Henri Bergson (1) - Introduction

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Henri Bergson, late 19th - early 20th century French philosopher, authored an original philosophy that contains elements which would later get a fuller expression in both existentialism and phenomenology. He is most famous for his unique conception of time, which he called duration, a compelling interpretation of Darwin’s natural selection, and a method of thinking he called intuitionism. An immensely popular intellectual figure at the beginning of the 20th century, his star fell precipitously after WW2 under withering criticism from Bertrand Russell, and as a result of his (almost unanimously misunderstood, I believe) critique of Einstein’s relativity theory.
This video is an introduction to this great philosopher, whose legacy has, in my opinion, fallen victim to the hegemony of the materialistic, scientific mode of thought in which we live. I discuss how I plan to structure this series, briefly introduce the three must-read books if you want to understand Bergson, and outline a quick (highly abridged) bio.
Website: www.absurdbeing.com
Twitter: / absurdbeing
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11 дек 2020

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Комментарии : 75

@absurdbeing2219 3 года назад

*Contents* 01:03 How this series will be structured 03:06 The books the series is based on 05:40 Brief (highly abridged) biography 16:36 Bergson’s philosophy

@willieflores7140 3 года назад

I AGREE THAT FUNDAMENTALLY REALITY IS ABOUT MOVEMENT AND VIBRATION. BUT I AM NOT SURE BERGSON UNDERSTOOD THAT IT IS "THINGS" THAT MOVE AND VIBRATE. MOVEMENT AND VIBRATION ARE THE ACTIONS AND PROCESSES OF "THINGS". WITHOUT THINGS THERE IS NOTHING TO MOVE OR VIBRATE. WITHOUT THINGS THERE IS NO DURATION. WITHOUT THINGS THERE IF ONLY EMPTY SPACE. THE WORD "MOVEMENT" ITSELF IMPLIES BY DEFINITION THAT A CHANGE AND PROCESS IS OCCURRING. I'M AFRAID BERSON DID NOT UNDERSTAND CALCULUS.

@LoveBabyNorbert 2 года назад

Nathan, I've been making my way through your videos on Merleau-Ponty and am thoroughly enjoying them as I read MP and then watch, but there is such a wealth of material on your channel that I can't resist starting the other playlists at the same time! I want to watch them all at once! Which is, sadly, impossible--haha So I just have to patient and go one at a time. The way you explain ideas is just fantastic. I especially appreciate how you walk your viewers through concepts in such a methodical way that is both captivating and exceptionally clear. Allowing us to participate in your own way of grasping and articulating the ideas is extremely helpful. Anyway, I just wanted to jump in here and express my profound thanks. I'm determined to make it through every playlist! All best to you! Lemony

@absurdbeing2219 2 года назад

Gosh - thanks so much, Lemony. I really appreciate the encouraging feedback, and I'm so glad to hear you find my approach helpful. (When I finish these videos, I often feel like I have belaboured points and repeated myself too much, but no one has complained about that yet!) Yes, I remember you were working through the MP playlist a few months back. Well, if you are going to break ranks and go rogue through other playlists, you chose the right one, (and not just because I think Bergson's philosophy is pure gold (although it is!)). I found Bergson invaluable for understanding MP's thoughts on time in _PhP._ In fact, I don't know if I would have grasped it as clearly as (I think) I did, without Bergson's duration in my back pocket. Good luck with your viewing!

@lukeyolives3300 3 года назад

Here we go!

@cosminalemoine3631 3 года назад

thank you so much for making time to create this helpful video.

@absurdbeing2219 3 года назад

Thanks Cosmina. Welcome to the Bergson series.

@richardfairley9882 3 года назад

Hi, really excited about this one! When I was studying philosophy at university in the early '90s, Bergson wasn't even 'on the radar' - but Bergson seems to be 'in the air' at the moment and being rediscovered in the academy, generally. Here's hoping interest will continue to grow!

@absurdbeing2219 3 года назад

Really? That's interesting. It's a philosophical travesty he was neglected. Especially as he was such a prominent figure, even outside philosophical circles. I wonder if he is more well-known in France?

@adamlively8826 Год назад

@@absurdbeing2219 Gilles Deleuze was strongly influenced by Bergson, and wrote an excellent short book on him (Bergsonism).

@absurdbeing2219 Год назад

@@adamlively8826 Thanks Adam. I have read _Bergsonism_ and I totally agree with you that it is excellent. But let me see your _Bergsonism_ and raise you a _Difference and Repetition,_ which is also excellent, although pretty tough going, and in which Deleuze forges his own path from out of a Bergsonian/Nietzschean foundation.

@rachitaurora 2 года назад

Thank you!

@tomekjarzabek5036 3 года назад

Bergson it is! I hope i'll be able to read along. And thanks for the little easter egg there :)

@absurdbeing2219 3 года назад

Welcome aboard Tomek! Yes, even though I'm not going chapter by chapter in the vein of my other series, I do actually pretty much follow Bergson's lead through those 3 books of his. And good spotting!

@Schildkroetenpanda 2 года назад

Thanks for this series, mate! Super helpful to listen to your videos, while trying to find an access to philosophers.

@absurdbeing2219 2 года назад

Welcome! Thanks a lot. Glad you find them helpful, and doubly glad to help introduce you to Bergson, one of the most under-appreciated of all philosophers, in my opinion.

@Schildkroetenpanda 2 года назад

@@absurdbeing2219 To ease your mind a bit, Bergson is widely read in certain academic circles here in Germany. Many media theories include his concepts and he is regarded as a precursor of Heidegger, although Heidegger unfairly does not credit him as much as he should have (you mention this in the video too). And of course all Deleuz'ian theories heavily depend on Bergson! So he certainly is one of our contemporaries.

@absurdbeing2219 2 года назад

@@Schildkroetenpanda Oh nice. I often wonder how his philosophy fares in other countries, especially France, considering his superstar status there only a few short generations ago. Speaking of Deleuze, I only just read _Difference and Repetition_ and was really impressed with the way he takes up Bergson's ideas and builds on them. It was exactly what I was looking for.

@davelowe3516 3 года назад

This is great, just subscribed. I've only recently discovered Bergson through looking into Alfred North Whitehead. I'm still trying to grasp Bergson's ideas.

@absurdbeing2219 3 года назад

Thanks. Welcome aboard. In my humble opinion, Bergson is well worth the effort. This guy had it all pieced together. Oh - that's cool! I've got _Process and Reality_ burning a hole in my bookshelf at the moment. I'm going the other way though - Bergson first!

@IllogicalMachine 3 года назад

This is awesome man, thanks!

@absurdbeing2219 3 года назад

Glad you liked it. Thanks!

@gusmore26 3 года назад

Of particular note to me (at 19:28) is the tying of 'Duration' to Heidegger's "Being and Time" and Merleau-Ponty's "Phenomenology of Perception" with The Transcendental Field.

@absurdbeing2219 3 года назад

Yeah - I'm less sure about Heidegger, but it's hard to believe MP wasn't strongly influenced in this direction by Bergson. His claim that subjectivity _is_ time itself seems to me to go beyond what Heidegger (and through Husserl, probably back to Kant) was up to.

@istoner Год назад

Just found your channel. Great stuff! Thanks

@absurdbeing2219 Год назад

Welcome aboard!

@avipinckney 2 месяца назад

Love the existentialism for dummies on the shelf. Honestly same

@absurdbeing2219 2 месяца назад

We've all got to start somewhere!

@kennyg03 3 года назад

Don't know much about Bergson or his philosophy. I've really only heard his name mentioned in passing. Looking forward to this! And that's a shame about his wife burning a lot of his remaining work...

@absurdbeing2219 3 года назад

Great! I really hope I can do him justice here.

@blueberryjoe3604 2 года назад

Thank you by heart - for your uploads to Henri Bergson! You helped me a lot, thinking about some core-quotes and -ideas for my Master Thesis about his duality. As long as you love beeing absurd, stay absurd and keep up your motivation for it. Greetings from Germany

@absurdbeing2219 2 года назад

Oh, thanks a lot for the comment! So happy the vids helped. I like that - "stay absurd." Will do!

@maosagor1076 3 года назад

Great! Go on.

@absurdbeing2219 3 года назад

Thsnks Mao. Welcome aboard!

@drbonesshow1 2 года назад

Had Bergson been around in the 1990s the popular TV comedy would have been Bergson - not Seinfeld. A show about something - not nothing.

@ronaldoramunno2586 6 месяцев назад

Excelent

@mttwmacneil 3 года назад

I'm excited I just started Creative Evolution two days ago 🍻

@absurdbeing2219 3 года назад

Great timing!

@mttwmacneil 3 года назад

@@absurdbeing2219 I'd say so. I've had his intro to metaphysics on the shelf for years and haven't gotten to it. I recently made time for William James' Pluralistic Universe and he's explicit about his appreciation for Bergson so I thought I out to follow the trail, so to speak. Lol. Thanks for the videos, homie.

@IllogicalMachine 3 года назад

@@mttwmacneil Intro to metaphysics is definitely worth your time

@Top_Lad 3 года назад

Hey Nathan, could you please master your audio a bit louder? I need to go almost full volume to hear you loud and clearly and I am not hard hearing. I suggest mastering to -3Db (this is the industry standard).

@absurdbeing2219 3 года назад

Yeah, I've had major problems with this. I tried to get a mic, but my phone doesn't have a microphone jack, and the adapter was woefully unreliable. I never even thought of changing the volume in my editing software (Vegas), but after your comment, I have done this. Now, I have pretty high volume in Vegas, but after I render, the volume is still low. Working on it, but I'm running out of things to try.

@Top_Lad 3 года назад

@@absurdbeing2219 what you are looking for is called normalizing, it should work after normalizing to -3Db no?

@absurdbeing2219 3 года назад

@@Top_Lad Thanks. I found that, and it worked like a charm... in Vegas. When I render though, the audio volume in my mp4 file is just as low as the previous non-normalised render. Any thoughts. A few other ppl have had this problem online, but I haven't seen any clear solutions.

@absurdbeing2219 3 года назад

@@Top_Lad Oh mama. I might have stumbled on the solution. I've been using VLC, but when I play the normalised vs. non-normalised vids in WMP, there is a noticeable volume difference. Anyway, I'll try normalising with the next vid. Hopefully, that will do it.

@Top_Lad 3 года назад

@@absurdbeing2219 Okay, I found the same rabbit hole of forum posts as you did I think, this is some strange anomaly it seems so let's try this the "hard" way (two extra steps really). Download Audacity here www.audacityteam.org/download/ . Open your mp4 that comes off your phone with audacity and normalize to -3Db (I'd suggest other effects as well but let's not make this any more complicated) in audacity. Then export the audio as .mp3 with either the extreme or standard preset. Then open the original mp4 file, delete the audio off that and insert the audio file made in audacity instead, commence with editing as usual and that should work. Now, before doing all this, make sure your "master bus" slider in Vegas (should be on the right side) is not limiting or anything

@pfflam 3 года назад

I'm reading Bergson for the first time in my late 50s, (Matter and Memory) and am enjoying it immensely, I am struck by how many of Deleuze's central concepts seem prefigured in his work -anyway, just sayin' -looking forward to this series

@absurdbeing2219 3 года назад

Cool. Matter and Memory has a great account of perception (maybe I said that in the video). I think Deleuze wrote a book on Bergson. Don't suppose you've read that?

@pfflam 3 года назад

@@absurdbeing2219 That comes right after "Creative Evolution" on the list

@greyholliday4784 Год назад

If he wrote a book and it was being misunderstood, why did he not write a new book, addressing the misrepresentations that were being made? Responding with nothing can give the impression of admitting defeat of your thought process.

@absurdbeing2219 Год назад

I don't know the details, but Bergson's work is easily misunderstood as lending credibility to spiritualism. He also clashed with Einstein over relativity, and the sense I have of that encounter was that, despite thoroughly engaging (talks, debates, etc.), Bergson became frustrated with the way he was continually misunderstood and his ideas repeatedly misrepresented. Perhaps it's no wonder he asked his wife to burn all his unpublished work when he died.

@lbucky1349 11 месяцев назад

Sounds like its going to be a good series 😁

@absurdbeing2219 11 месяцев назад

Speaking for myself, I loved talking about Bergson for 20-odd episodes!

@lbucky1349 11 месяцев назад

@@absurdbeing2219 I've only just started watching your series....just curious as to if you think there is any connection between Bergsons philosophical ideas and the occultism of his sister Moina Mathers and her beliefs? Cheers

@absurdbeing2219 11 месяцев назад

@@lbucky1349 In a word, no. Although he is easy to misread as a spiritualist, and I think his reputation suffered at the height of his fame (and afterwards) by being more closely associated with spiritualism than his work warranted, he never makes any kind of occult or spiritualist claims. The closest he came to that from what I've read was probably in the speech he gave (to the British Society for Psychical Research, I think) about dreaming, but even there he never veers off the philosophical path into the occult. In it, he gives a philosophical analysis of dreaming and then basically says, "That's what philosophy can say about the subject. If there's anything more than that, it's up to you guys to show us." Of course, he did come to endorse Christianity (through Christian mysticism) after his main works in philosophy, but I don't consider that to be anything like the occult.

@lbucky1349 11 месяцев назад

@@absurdbeing2219 Much appreciated 😁 I was under the impression that he was massively influential on Georges Sorel's (French syndicalist) vitalistic and Irrationalist revision of Marx and his own views on the power and importance of Myth in politics so it kind of makes sense about what you said about Bergson talking about the philosophical importance of dreaming and Christian mysticism.......just always been curious if there was another connection with his sisters line of thought......which you've just answered 😅 Either way, he sounds like a really important thinker, looking forward to listening to the rest of the series 😁👍

@startpage717 3 года назад

4:24 starts Creative Evolution 5:13

@pascalbaryamo4568 2 года назад

Preparing an essay on Bergson and stumbled upon your video, it’s well-structured and from what I can tell a decent overview, but the audio quality is literal rubbish :(

@absurdbeing2219 2 года назад

Yeah, a few people have noted that. The problem is it doesn't sound bad on my computer (although I do have to turn the volume up higher than I would normally), so I didn't realise it as big a problem as it was. Thanks to a helpful listener, the volume quality gets sorted in the next vid in this series, so give that one a go before you give up on me completely!

@pascalbaryamo4568 2 года назад

@@absurdbeing2219 I wouldn’t give up on the series whatsoever haha it’s good to see Bergson content beyond the basic level! You might check Daniela Voss, she publishes in English and French too from time to time, Bergson researcher at my faculty.