Henri Bergson
Henri Bergson was a French philosopher of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, known for theories of time, consciousness, and creative evolution.
He distinguished between clock time and lived duration—the continuous flow of inner experience.
His accessible prose style won him the 1927 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Bergson influenced modernist writers, particularly Proust, and his ideas shaped early debates about intuition versus scientific analysis.
Happening without delay
- sympathyCompassionate understanding of others
- absoluteTotal, without qualification
- philosophyStudy of fundamental truths
- methodOrderly way of doing
instinct · intellect · analysis · duration · metaphysics · anti-intellectualism · inner experience · coincidence
Recalled mental image
- pastTime already gone
- brainSeat of cognition
- perceptionMental interpretation of stimuli
- imageVisual or mental likeness
recognition · remembrance · virtual · actual · body · spirit · duration · retention
Measured passage of moments
- fluxContinuous change or flow
- continuityUninterrupted progression or coherence
- streamSteady continuous flow
- flowUnbroken forward movement
becoming · indivisibility · heterogeneity · succession · qualitative · multiplicity · consciousness · memory
Of or from Paris's nation
- Nobel PrizeHighest academic honor
- twentieth century1901 through 2000
- pragmatismPractical problem-solving philosophy
- William JamesAmerican pragmatist philosopher-psychologist
Whitehead · phenomenology · existentialism · modernism · spiritualism · metaphysics · Paris · Jewish
State of being many
- statesModes of being
- qualitativeRelating to characteristics, not quantities
- intensityStrength or force level
- selfOne's own being
ego · free will · determinism · inner life · freedom · introspection · stream · experience
Animating vital energy
- vitalismNon-physical life principle
- evolutionSpecies changing over generations
- impulseSudden urge to act
- organismLiving biological entity
creativity · adaptation · divergence · mechanism · biology · becoming · growth · spontaneity
Work meant to amuse
- comicFunny performer or publication
- humorAmusing quality
- mechanicalOperated by machinery
- socialConcerning community life
rigidity · elasticity · automatism · incongruity · society · corrective · gesture · repetition
immediate
Happening without delay
- sympathyCompassionate understanding of others
- absoluteTotal, without qualification
- philosophyStudy of fundamental truths
method · instinct · intellect · analysis · duration · metaphysics · anti-intellectualism · inner experience · coincidence · insight
recollection
Recalled mental image
- pastTime already gone
- brainSeat of cognition
- perceptionMental interpretation of stimuli
image · recognition · remembrance · virtual · actual · body · spirit · duration · retention · survival
time
Measured passage of moments
- fluxContinuous change or flow
- continuityUninterrupted progression or coherence
- streamSteady continuous flow
flow · becoming · indivisibility · heterogeneity · succession · qualitative · multiplicity · consciousness · memory · present
French
Of or from Paris's nation
- Nobel PrizeHighest academic honor
- twentieth century1901 through 2000
- pragmatismPractical problem-solving philosophy
William James · Whitehead · phenomenology · existentialism · modernism · spiritualism · metaphysics · Paris · Jewish · conversion
multiplicity
State of being many
- statesModes of being
- qualitativeRelating to characteristics, not quantities
- intensityStrength or force level
self · ego · free will · determinism · inner life · freedom · introspection · stream · experience · phenomenology
life force
Animating vital energy
- vitalismNon-physical life principle
- evolutionSpecies changing over generations
- impulseSudden urge to act
organism · creativity · adaptation · divergence · mechanism · biology · becoming · growth · spontaneity · teleology
comedy
Work meant to amuse
- comicFunny performer or publication
- humorAmusing quality
- mechanicalOperated by machinery
social · rigidity · elasticity · automatism · incongruity · society · corrective · gesture · repetition · inversion
- French IntellectualsJean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Sartre, Voltaire
- French ThoughtDescartes, Sartre, Foucault, Derrida, Camus
- French PhilosophyDescartes, Rene Descartes, Pascal, Blaise Pascal, Voltaire
- Process Philosophers
- Vitalists
- French NotablesVictor Hugo, Emile Zola, Zola, Marcel Proust, Proust
Henri BergsonBertrand Russell
G.E. Moore · A.J. Ayer · Vienna Circle · formal logic · formalism
Henri BergsonB.F. Skinner
Behaviorist psychologist, conditioning researcher
mechanists · reductionism · reductionists · determinism · behaviorists