A Pluralistic Universe · Character

Henri Bergson

The French philosopher James enlists against intellectualism, turning us from conception toward perception to reach the moving life of the real world.

major

Also known as Professor Bergson, Professor Henri Bergson, Bergson, M. Bergson

First appearance: Lecture VI: Bergson and His Critique of Intellectualism

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James references Bergson's critique of intellectualism and promises to explain how Bergson refutes the pretensions of logic to decide reality.

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Bergson insists that concepts yield only static relations — maps of positions, eternal truths of comparison — and never touch the world of causal and dynamic relations, of activity and history. James agrees, and uses him to argue that insight into moving life requires perception, not bare conception. Yet James presses further than Bergson: concepts also bring new values into life, and abstractness itself seems to carry a touch of ideality, so the break with intellectualism is not total.

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See Henri Bergson in Lecture VI: Bergson and His Critique of Intellectualism

Character Web

14 connections

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Narrative arc

Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Exposition.

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Breaking point
Aftermath
Closing

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Relationships

Gustav Theodor Fechner
friendship · positive
Fechner and Bergson share a mutual admiration and intellectual kinship, both advocating… How this plays out →
Immanuel Kant
rivalry · negative
Charles Sanders Peirce
friendship · ambivalent
Achilles
psychological · ambivalent

Gustav Theodor Fechner
Fechner and Bergson share a mutual admiration and intellectual kinship, both advocating for a dynamic, process-oriented view of reality.
Immanuel Kant
Bergson rejects Kant's static categories of understanding, arguing they fail to capture the fluid reality of duration and intuition.
Charles Sanders Peirce
Peirce and Bergson share a deep interest in process philosophy and continuity, though Peirce is critical of Bergson's anti-intellectualism.
Achilles
Bergson uses the paradox of Achilles and the tortoise to illustrate his critique of spatialized time and the limitations of intellectual analysis.

Relationship notes

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See Henri Bergson in Lecture VI: Bergson and His Critique of Intellectualism

In the story

Henri Bergson appears across 6 companion beats. Open any chapter in the free preview to see the notes beside the text.

Lecture V: The Compounding of Consciousness
James references Bergson's critique of intellectualism and promises to explain how Bergson refutes the pretensions of logic to decide reality.
Lecture VI: Bergson and His Critique of Intellectualism
Central figure of the lecture; James presents Bergson's critique of intellectualism and his method of intuitive sympathy to grasp reality.
Lecture VII: The Continuity of Experience
James credits Bergson with calling attention to the richness of sensational life and for showing that concepts are made for practice, not insight; Bergson's work prompted James's intellectual crisis.
Lecture VIII: Conclusions
James cites Bergson alongside Fechner as an example of leaving the thinner for the thicker path in philosophy.
Appendix C: On the Notion of Reality as Changing
James aligns Bergson's 'devenir réel' with Peirce's views, and suggests Bergson would deny logical axioms hold without qualification in the actual world.
Endnotes
Discussed in relation to concepts and perception, with a note on his philosophy.

Chapter companion notes

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See Henri Bergson in Lecture VI: Bergson and His Critique of Intellectualism

See Henri Bergson in Lecture V: The Compounding of Consciousness