Bergson and His Philosophy | Page 2

Bergson: Choix de textes et etude de systeme
philosophique, Gillouin) a photograph of Bergson hitherto unpublished
in this country.
J.A.G.
THE UNIVERSITY, LIVERPOOL March, 1920

INTRODUCTION
The stir caused in the civilized world by the writings of Bergson,
particularly during the past decade, is evidenced by the volume of the
stream of exposition and comment which has flowed and is still
flowing. If the French were to be tempted to set up, after the German
manner, a Bergson-Archiv they would be in no embarrassment for
material, as the Appendix to this book--limited though it wisely is--will
show. Mr. Gunn, undaunted by all this, makes a further, useful
contribution in his unassuming but workmanlike and well-documented
account of the ideas of the distinguished French thinker. It is designed
to serve as an introduction to Bergson's philosophy for those who are
making their first approach to it, and as such it can be commended.
The eager interest which has been manifested in the writings of M.
Bergson is one more indication, added to the many which history
provides, of the inextinguishable vitality of Philosophy. When the man
with some important thought which bears upon its problems is
forthcoming, the world is ready, indeed is anxious, to listen. Perhaps
there is no period in recorded time in which the thinker, with something
relevant to say on the fundamental questions, has had so large and so
prepared an audience as in our own day. The zest and expectancy with
which men welcome and listen to him is almost touching; it has its
dangerous as well as its admirable aspects. The fine enthusiasm for the
physical and biological sciences, which is so noble an attribute of the

modern mind, has far from exhausted itself, but the almost boundless
hope which for a time accompanied it has notably abated. The study of
the immediate problems centring round the concepts of matter, life, and
energy goes on with undiminished, nay, with intensified, zeal, but in a
more judicious perspective. It begins to be noticed that, far from
leading us to solutions which will bring us to the core of reality and
furnish us with a synthesis which can be taken as the key to experience,
it is carrying the scientific enquirer into places in which he feels the
pressing need of Philosophy rather than the old confidence that he is on
the verge of abolishing it as a superfluity. The former hearty and self-
assured empiricism of science is giving way before the outcome of its
own logic and a new and more promising spirit of reflection on its own
"categories" is abroad. Things are turning out to be very far from what
they seemed. The physicists have come to a point where, it may be to
their astonishment, they often find themselves talking in a way which is
suspiciously like that of the subjective idealist. They have made the
useful discovery that if you sink your shaft deep enough in your search
for reality you come upon Mind. Here they are in a somewhat
unfamiliar region, in which they may possibly find that other
instruments and other methods than those to which they have been
accustomed are required. At any rate, they and the large public which
hangs upon their words show a growing inclination to be respectful to
the philosopher and an anxiety (sometimes an uncritical anxiety) to
hear what he has to say.
No one needs to be reminded of the ferment which is moving in the
world of social affairs, of the obscure but powerful tendencies which
are forcing society out of its grooves and leaving it, aspiring but
dubious, in new and uncharted regions. This may affect different minds
in different ways. Some regret it, others rejoice in it; but all are aware
of it. Time-honoured political and economic formulae are become "old
clothes" for an awakened and ardent generation, and before the new
garments are quite ready; the blessed word "reconstruction" is often
mentioned. Men are not satisfied that society has really developed so
successfully as it might have done; many believe that it finds itself in a
cul-de-sac. But what is to be done? The experienced can see that many
of the offered reforms are but the repetition of old mistakes which will
involve us in the unhappy cycle of disillusion and failure. It is not to be

wondered at, therefore, if men everywhere are seeking for a sign, a
glimpse of a scheme of life, a view of reality, a hint of human destiny
and the true outcome of human effort, to be an inspiration and a guide
to them in their pathetic struggle out of the morass in which they, too
obviously, are plunged. If Philosophy has anything to say which is to
the point, then let Philosophy by