Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T12:48:47.440Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The use of useless knowledge: Bergson against the pragmatists

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Barry Allen
Barry Allen*
Affiliation:
aDepartment of Philosophy, McMaster University, University Hall 310A, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, L8S 4K1
*
* E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Henri Bergson and William James were great admirers of each other, and James seemed to think he got valuable ideas from Bergson. But early critics were right to see in Bergson the antithesis of pragmatism. Unfolding this antithesis is a convenient way to study important concepts and innovations in Bergson's philosophy. I concentrate on his ideas of duration and intuition, and show how they prove the necessity of going beyond pragmatism. The reason is because knowledge itself goes beyond the utilitarian limitations in which pragmatism confines it. Knowledge is more than utility, more than adaptation, more than pragmatism, because our cognitive powers prove capable of more than any naturally selected service to survival.

Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 43 , Issue 1 , 2013 , pp. 37 - 59
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bergson, H. 1896 (2004). Matter and Memory, trans. Nancy Margaret Paul and W. Scott Palmer Mineola, NY: Dover.Google Scholar
Bergson, H. 1907 (1988). Creative Evolution, trans. Arthur Mitchell Mineola, NY: Dover.Google Scholar
Bergson, H. 1915 (2002). “Letter to Harald Höffding”. In Henri Bergson, Key Writings, Edited by: Pearson, Keith Ansell and Mullarkey, John. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Bergson, H. 1922 (1965). Duration and Simultaneity, trans. Leon Jacobson New York: Bobbs-Merrill.Google Scholar
Bergson, H. 1932 (1977). The Two Sources of Morality and Religion, trans. R. Ashley Audra and Cloudesley Brereton Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Bergson, H. 1934 (2007). The Creative Mind: An Introduction to Metaphysics, trans. Mabelle L. Andison Mineola, NY: Dover.Google Scholar
Bergson, H. 1959. Œuvres, annotés par André Robinet, Paris: Les Presses Universitaires de France.Google Scholar
Boas, George. 1959. Bergson and his Predecessors. Journal of the History of Ideas, 20: 503–514.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Čapek, Milič. 1969. “Bergson's Theory of Matter and Modern Physics”. In Bergson and the Evolution of Physics, Edited by: Gunter, P. A. Y. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.Google Scholar
Čapek, Milič. 1971. Bergson and Modern Physics, Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science vol. 7, Dordrecht: D. Reidel.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, Andy. 2008. Supersizing the Mind: Embodiment, Action, and Cognitive Extension, New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeLanda, Manuel. 2002. Intensive Science and Virtual Philosophy, London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Deleuze, Gilles. 1966 (1988). Bergsonism, trans. Hugh Tomlinson and Barbara Habberjam New York: Zone Books.Google Scholar
Deleuze, Gilles. 1968 (1994). Difference and Repetition, trans. Paul Patton New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Deleuze, Gilles. 1963 (1984). Kant's Critical Philosophy, trans. Hugh Tomlinson and Barbara Habberjam Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Dennett, Daniel. 1984. Elbow Room: The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Eldredge, Niles. 1989. Time Frames: The Evolution of Punctuated Equilibria, rev. ed., Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grogin, R. C. 1988. The Bergsonian Controversy in France 1900–1914, Calgary: University of Calgary Press.Google Scholar
James, William. 1909 (1971). A Pluralistic Universe, Edited by: Perry, Ralph Barton. New York: E.P. Dutton.Google Scholar
Kallen, Horace M. 1914. James, Bergson, and Traditional Metaphysics. Mind, 23: 207–239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kant, Immanuel. 1933. Critique of Pure Reason, trans. N. Kemp Smith London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Moore, A. W. 1912. Bergson and Pragmatism. Philosophical Review, 21: 397–414.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, F. C. T. 1996. Bergson: Thinking Backwards, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nietzsche, F. 1882. The Gay ScienceGoogle Scholar
Noë, Alva. 2004. Action in Perception, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Sellars, Wilfrid. 1963. “Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind”. In Science, Perception, and Reality, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Sipfle, David A. 1969. “Henri Bergson and the Epochal Theory of Time”. In Bergson and the Evolution of Physics, Edited by: Gunter, P. A. Y. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.Google Scholar
Spencer, Herbert. 1862 (1987). “First Principles”. In Darwin and the Emergence of Evolutionary Theories of Mind and Behavior, Edited by: Richards, Robert J. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Stanovich, Keith E. 2004. The Robot's Rebellion: Finding Meaning in the Age of Darwin, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stebbing, L. S. 1912–1913. The Notion of Truth in Bergson's Theory of Knowledge. Proceedings of the Aristotlean Society, 13: 224–256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tarde, Gabriel. 1899. Social Laws, trans. Howard C. Warren New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Ziporyn, Brook. 2009. Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings, with Selections from Traditional Commentaries, trans. Brook Ziporyn Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.Google Scholar