HENRI BERGSON.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1312, 15 December 1911, Page 7

HENRI BERGSON.

ONE OF THE "MAJOR PROPHETS." AN INTERPRETATION OF UTS THOUGHT. It lias often been, said tliat tlio next great rehabilitation of spiritual religion will coino from tho sido of science. Professor Henri Bergson, tho French philosopher who is lecturing on "The Soul" ;it university College,. London, this week, has been described as one of the "Jlajor Prophets" of to-day. His visit has' excited enormous interest,- just as Iris philosophical books, especially his "Creative Evolution," has captivated English thinkers, and something approaching a "Bergsou cult" is being created. JJr. Edwin li. hlosson, who is contributing a series ol' profoundly interesting articles to the New loi 1c "Independent/ designed to acquaint tho general roader with certain ltuders of modern thought, permits us to wake tho following extracts from his analytical study of Bergson—a study which iiergson himself says shows a remarkably sympathetic insight and skill in presentation. Borgson has, says Dr. Slosson, "moulded the thought of thousands of young men who are now teaching and writing ■ and ruling in France." "His ideas aro tho dominant forco of tho time." Bergton himself was a materialist; to, start with, a)id he worked his way up into his present spiritualistic philosophy when lie tound the inadequacy of his early conceptions. His ta.sto was for the exact sciences, and 111 then ho excelled while at school, lie intended to devote himself to the study of mechanics, and his youthful ambition was to continue am! develop the philosophy of Heilxn't Spencer, of whom he was then an enthusiastic admirer. But as lie studied the formulas of mechanics with a view to discovering their philosophical implications, and of utilising them in the explanation of tho universe, lie was struck with their inadequacy, even falsity, when applied to the phenomena of life and. mind. Mind and Drain. The mechanical formulas of science are admirably adapted to the purpose t'- v which the.v are designed—that it, tho handling of iiluttei—out Vlw niv i,h--leading as applied lo living beings, and especially to the human mind, which is llio larthi&t removed from the realm of material mechanics, lleio ia truo freedom and initiative.

i, As J?, r ,Ei° n s "Time anil I'reo \\ ill, was devoted to' the overthrow 01. (lie metaphysical argument for determinism, so his second, "Matter and uioiuory, was devoted to tlic overthrow o tin* psychological argument, which is that the mmd and the brain are merely (iillereut aspects ol the same tiling (monism}, or tnat their action is parallel so uiat a certain staio oj' cousciousnc!>s alcorresponds to a certain molecular * motion (dualism). Since the activities of tie bra in. are presumably controlled by tho physical and chemical laws there must be also the mental activities identical or inseparably oonuected with them. But Bergson, taking tlw position of an oxtrcme dualist, argues tliat tile mind is distinct irom matter and only in part dependent upon it, that memories are not altogether stored ' in the' brain or anywhere in spaoe, and that the brain is essentially no! lung niore than an insti'umciit of uctior

Bergson s theory of jiersonality arises naturally out of his conception of time, lime is really the continuous unrollin" oi our conscious life, of psychologic stales which do not become distinct except when it pieces us to divide them. Personality is a continuity of indivisible movement. We can draw a bucket of water mil of the river, and then another buckeliul, but we can never get tho stream in litis way, for the stream ia essentially movement. The movement ia what is substantial about tho stream. "Crcativo Evolution." Bergson may bo called a man of three books, it we ignore "Le Eire," which ia merely a (lying buttress of his system. In the first, known m English as 'Time and froe \\ ill," ho develops his theory or vital duration as distinct from physical time, which has been the guiding clue of all his later thinking; This volume, completed in ISS7, was the outcome of a four years' study of physical, psychological and metaphysical conceptions of time and space. The second book, dealing with the relation of the mind to the brain, required nine years of study, embodied iu "Matter and Memory," appeared in 1698. 11l tho preparation for tho third book ho devoted eleven years to. the study of biology, and produced "Creative Evolution" iu 1907. Students should read this last book first.

Tho religious importance of Bcrgson's theory of evolution will ..be . apparent, says Dr. Slosson. It has occurred to one in rcadirig liis later work that in somo passages the word "faith" could be substituted for "philosophy," and "elohim" for "elan vital," without materially altering the souse. Thou, too, here his emphasis of time restores a conception which has always been a vital factor in religious faith, but which is not found in the scientific conception of the world as a reversible reaction or the metaphysical conception of the world as an illusion of an unchangeable Absolute. The present day is different from any other, and tho future depends upon it. We cannot console or excuse ourselves by saying, "It will be all the same a hundred years hence-" Now is the accepted time, the day of decision, tho unique opportunity, and tlio election may be irrevocable, a turning point in the history of the creation. Upon us depends the future, I lie salvation of tlio world. Bd'jtson's philosophy would apparently lend to « conception of O.od more 'Arniinian than Calvinistic, if it is permissible to apply the old theological categories! a God perhaps conscious, personal, and anthropomorphic, but not omnipotent aud uncnitugcablc. The Nature of the Soul, Professor Bergson, in his third lcctura at University College, London, on the nature of the soul, said they had ill the previous lecture eomo to the conclusion that the soul was duration—like a melody made up of distinct notes yet as a melody indivisible From this it resulted that the totalitv of our past was present to us; the soul had not only movement but memory—conservation of the entire past. The totality of our past was present in consciousness, but we should bo unable to act if nil our recollections were always to the fore; it was necessary that the totalitv of our thoughts should be masked, and that certain parts of tho past should tie recalled at certain moments. Tho brain, in his opinion, played tho pavt of a screoji—it was an instrument of ol>> jivion, aud allowed only to pass just tho recollections which would useful to the present action. The brain was tho organ of sense, the organ of movement, and had as its special rolej the contracting of habits. t It simply directed tlio soul toward action, and was to the mind what the point of tho knife is to tho knife itself.

In his fourth nail last lecture, Professor Bergsou, takinp _up the point reached in the third, said the' brniu, or to speak more generally, the body, was that by which the. mind contracted itself like the prow of a ship—in order to push through the waves of reality, The tendency ol modern philosophy was to regard sensations as extended. Hatter and mind wore nearer than had been thought. The radical distinction between them was that mind was essentially a memory that preserved the pnsl. wliile matter was deprived of memory, or if it possessed memory, that, memory was so short as only just to bridge one moment and another. The moral organism included three essential parts—sensibility, intelligence, and will, and the two former wero instruments in the service of tho will. The soul, essentially active, will, liberty, was the creative force—it created aets and in addition 'could create itself, not only modify its quality but increase its intensity. Whence came this forceF 'What was tho origin of souls? If we tool: all human souls, veal anil possible, we found thev were not. so distinct as we bclievwl. Wo must, then, figure to ourselves in the Ix-sriiining a general interpenetration of sonls, and this interpenotrntion was the very principle of life. Tho evolution of life in our planet came by, its entrance into 'matter, and its seeking to free itself. On the Hue of evolution "that led to 'man the HWntion had been accomplished, a.nd thus personalties had been nblo to constitute themselves.