Henri Bergson

Vladimir JankÉlÉvitch (1903-1985) held the chair in moral philosophy at the University of Paris-Sorbonne from 1951 to 1978, and was the author of more than twenty books on philosophy and music.Alexandre Lefebvre is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Government and International Relations and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Sydney. He is the coeditor of Bergson, Politics, and Religion, also published by Duke University Press.Nils F. Schott is James M. Motley Postdoctoral Fellow in the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University and the translator of several books, including The Helmholtz Curves: Tracing Lost Time, by Henning Schmidgen.

"JankÉlÉvitch’s intransigent 'Bergsonism'– his faith in intuition and his distrust in contextualization – produced his marvelous Henri Bergson." - Giuseppe Bianco (H-France, H-Net Reviews) "JankÉlÉvitch's Henri Bergson is richly textured with reflections and digressions which sketch in embryonic form conceptual figures that would gain prominence in his later ethical writings. JankÉlÉvitch's book is thus not so much about Bergson, as it is a book through Bergson, and its two-stroke motion of understanding Bergson and of JankÉlÉvitch understanding himself is animated by a joy that gives JankÉlÉvitch's philosophical prose (finely translated by Nils F. Schott) an almost breathless quality." - Nicolas de Warren (Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews)

• Editors' Preface  viiAcknowledgments  ixIntroduction. JankÉlÉvitch on Bergson: Living in Time / Alexandre Lefebvre  xiIntroduction  11. Organic Totalities  3I. The Whole and Its Elements  4II. The Retrospective View and the Illusion of the Future Perfect  112. Freedom  23I. Actor and Spectator  24II. Becoming  30III. The Free Act  493. Soul and Body  66I. Thought and Brain  66II. Recollection and Perception  79III. Intellection  89IV. Memory and Matter  944. Life  109I. Finality  109II. Instinct and Intellect  119III. Matter and Life  1375. Heroism and Saintliness  151I. Suddenness  152II. The Open and the Closed  156III. Bergson's Maximalism  1596. The Nothingness of Concepts and the Plentitude of Spirit  167I. Fabrication and Organization: The Demiurgic Prejudice  167II. On the Possible  1797. Simplicity . . . and Joy  191I. On Simplicity  191II. Bergson's Optimism  203Appendices   211Supplementary Pieces  247Preface to the First Edition of Henri Bergson (1930)  247Letters to Vladimir JankÉlÉvitch by Henri Bergson  248Letter to Louis Beauduc on First Meeting Bergson (1923)  250What Is the Value of Bergson's Thought? Interview with FranÇoise Reiss (1959)  251Solemn Homage to Henri Bergson (1959)  253Notes  261Bibliography  299Index  315