The Philosophy of Henri Bergson. it 



found in matter the source of every form of energy ; and which 

 denied teleology and free-will ; and, secondly, the neo-Kantian or 

 neo-Hegslian school, which viewed mind as the fundamental fact ; 

 which regarded physico-chemical laws as wholly inadequate to 

 explain the Cosmos, and which stood for intuition, teleology, and 

 free-will. Between these two schools now stood the philosophy of 

 M. Henri Bergson, which had to a remarkable degree gained the 

 ear of European thought — a philosophy which invited them to 

 reconsider all the great problems of philosophy from a new point 

 of view, which waged war both upon the mechanical and the 

 idealist schools, and which propounded a new method and 

 suggested a new synthesis. It was a subtle and ambitious scheme, 

 and one which threw down a challenge to some of the most 

 cherished ideas of modern science. Firmly planted upon physics 

 and biology, it reared its head into the thinnest ether of abstract 

 speculation. In opposition to Scientific Honism, it conceived a 

 radical distinction, an unceasing struggle between matter and 

 consciousness. It involved a re-statement of vitalism, as Bergson 

 regarded life not as a function of matter, but as a free creative 

 energy using matter as its instrument, continually renewing itself, 

 evolving higher types, and ever seeking a fuller measure of 

 self-realisation. It was a spiritual philosophy, as it regarded life, 

 consciousness, spirit, as the primary realities. It was an 

 evolutionary philosophy, as change, movement, progress were its 

 essential features, and time was its keynote It was in opposition 

 to popular teleology, as it denied that the Cosmos was the 

 fulfilment of a pre-determined plan, holding rather that it was the 

 result of a creation which went on for ever in virtue of an initial 

 movement, which knew no end but the development of its own 

 inherent energy. It was a philosophy of free-will, and it conceived 

 life and consciousness as essentially free, as constantly striving by 

 traversing matter to arrive at freedom. It strove to rehabilitate 

 instinct and intuition, holding that these were in closer touch with 

 reality in the domain of life and of mind than reason. It had 



