Experience of Understanding Henri Bergson’s “Creative Evolution”

Abstract

The article offers the author’s reconstruction of Henri Bergson’s famous work “Creative Evolution”, clarifying a number of provisions of the book that were unclear to the author. It is about how the Universe, seemingly an empty, lifeless space, was understood by Bergson as a form of life, moreover, a creative life, and also why Bergson extrapolates human experience to the Universe, as a result of which it becomes possible, with the help of introspection and intuition, to penetrate through human consciousness into the essence of the Universe, which turns out to be “duration”. Based on the reconstruction of the work of Emanuel Swedenborg, the author suggests that Bergson resolves two existential problematic situations for him (understanding evolution, as well as the relationship between space and man) by creating schemes that defined the reality conceptualized by Bergson as duration. Considering some aspects of Bergson’s spiritual experience, the author notes the influence of Plotinus’s ideas on the French philosopher and examines how the latter were rethought to meet the requirements of philosophical communication of the New Time. In conclusion, the author points out the significance of Bergson’s work for our time.