Bergsonian Philosophy and Thomism: Collected Works of Jacques Maritain, Volume 1

by Jacques Maritain, Ralph McInerny (Editor)

Overview

Published in 1913 as La Philosophie Bergsonienne, this incisive critique of the thought of Henri Bergson was Jacques Maritain's (1882–1973) first book. In it he shows himself already to have an authoritative grasp of the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas and an uncanny ability to demonstrate its relevance to alternative philosophical systems such as that of Henri Bergson. Volume 1 in the series The Collected Works of Jacques Maritain, this edition faithfully reproduces the 1955 translation published by the Philosophical Library.

It would be difficult to overestimate Bergson’s role in extricating French philosophy from the deadening materialism that dominated the Sorbonne. It was that cultural milieu that brought Maritain and his wife Raïssa to the brink of suicide. They drew back for two major reasons. First were the lectures of Henri Bergson at the Collège de France, in which the Maritains found a defense of metaphysics, of the transcendent beyond the material, within which they could find meaning in life. The second reason was their conversion to Catholicism, a move they and many of their contemporaries made after being introduced to Bergson’s work.

Soon after his conversion, Jacques Maritain immersed himself in the thought of Thomas Aquinas and was struck by the comparative weaknesses of Bergson. This book is Maritain’s relentless criticism of the philosophy of the man whose lectures had meant so much to him. Its ferocity marks it as a young man’s book, written in part to exorcize the defects of Bergson’s philosophy as they were understood by one now schooled in Thomism. Twenty-five years later, Maritain, while not retracting his criticisms, regretted their intemperance and, as a result, moderated his assessment of Bergson in a long preface to the second edition. In it, we find a philosopher who mastered his craft and a critic of rare perception and refinement.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780268021528
Publisher:	University of Notre Dame Press
Publication date:	04/01/2007
Series:	Collected Works of Jacques Maritain , #1
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	386
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Ralph McInerny is Michael P. Grace Professor of Medieval Studies and former director of the Jacques Maritain Center at the University of Notre Dame.

Table of Contents

Introduction   Ralph McInerny     7
Foreword to the English Translation     9
Preface to the Second Edition of La Philosophie Bergsonienne     11
The Documents in the Case
General Aspects of Bergsonism
The Philosophy of Intuition     65
The final alternative of modern thought
Duration
Concept and practice
Intuition as philosophical method
Bergsonian Evolutionism     74
A double genesis
The genesis of bodies
The genesis of intelligence
Metaphysics and mathematical science
Being in Itself and Contingent Being. The Idea of Nothingness     84
The Order of the World and Organic Finality     93
Bergsonian Evolutionism and the Intellect     102
Bergson's original insights
Analysis and the intellect
The concept
Intuition
Truth
Critical Examination of the Philosophy of Bergson
The Bergsonian Doctrine     119
How the Philosophical Problem Must Have Presented Itself for Bergson
Bergson's Solution of the Problem
Analysis (or the exercise of reason)
Intellect
The concept
Intuition
Duration
The Consequences of the Bergsonian Solution
The Critique of Intellect     132
Analysis
Concept
Intellect
Intuition and Duration     146
Intuition According to Bergson
Intuition in General
Intuition in the Sense of Direct Perception
Intuition or intellectual perception
Angelic perception and humanperception
Discursive reasoning
Bergsonian intuition
Abstraction
Bergsonian philosophy and the intellect
Intuition in the Sense of Knowledge by Inclination, Spontaneous or Instinctive Knowledge
Sensibility and intellect
The cogitative and intellect
Will and intellect
Bergsonian intuition
Bergsonian intuition and Truth
Bergsonian duration
Time and Change
Pure Change
God     180
The Existence of God
The Thomistic proofs
The existence of God and Bergsonian anti-intellectualism
The existence of God and Bergsonian intuition
The existence of God and reason
The Nature and Perfections of God
The doctrine of Saint Thomas
The Bergsonian theory
Man     204
Soul and Body in Bergson's Theory
The Bergsonian method
Matter and memory
External perception
Memory and general ideas
Recognition
Memory and the brain
The self
On the theory of external perception
On the theory of the general idea
On the theory of recognition
On the theory of memory and the brain
On the theory of the self
The spirituality of the soul
Dualism and monism
Soul and Body in Thomist Philosophy
Substance
Corporal substance
Living corporal substance
Man
Man in Creative Evolution
Freedom     252
The Problem of Freedom
The Bergsonian Solution
The Scholastic Doctrine of Freedom
Freedom
Election or the free act
The intellect and freedom
The New Philosophy     278
The Two Bergsonisms
Bergsonism of Fact and Bergsonism of Intention     285
Bergsonism of Intention and Thomism     289
At the Limits of Philosophy     295
Essay of Appreciation
The Metaphysics of Bergson     303
The Bergsonian Philosophy of Morality and Religion     325
Marginal Notes on Aristotle     349
Two Books of Aristotle
Various Questions
Aristotelian controversies
On the natural knowledge of God by reason
Condemnations of Aristotelianism in the Middle Ages
Descartes on Aristotle
Conclusion
Bibliography     378
Index     381

Editorial Reviews

"Maritain's (1882-1973) first published book was La Philosophie Bergsonienne (1913), which so harshly criticized Henri Bergson that he made a point of urging readers of his later books to study him. It also established his credentials as a major commentator on the thought of Thomas Aquinas. This 1995 translation for the Philosophical Library edition inaugurates the series of Maritain's collected works." —Reference and Research Book News

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