BERGSON’S REFORMATION OF PHILOSOPHY

In this essay I take my cue from Pierre Hadot who argued that for him as a young student, ‘Bergsonism was not an abstract, conceptual philosophy, but rather took the form of a new way of seeing the world’.  Philosophy for Bergson has two main aims:  (i) to extend human perception; (ii) to enhance the human power to act and live.  Both are at work in his texts and explicitly stated as the ambit of philosophy in Creative Evolution.  I examine some core aspects of Bergson’s reformation of philosophy, in which he is inspired by the ambition of taking philosophy out of the school, including the disputes between the different schools of philosophy, and bringing it into more intimate contact with life.  The new knowledge we acquire will do two things: it will enrich philosophical speculation – we see for the sake of seeing and the enrichment an enlarged perception offers us - and it will nourish and illuminate everyday life, including enhancing our power to act and live.