AbstractLiving in Time is a book about the philosophical ideas of Henri Bergson (1859–1941), once the most famous philosopher in the world, though now seldom considered, especially not in Anglophone philosophy. This is regrettable, as Bergson is a great philosopher, and this book explains why. There is a chapter on each of Bergson’s four major works, explaining his theories of time, perception, memory, and panpsychic consciousness, his innovative concept of virtual existence, his objection to Darwin, his controversy with Einstein, his philosophy of creative evolution, and his social philosophy of closed and open society. Bergson is without doubt the most profound thinker about time since antiquity. In referring to time we refer to duration, which is always an interval, never instantaneous, and therefore always marked by differences of past and present. This duration is real, that is, not imaginary or subjective, and it is effective, a power for change, as we see in geology and the evolution of life. Classical arguments for determinism fallaciously apply spatial concepts to consciousness. Once we take time seriously, which means acknowledging its reality as duration and its difference from space, the arguments for determinism become insupportable. Bergson’s ideas on time and evolution open a context for a comparison with Nietzsche, which the book develops in detail, exposing both philosophical concurrence and systematic difference. The conclusion discusses the question of Bergson and naturalism and summarizes the ontology of the virtual that emerges as the book’s argument unfolds.
