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240627: this is the last major work by bergson I have read, the last he wrote, the one haunted by spectre of rising fascism and WW 2- but melancholy optimistic philosophy despite the times. as is the case with all b work, the writing is beautiful, indeed this is continental philosophy in its perfected form as very good story. on the other, can see, aside from language barrier, why Anglo-American philosophers could follow Bertrand Russel's complaint this was not 'philosophy' but 'literature': there is no obsessive logic-chopping, in fact one of b's continuing arguments has always been that dismembering thought, world, experience, through logic does not bring us any closer to what is real...
there are four sections, four long chapters, that together form this work. readers look in vain for comfort of 'if and only if' or 'necessary and sufficient' as major plot motors: b transcends these limits, though he is truly logical, this logic expressed in long passages. section one: moral obligation, section two: static religion, section three: dynamic religion, section four: concluding remarks...
1: b uses dualities in everything from life as natural order and social order, to society in individual and individual in society, to spontaneous obedience and resistance, to obligation and life, to his most famous opposition of 'closed society' and 'open society'. b sees emotion as essentially 'creative' and as always creation is good thing. b refers to emotions as more competently powerful than intellect, thus 'call of 'hero'. b refers to emotion and representation. b insists there is 'soul'- every one must have intangible, ineffable, experience- so there must be 'liberation' and rather than remain in one repetitive circle there is in humans 'forward movement' and this is by transition of 'closed morality' to 'open morality' which is undertaken by moral education and this includes taking 'mysticism' as worthy of investigation, of theorising, of promoting...
2: now what is 'closed' and what is 'open'? in morality as society 'closed' seems to be what b calls 'static religion', which is essentially the 'myth making faculty' humans employ to offer protection to future unforeseeable. for b asserts this is what religion primarily offers: emotional, psychic, assurance that whatever state humans are in will be clear against depression and disorganisation. and this is however absurd or self-contradictory, tribal, selective, these myths are, whether animals, gods, heroes. as usual b sees in creative action practical reasons. if you have read b you know how 'creation/creativity' is his usual home term...
3: now 'dynamic religion' is an evolution, never fully complete, from the static. this is longest section of this work. b refers to his conception of diversification in evolution, in creation, from plants to animals and how animals do not have reflective capacity to be religious, from animals to humans who are essentially religious. there are these two concepts of religion, named as one, and the apparent difference is subsumed under 'family resemblance': both proclaim God is Love but only dynamic makes this universal. b is operating in christian thought-universe so there are some disagreements for me. such as the necessary existence of 'souls' as transcendent substance or assertion that Christian God is more than tribal...
4: 'concluding remarks' is where melancholy and optimism mix. i think of the times he lived in, his political hopes or delusions that, for example, after the Great War there could not be another, that the League of Nations would have any power... can see how pessimistic existentialism became going concern/ popular concept of philosophy after WW 2. b remains optimistic dream. how this world could be...
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