Author: John MullarkeyISBN: 9780719055539Publisher: Manchester University PressYear first published: 24 Mar 2006Pages: 256 Format: Paperback / softbackThis collection of essays addresses the significance of Bergson's philosophical legacy for contemporary thought. At the threshold of the 20th century, Bergson reset the agenda for philosophy and its relationship with science, art and even life itself. Concerned with both examining and extolling the phenomena of time, change and difference, he was at one point held as both "the greatest thinker in the world" and "the most dangerous man in the world". Yet the impact of his ideas was so all-pervasive amongst artists, philosophers and politicians alike, that by the end of World War I it had become impossible to diffuse. In a manner imitating his own cult of change, the Bergsonian school departed from the scene almost as quickly as it had arrived. This text examines Bergson's work in terms set by modern debates in metaphysics, relativity theory, evolutionary theory, philosophy of mind, environmentalism and aesthetics.
