An Introduction to Metaphysics (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

Henri Bergson

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1330008979 ISBN 13: 9781330008973

Publisher: Forgotten Books, 2018

Synopsis

Two ways of knowing meet in one bold claim: to grasp reality, we can look from the outside or enter from within.

This introduction to Bergson’s philosophy contrasts analysis, which builds knowledge from symbols and external viewpoints, with intuition, a direct, inner contact with life as it happens. It explains why understanding the absolute requires a different method than ordinary science, and how duration reveals the flow of inner experience that analysis misses.

The text argues that conventional knowledge tends to abstract and stabilize moving reality into fixed ideas. By contrast, intuition seeks to coincide with the object itself, offering a sense of unity that analysis cannot provide. The work also surveys how modern science and philosophy have treated time, change, and being, and why a truly philosophical understanding must move beyond preexisting systems toward a living, evolving mind.

• Learn the difference between external observation and internal insight.
• See why duration and becoming challenge the idea that analysis can capture the whole of experience.
• Understand Bergson’s critique of Kantian and Platonic frameworks and the call for a dynamic, intuition-driven philosophy.
• Discover how science and metaphysics relate, conflict, and yet illuminate each other.

Ideal for readers of philosophy and anyone curious about how we truly come to know what we know, this edition clarifies Bergson’s core distinction between the stationary diagrams of analysis and the living motion of intuition. It makes a compelling case for a philosophy that grows with experience, not just with definitions.

About this title

Review

'Palgrave Macmillan is to be congratulated for reissuing these classic Bergson texts. This is a timely decision since Bergson was the great thinker of life and it seems, nearly one hundred years later, that we find ourselves once again required to conceive life. Keith Ansell Pearson and John Mullarkey have been at the forefront of the new conception of life, therefore no better editors for these volumes could be selected.' - Professor Leonard Lawlor, Department of Philosophy, University of Memphis, USA

'Long absent from the center of discussion in Western philosophy, Bergson has recently made a reappearance. The Centennial Series of his works undertaken by Palgrave Macmillan thus comes at an opportune time, making it possible for those interested in Bergson's ideas t have access to newly annotated versions of several of his chief writings, freshly introduced and discussed. It is particularly good to see the republication of Mind-Energy, a treasure trove of Bergsonian insights long out of print.' - Professor Pete A.Y. Gunter, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, University of North Texas, USA

About the Author

Bergson won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1927.

Edition details

• Publisher: Forgotten Books
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1330008979
• ISBN 13: 9781330008973
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 100