Henri Bergson’s concepts of élan vital and duration (la durée) emerged from his deep dissatisfaction with mechanistic, deterministic, and spatialized models of reality, especially those offered by Newtonian physics, evolutionary biology, and rationalist philosophy. His development of these ideas was shaped by:
1. Reaction Against Mechanism and Positivism
Context: Late 19th-century France
• Dominated by deterministic science, rationalism, and mechanistic models (e.g., Laplace’s universe).
• Time was treated as a mathematical variable, divided into equal units—completely spatialized.
• Life was understood either as blind mechanism (Darwinian evolution) or vital substance (vitalism)—both limiting for Bergson.
Bergson’s Move:
• He rejected static, spatialized metaphysics, arguing that it misrepresents reality, especially consciousness and life.
• Instead, he sought to grasp reality from within, through intuition, not just analysis.
2. La Durée: Born from Lived Experience and Consciousness
Early Work: Time and Free Will (1889)
• In his doctoral thesis, Bergson introduced duration (la durée) by examining inner time—how we actually experience time.
• He showed that psychological time is fluid, interpenetrating, qualitative—totally different from mathematical, clock-based time.
• This was influenced by his own introspective method and deep engagement with psychology and phenomenology (before the word existed).
“We place ourselves within duration when we grasp ourselves not as things, but as becoming.”
Philosophical Roots:
• Kant and Spinoza loom in the background, but Bergson parts ways with their abstractions.
• He favors immediate experience over conceptual representation.
• Descartes’ cogito gives way to a flowing self—a self that endures, not a fixed substance.
3. Élan Vital: Arising from the Limits of Darwinism
Key Work: Creative Evolution (1907)
• Bergson critiques Darwinian evolution for being too mechanical and retrospective.
• Evolution, he argues, is not just adaptation to external conditions, but the creative unfolding of life from within.
• Here, he introduces élan vital as the inner impulse or drive of life—a non-material, spiritual force that pushes life toward novelty, complexity, and freedom.
“Life is a tendency to act on matter, but more than that—to create.”
Not Classical Vitalism:
• Bergson is not a vitalist in the traditional sense (he doesn’t posit a separate “vital substance”).
• Rather, élan vital is a dynamic process, a movement of becoming, inseparable from duration.
• It’s not a thing—it’s a tendency, a force of differentiation, always in motion.
4. Influence from Science and Mysticism
• Biology: Bergson was deeply read in contemporary biology but saw it as needing philosophical correction—hence, his reinterpretation of evolution as creative rather than purely selective.
• Mystical thought: Though not religious, Bergson’s later work (esp. The Two Sources of Morality and Religion) shows an openness to mystical insight and cosmic intuition.
• Psychology of habit: He was influenced by William James and by early psychological studies of habit, memory, and voluntary action, which also fed into his theory of freedom and intuition.
5. His Method: Intuition vs. Intellect
Bergson believed that:
• Intellect cuts reality into pieces, spatializes time, and abstracts life into static categories.
• Intuition is a method of sympathy and immersion, allowing one to enter into the flow of reality—to think with life, not just about it.
This method allowed him to experience duration and feel the movement of élan vital, rather than describe it from a distance.
Summary: Whence and How Bergson Developed His Ideas
|
Source |
Contribution |
|
Revolt against mechanistic science and deterministic metaphysics |
Inspired his search for a philosophy of creativity, change, and freedom |
|
Inner experience of time |
Gave birth to la durée, a non-mathematical, lived temporality |
|
Limits of Darwinian biology |
Led to élan vital, as a supplement to blind adaptation |
|
Introspective psychology and mystical openness |
Fed his method of intuition as a direct access to life |
|
Methodological innovation |
Rejected intellectual abstraction in favor of immersive knowing |
Would you like to explore how Bergson’s élan vital compares with Deleuze’s desire, or how duration resonates with wu wei and non-narrative therapy?
