The Creative Mind: An Introduction to Metaphysics

Cassata, Mary

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0806523263 ISBN 13: 9780806523262

Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp., 2002

The Nobel Laureate discusses not only how and why he became a philosopher but also his conception of philosophy as a field distinct from science and literature. A source of inspiration for physicists as well as philosophers, Bergson's essays declare the emphasis of intuition over intellect.

From the Back Cover:

"The Creative Mind", the last of Henri Bergson's works to be published, is a masterly autobiography of his philosophical method: how he became a philosopher, why he is a philosopher, and what philosophy must be. These, the man and his work, compose a definite critique of philosophy. His skill is matched by his intensity: his "calling" shines through on every page.

Until philosophy leaves its false paths, Bergson demonstrates, it will remain a wordy dialectic, a beating of false problems, and it will never become a search for truth. How this search is to be undertaken is carefully outlined by the author. He builds as he destroys, using the rubble of the old to build the new. His is a philosophy on the move, the rationale of man's spiritual drive, the mind gathering strength from its mastery of the of the material world to contemplate itself, to find at the core of intuition the moving element of discovery and free the possessive sense of novelty. Life is to be grasped in handfuls, but with the sure grasp of discipline.