A Pluralistic Universe · Chapter
Lecture VI: Bergson and His Critique of Intellectualism explained
James presents Bergson's radical critique of intellectualism, arguing that conceptual thought and logic cannot grasp the living, moving reality of experience.
What happens
James presents Bergson's radical critique of intellectualism, arguing that conceptual thought and logic cannot grasp the living, moving reality of experience. He contrasts the intellectualist method, which dissects reality into static concepts and finds contradictions, with Bergson's method of intuitive sympathy that places one inside the 'living, moving, active thickness of the real.' James defends a return to empiricism and sensational life as the true revealer of reality, and critiques the rationalist tradition from Plato to Kant and his monistic successors for prioritizing fixity over change.
Themes in this chapter
Empiricism vs. Rationalism
James frames Bergson's philosophy as a return to empiricism, opposing the rationalist tradition that prioritizes fixed concepts over mutable experience.
The Limits of Conceptual Thought
Central theme: Bergson argues that concepts and discursive thought cannot capture the living, moving reality; only intuitive sympathy can.
The Primacy of Experience
James emphasizes that raw, unverbalized life and sensational experience are more revealing than conceptual analysis.
Characters to notice
- Henri Bergson
Central figure of the lecture; James presents Bergson's critique of intellectualism and his method of intuitive sympathy to grasp reality.
- Immanuel Kant
Discussed as the originator of the 'critical' philosophy that separates concepts from reality an sich; James contrasts Kant's dualistic God with the absolute spirit of his successors.
- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Mentioned as one of the monistic successors who found empirical relations full of paradox and contradiction.
- F. H. Bradley
Cited alongside Hegel and Royce as an example of intellectualist philosophers who see contradictions in empirical relations.
- Josiah Royce
Listed as another monistic successor who finds paradox in the relation of empirical data to their conditions.
- Zeno of Elea
Referenced in the context of Kant's analysis of motion and the infinite divisibility of sense-data.
Key passages
“facts don’t sound at all, but simply are , until we conceptualize and name them vocally, the contradiction results only from the conceptual or discursive form being substituted for the real form.”
Contradictions arise not from reality itself but from replacing real experience with conceptual labels.
James explains Bergson's view that intellectualist contradictions are artifacts of substituting concepts for lived reality.
“Place yourself at a bound, or d’emblée , as M. Bergson says, inside of the living, moving, active thickness of the real, and all the abstractions and distinctions are given into your hand”
By intuitively immersing yourself in the dynamic flow of reality, you gain immediate access to all its aspects.
James describes Bergson's method of intuitive sympathy as a way to grasp reality whole, without the fragmentation of conceptual analysis.
“What really exists is not things made but things in the making. Once made, they are dead, and an infinite number of alternative conceptual decompositions can be used in defining them.”
True reality is the process of becoming, not static products; once fixed, a thing can be dissected conceptually in countless ways.
James emphasizes Bergson's focus on dynamic becoming over static being.
