Beyond Bergson

While the first aspires to include all human beings, linking them through love, the latter is based on need and obligation, defensively and antagonistically closing in on itself.

Bergson appears to have in mind here that one ought to be affirmatively indifferent to difference.

Bergson left his mark on early twentieth century internationalism.

while Bergson’s writings were not themselves directly attuned to the themes of race and colonialism, prominent philosophical traditions within Latin America, Africa, and Black Europe were analyzing and extending his work within distinct geopolitical contexts.

Nevertheless, Bergson’s work did carry tremendous influence for many thinkers grappling with these sociopolitical phenomena.

The openness and dynamism of time makes it so that the absolute cannot be given all at once, even to the absolute itself.

Thus, based in the instincts for survival, closed societies and static religions are those societies and religions that are closer to nature.

Despite their lofty appearance, our moral duties do nothing more than provide us with an attitude of “discipline in the face of the enemy.”

The static, moral values one finds within closed societies, while presented as universal, have the sole function of making individuals conform to that particular society.

Rousseau gave to mountains “the principal tone” that only Rousseau could compose.15 Another example Bergson provides is the composition of a symphony; he mentions Beethoven