School of thought

Bergsonian Intuitionism

Intellectual current

Explore in the interactive map

Classification

Period
c. 1889-1941 CE
Regions
europe
Domains
Epistemology , Philosophy of Mind

Overview

Bergsonian Intuitionism holds that the deepest truths of reality — especially time, consciousness, and life — cannot be grasped by analytical intellect alone but require a direct, sympathetic mode of knowing called intuition. Bergson argued that science and rational analysis spatialize time into discrete units, missing the continuous flow of lived experience he called durée (duration).

Key ideas

  • Duration (Durée): Real time is not the clock-time of physics but a continuous, indivisible flow of qualitative change. We experience duration directly in consciousness, where past and present interpenetrate rather than standing side by side.
  • Intuition vs. Intellect: The intellect evolved to manipulate matter and solve practical problems — it works by dividing, categorizing, and spatializing. Intuition, by contrast, grasps reality from within, apprehending the whole without fragmenting it.
  • Élan Vital: Life is driven by a creative impulse that cannot be reduced to mechanism or finality. Evolution is not predetermined but genuinely creative, branching unpredictably as the élan vital encounters resistance from matter.

Key figures

Henri Bergson

Influenced by

Later connections

References