Philosophy Bites: Emily Herring on Henri Bergson

Episode Main Theme:
This episode explores the philosophy and legacy of Henri Bergson, once an intellectual celebrity in the early 20th century but now largely overlooked. Host Nigel Warburton and guest Emily Herring, Bergson's biographer, discuss his major ideas, particularly his distinctive views on time (la durée), his relationship with science, and his cultural presence. The discussion also touches on Bergson’s appeal to women and his relevance to current technological anxieties.

Episode Overview

Main Theme and Purpose

• Examination of Henri Bergson’s life, work, and influence, with a focus on his philosophical concept of durée (duration) and his responses to mechanistic views of reality.
• Emily Herring highlights why Bergson’s philosophy captivated audiences in his time and how his ideas on creativity and human experience remain pertinent today.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Bergson as Celebrity Philosopher

• Early 20th-century Fame:

  • Bergson was once unavoidable in intellectual circles. His lectures on time, memory, and creativity drew massive crowds—even prompting people to climb through windows to listen. [00:58]
  • He was also highly influential in the English-speaking world, a rarity among French philosophers. [00:58]

• Unique Appeal:

  • Enchanting, spontaneous lecture style—spoke without notes.
    • “There was some kind of really enchanting musical quality almost to his lecturing style… people saying they had the impression he was sort of coming up with the ideas on the spot, which was very impressive.” —Emily Herring, [01:35]

2. Bergson’s Relationship with Science and Mathematics

• Not Anti-Science:
  • Countering stereotypes (e.g., Russell’s criticisms), Bergson was a mathematical prodigy and well-versed in evolutionary theory.
    • “He just happened to solve a problem that the polymath Blaise Pascal had left unsolved in the 17th century.” —Emily Herring, [02:55]
  • His philosophy engaged deeply with contemporary science and evolutionary theory (especially in his best-selling book, Creative Evolution). [03:42]

3. The Concept of Duration (la durée)

• Nature of Time:

  • Bergson distinguishes between objective/mechanistic "time" (as measured and spatialized) and subjective “duration” (la durée), which is lived and cannot be divided into identical, repeatable units. [05:01]
    • “Time in the way that it is represented in the equations of mechanics and even in everyday language, doesn’t carry any temporality at all … we are in fact borrowing from a category that’s external to time, which is space.” —Emily Herring, [05:14]
  • He critiqued the tendency to treat time like a ruler—with past, present, and future parts chopped up and laid out spatially. [06:12]

• Problems of Language and Conceptualization:

  • Everyday language and scientific concepts generalize, losing something of unique, lived experience.
    • “…in doing so, according to Bergson, we lose sight of… what is special in particular about certain aspects of reality…” —Emily Herring, [07:28]
  • Bergson advocated “fluid concepts”—tailor-made instead of off-the-rack, to do justice to real experience. [08:07]

• Analogies & Illustrations:

  • Evil genie thought experiment: If days were shortened, equations wouldn’t notice, but our lived experience would. [09:23]
    • “Our consciousness would soon inform us of a shortening of the day… there would be a change in the progress usually accomplished between sunrise and sunset.” —Henri Bergson, quoted by Emily Herring, [09:39]
  • Melody analogy: Musical notes on a sheet are not equivalent to the organic flow we perceive in music; so with time. [11:10]
    • “Music can be transcribed into a succession of symbols… but that has nothing to do with how the music is going to be experienced. The notes melt into one another and form an organic whole.” —Emily Herring, [11:30]

4. Bergson’s Objection to Biography

• Fear of Misrepresentation:
  • Bergson’s will requested destruction of his unpublished papers and strongly opposed biographical explorations. [12:41]
    • He feared misrepresentation and unwanted attributions, already rampant during his life due to his fame. [13:07]
    • “Nothing can be learned of a philosopher’s thought by studying their life.” —Henri Bergson (as paraphrased), [12:46]
  • Herring’s approach: She presents three intertwined portraits—Bergson as a man, as a philosopher, and as a product of his time. [14:03]

5. Bergson’s Popularity with Women

• Appeal Beyond Academia:
  • Open College de France lectures and accessible language helped, but Bergson’s philosophy also resonated with women’s aspirations for freedom and creativity during the suffragette movement era. [15:34]
    • “…in a time when there were… anxieties about general mechanization… for women in particular, Berson probably represented as a thinker of freedom, as a thinker of creativity, something they could latch their hopes onto.” —Emily Herring, [16:33]

6. Bergson’s Relevance Today

• Modern Parallels:
  • Herring notes that current anxieties about technology and AI echo concerns in Bergson’s day about mechanization and dehumanization.
    • “The ways in which algorithms can be… dehumanizing by reducing us to… very rigid categories… we are currently faced with AI as… a threat to human creativity, I think Berson would have a lot… to say about that.” —Emily Herring, [16:56]

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On Bergson’s fame:

  • “He was a philosopher, but he was also a celebrity. The lectures he gave… were in extremely high demand. People would climb up the side of the window to listen in.” —Emily Herring, [00:58]

• On the experience of time:

  • “It might be helpful to think about [time] as a snowball rolling down a hill and accumulating the snow as it goes… you carry your whole experience with you at all time.” —Emily Herring, [10:50]

• On the shortcomings of language and rigid concepts:

  • “Concepts generalize… but in doing so… lose sight of what is special in particular about certain aspects of reality that we’re aiming to talk about and describe.” —Emily Herring, [07:28]

• On why Bergson feared biographies:

  • “There were constantly sort of newspaper articles taking his words out of context, ascribing to him paternity of ideologies that he knew nothing about…” —Emily Herring, [13:07]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Bergson’s background and fame: [00:48] – [01:27]
• His connection to science and mathematics: [02:47] – [04:06]
• Proust and family ties: [04:06] – [05:01]
• Duration and the philosophy of time: [05:01] – [12:32]
• Biography and personal reticence: [12:32] – [15:18]
• Women and Bergson’s popular appeal: [15:18] – [16:51]
• Why Bergson still matters: [16:51] – [17:39]

Closing Thoughts

Emily Herring closes by noting:

• Bergson’s philosophy offers a rich resource for thinking about creativity, subjectivity, and resistance to dehumanizing systems. His insistence on the irreducibility of lived experience is newly relevant in the age of algorithms and AI. [16:56]

For those interested in philosophy, creativity, or the relationship between science and human experience, this episode presents Bergson as a surprisingly contemporary thinker, with enduring insights for our time.