Q&A: Henri Bergson
Henri Bergson
Question
Happy holidays,
Your well-known position on the French “philosophers,” etc. etc., is familiar.
I wanted to ask: what do you think of Henri Bergson? I’ve read some of his writings, and it seems that he actually had very impressive writing and excellent intuitions. From what I’ve read, he seems like a pretty brilliant fellow.
Are you familiar with his writings? Is he one of those notorious “Frenchmen,” or is he the exception that doesn’t prove the rule?
Best regards,
Answer
He’s definitely not one of them. The French thinkers I was talking about are mainly the newer French obscurantists. In the past there were quite a few French thinkers who said sensible things—Descartes, Poincaré, and others. Bergson was already at the beginning of the age of the obscurantists, but he managed to avoid that.