAN A. CLAEE LONDON: RIDER AND CO. PATEBNOSTER HOUSE, E. G. 1928 AH rights PKINTE0 IN THE UNITED STATES TRANSLATOR'S NOTE THE translation here presented of the lectures on Bergson and his doctrine given by Professor Chevalier at Grenoble University during the spring months of 1926, has been undertaken under his own eye and with his personal collaboration throughout. Had this valuable help not been available, the difficulty of the subject would have made it an impossible task for the present translator, Professor Chevalier's familiarity with the English language and his sym pathetic understanding of the aims and ideals of the English-speaking races have often smoothed the way, and given additional interest and pleasure to the work of translation. Wherever reference has been made to already existing authorized translations of Professor Berg son's work, the direct quotation has been given, although this has now and then occasioned slight differences in the interpretation of a terminology which the philosopher has made his own. Through the author's personal friendship and constantly maintained intercourse with his subject, sources of information, hitherto untapped, have also been directly available, The translation of Bergson's criticism of the Ein stein theory of relativity has been very kindly undertaken by Professor Chevalier's friend, Thomas Greenwood, MA, F. R. G. S., of the University of London. vl TRANSLATOR'S NOTE It should be noted that the term spiritualism is used throughout in its older and philosophical sense, as denoting a systemwhich claims the inde pendent existence of spirit as opposed to matter, A list of Professor Bergson's works to which refer ence is made is appended. In the footnotes they are referred to in an abbreviated form. LILIAN A. CLARE. INTRODUCTION THE pages which follow do not in any way aspire to be exhaustive, or even original, The circum stances which gave rise to them will sufficiently account for this characteristic, , and will serve the author at least he hopes soas an excuse to those who may be inclined to reproach him on that score. In the spring of 1924, a few weeks before the opening of the holiday courses for foreign students given every year by the Grenoble University, I was asked if I would devote six lectures to the philosophy of Henri Bergson. I agreed, but as a matter of fact, time was lacking to reread the philosopher's works in their entirety. Nor was it possible to set forth, in six lectures of an hour each, the intricacies of so vast a doctrine, the wealth of proofs and analyses it contains, and the vistas it opens up in all directions of human thought. For both these reasons I had to practice intellectual asceticism, and felt constrained to omit a very great deal By concentrating upon, I will not say essen tials, but upon certain aspects of Bergson's philosophy which were most familiar and congenial to me, because they had allowed of my handling its substance and arriving at its core, I might hope that my audience by pursuing the same path with me would reach it also* I therefore sought, by a kind of reflective self-communion, to live over again those vii viii INTRODUCTION trains of thought whose vitalizing power and fer tility had been tested in the depths of my own mindduring a period of twenty years. They were indeed the foundations of the thought by which 1 had lived, and which I had been reliving. Now it turned out that this sparse and summary method of treating my subject, which circumstances had rendered necessary, fulfilled the aim of my teaching, and enabled it to touch, not merely the mind, but the heart. Hence arose the demand to which this book is a. response. 1 I shall, therefore, endeavor to do as I have been asked, and preserve in the written word the original characteristics of freshness, spontaneity, and inward c