Henri Bergson: ‘Thinking Life’. Anglo-French Perspectives

About the Symposium

​What is the nature of time? Does mathematical science provide the sole prism through which we comprehend movement and change? Can we think of reality and experience beyond object-centred practices and concepts? In what way can art widen our contemplative perspectives on the real?

​The central problems that Henri Bergson (1859-1941) explored throughout an extraordinary body of work are as alive today as ever, and his contributions and their extensive, enduring influence have been receiving fresh attention in a variety of contexts. The first decades of the 20th century saw Bergson, perhaps the most influential philosopher in France at the time, rise to academic and public fame in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Though Bergson’s influence later ebbed on both sides of the Channel, numerous studies shedding new light on Bergson’s work have recently been published in both France and the English-speaking world. And yet, researchers in France and in the UK tend to remain isolated from each other, separated by language and the all-too-entrenched ‘analytic-continental’ divide. The planned seminar seeks to address this challenge, and to provide an opportunity to present new research on Bergson from both French and Anglophone scholars.

​Join us in a two-day symposium presenting a novel, wide-ranging perspective on his oeuvre, examining his relation to the philosophical tradition, and outlining implications of his work for thought today.

Further information here:
www.mfo.ac.uk/en/node/4687
www.oxfordbergsonsymposium.net