The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the Greater Philosophers

Henri Bergson’s philosophy champions “the possibility of making the concept of life more fundamental and inclusive than that of force” (488). His 1907 book Creative Evolution brought him immediate fame in philosophic circles. Growing up with the materialism of Spencer, he came to share the frustrations of those scientists who could not discover the innermost realities of life despite all their experimentations. Materialism also tends to lead to determinism, and it is hard to imagine the most extraordinary works of art and literature springing from purely mechanical forces, as opposed to a creative spark which reflects at least a measure of free will. Bergson became skeptical of such radical skepticism, although he understood the temptation to accept only what one can verify through the senses and cognition.

However, consciousness is not an automatic process, as people are burdened with memories and choices which require reserves of psychological energy to overcome. Human beings alone can break the routine of instinct, and while the actual brain does operate according to certain fixed processes, “consciousness is distinct from the organism which it animates, although it must undergo its vicissitudes” (492). Like a movie camera that creates an illusion of movement with a rapid sequence of images, the intellect “catches a series of states” (494), while intuition can grasp the essential vitality of life itself.