Bergson, pan(en)theism, and ‘being-in-life’

King-Ho Leung

doi:10.1007/s11841-022-00933-0

Bergson, pan(en)theism, and ‘being-in-life’

King-Ho Leung

School of Divinity

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

11 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Recent philosophy has witnessed a renewed interest in the works and ideas of Henri Bergson (1859–1941). But while recent scholarship has sought to rehabilitate Bergson’s insights on time, memory, consciousness, and human freedom, comparatively little attention has been paid to Bergson’s relationship to pantheism. By revisiting the ‘pantheism’ controversy surrounding Bergsonian philosophy during Bergson’s lifetime, this article argues that the pantheistic notion of ‘being-in-God’ can serve as an illuminating framework for the interpretation of Bergson’s philosophy. By examining the ‘pantheist’ readings of Bergson and comparing and contrasting Bergson’s philosophy of life with Spinoza’s panentheistic metaphysics, this paper shows that an account of ‘being-in-Life’ is key to Bergson’s metaphysical outlook as well as his account of philosophy as a practice of ‘intuitive’ thinking. In so doing, this paper highlights some of the implicit religious motifs in not only Bergson’s metaphysical outlook but also his conception of the task of philosophy.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	293-307
Journal	Sophia
Volume	62
Issue number	2
Early online date	1 Dec 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s11841-022-00933-0
Publication status	Published - Jun 2023

Keywords

Henri Bergson
Metaphysics
Panentheism
Pantheism
Vitalism

Access to Document

10.1007/s11841-022-00933-0Licence: CC BY

Leung_2022_Sophia_Bergson_CC
Copyright © The Author(s) 2022. Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Final published version, 587 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

@article{ae0170ec318243aa8745a2ef51d50eee,

title = "Bergson, pan(en)theism, and {\textquoteleft}being-in-life{\textquoteright}",

abstract = "Recent philosophy has witnessed a renewed interest in the works and ideas of Henri Bergson (1859–1941). But while recent scholarship has sought to rehabilitate Bergson{\textquoteright}s insights on time, memory, consciousness, and human freedom, comparatively little attention has been paid to Bergson{\textquoteright}s relationship to pantheism. By revisiting the {\textquoteleft}pantheism{\textquoteright} controversy surrounding Bergsonian philosophy during Bergson{\textquoteright}s lifetime, this article argues that the pantheistic notion of {\textquoteleft}being-in-God{\textquoteright} can serve as an illuminating framework for the interpretation of Bergson{\textquoteright}s philosophy. By examining the {\textquoteleft}pantheist{\textquoteright} readings of Bergson and comparing and contrasting Bergson{\textquoteright}s philosophy of life with Spinoza{\textquoteright}s panentheistic metaphysics, this paper shows that an account of {\textquoteleft}being-in-Life{\textquoteright} is key to Bergson{\textquoteright}s metaphysical outlook as well as his account of philosophy as a practice of {\textquoteleft}intuitive{\textquoteright} thinking. In so doing, this paper highlights some of the implicit religious motifs in not only Bergson{\textquoteright}s metaphysical outlook but also his conception of the task of philosophy.",

keywords = "Henri Bergson, Metaphysics, Panentheism, Pantheism, Vitalism",

author = "King-Ho Leung",

note = "Funding: The writing and research of this article is made possible with the support from the {\textquoteleft}Panentheism and Religious Life{\textquoteright} project directed by Professor Yitzhak Melamed and Professor Clare Carlisle, and funded by the John Templeton Foundation (Grant Number(s) 61341).",

year = "2023",

month = jun,

doi = "10.1007/s11841-022-00933-0",

language = "English",

volume = "62",

pages = "293--307",

journal = "Sophia",

issn = "0038-1527",

publisher = "Springer",

number = "2",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Bergson, pan(en)theism, and ‘being-in-life’

AU - Leung, King-Ho

N1 - Funding: The writing and research of this article is made possible with the support from the ‘Panentheism and Religious Life’ project directed by Professor Yitzhak Melamed and Professor Clare Carlisle, and funded by the John Templeton Foundation (Grant Number(s) 61341).

PY - 2023/6

Y1 - 2023/6

N2 - Recent philosophy has witnessed a renewed interest in the works and ideas of Henri Bergson (1859–1941). But while recent scholarship has sought to rehabilitate Bergson’s insights on time, memory, consciousness, and human freedom, comparatively little attention has been paid to Bergson’s relationship to pantheism. By revisiting the ‘pantheism’ controversy surrounding Bergsonian philosophy during Bergson’s lifetime, this article argues that the pantheistic notion of ‘being-in-God’ can serve as an illuminating framework for the interpretation of Bergson’s philosophy. By examining the ‘pantheist’ readings of Bergson and comparing and contrasting Bergson’s philosophy of life with Spinoza’s panentheistic metaphysics, this paper shows that an account of ‘being-in-Life’ is key to Bergson’s metaphysical outlook as well as his account of philosophy as a practice of ‘intuitive’ thinking. In so doing, this paper highlights some of the implicit religious motifs in not only Bergson’s metaphysical outlook but also his conception of the task of philosophy.

AB - Recent philosophy has witnessed a renewed interest in the works and ideas of Henri Bergson (1859–1941). But while recent scholarship has sought to rehabilitate Bergson’s insights on time, memory, consciousness, and human freedom, comparatively little attention has been paid to Bergson’s relationship to pantheism. By revisiting the ‘pantheism’ controversy surrounding Bergsonian philosophy during Bergson’s lifetime, this article argues that the pantheistic notion of ‘being-in-God’ can serve as an illuminating framework for the interpretation of Bergson’s philosophy. By examining the ‘pantheist’ readings of Bergson and comparing and contrasting Bergson’s philosophy of life with Spinoza’s panentheistic metaphysics, this paper shows that an account of ‘being-in-Life’ is key to Bergson’s metaphysical outlook as well as his account of philosophy as a practice of ‘intuitive’ thinking. In so doing, this paper highlights some of the implicit religious motifs in not only Bergson’s metaphysical outlook but also his conception of the task of philosophy.

KW - Henri Bergson

KW - Metaphysics

KW - Panentheism

KW - Pantheism

KW - Vitalism

U2 - 10.1007/s11841-022-00933-0

DO - 10.1007/s11841-022-00933-0

M3 - Article

SN - 0038-1527

VL - 62

SP - 293

EP - 307

JO - Sophia

JF - Sophia

IS - 2

ER -

Bergson, pan(en)theism, and ‘being-in-life’

Abstract

Keywords

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this