The human side of any philosopher must ask this question about
metaphysical TRUTH : what are its social consequences ? I have observed
that not a few great physicists " gravitated " toward a Marxist social
philosophy. Moreover, they were less erratic than academic scholars or
middle class journalists. Is there any metaphysical truth-which I admit
as credible- which would negate Einstein's thinking in his popular essay
" Why Socialism ? " . As for this philosopher Henri Bergson I will
review what Bertrand Russell- a life long socialist- said about him in
his " History of Western Philosophy ". I recall Will Durant writing
about Bergson in " The Story of Philosophy ".
Also what did the dialectical materialist Vladimir Lenin think about Henri Bergson in the now obscure-but still relevant and interesting- book: " Materialism and Empirio Criticism ".
Oddly enough, the famous horror writer H.P. Lovecraft wrote an interesting letter about Einstein, time, and materialism. Lovecraft was a true believer in COSMIC HORROR -which is a kind of metaphysics of the EONS .Instead of gods Lovecraft has THE OLD ONES. I recall Einstein called God ( in the Spinoza sense ) THE OLD ONE .
Proustian Memory ( involving TIME ) also arouses metaphysical speculation.
Betrand Russell on Henri Bergson
As intellect is connected with space, so instinct or intuition is connected with time. It is one of the noteworthy features of Bergson’s philosophy that, unlike most writers, he regards time and space as profoundly dissimilar. Space, the characteristic of matter, arises from a dissection of the flux which is really illusory, useful, up to a certain point, in practice, but utterly misleading in theory. Time, on the contrary, is the essential characteristic of life or mind. “Wherever anything lives,” he says, “there is, open somewhere, a register in which time is being inscribed” (C. E., p. 17). But the time here spoken of is not mathematical time, the homogeneous assemblage of mutually external instants. Mathematical time, according to Bergson, is really a form of space; the time which is of the essence of life is what he calls duration. This conception of duration is fundamental in his philosophy; it appears already in his earliest book Time and Free Will......
Also what did the dialectical materialist Vladimir Lenin think about Henri Bergson in the now obscure-but still relevant and interesting- book: " Materialism and Empirio Criticism ".
Oddly enough, the famous horror writer H.P. Lovecraft wrote an interesting letter about Einstein, time, and materialism. Lovecraft was a true believer in COSMIC HORROR -which is a kind of metaphysics of the EONS .Instead of gods Lovecraft has THE OLD ONES. I recall Einstein called God ( in the Spinoza sense ) THE OLD ONE .
Proustian Memory ( involving TIME ) also arouses metaphysical speculation.
Betrand Russell on Henri Bergson
As intellect is connected with space, so instinct or intuition is connected with time. It is one of the noteworthy features of Bergson’s philosophy that, unlike most writers, he regards time and space as profoundly dissimilar. Space, the characteristic of matter, arises from a dissection of the flux which is really illusory, useful, up to a certain point, in practice, but utterly misleading in theory. Time, on the contrary, is the essential characteristic of life or mind. “Wherever anything lives,” he says, “there is, open somewhere, a register in which time is being inscribed” (C. E., p. 17). But the time here spoken of is not mathematical time, the homogeneous assemblage of mutually external instants. Mathematical time, according to Bergson, is really a form of space; the time which is of the essence of life is what he calls duration. This conception of duration is fundamental in his philosophy; it appears already in his earliest book Time and Free Will......
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