John R. Bagby’s essay for the Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, online in advance of the print edition.
John R. Bagby – ‘Reconstructing Bergson’s Critique of Intensive Magnitude’: JBSP (Originally published online: 18 August 2020).
Abstract: In Bergson and Intensive Magnitude: Dismantling his Critique, Florian Vermeiren argues that Bergson’s critique of intensive magnitude in Time and Free Will is inconsistent with his later philosophy, and even inconsistent with the role of a “difference in degrees of freedom” in Time and Free Will. I argue that it is rather Vermeiren’s analysis which mischaracterizes Bergson’s critique and therefore the interpretation of an inconsistency cannot stand. In the first two sections I reevaluate Bergson’s critique, showing what, according to Bergson, are the good and bad senses of intensity, and how this critique allowed Bergson to institute a new conception of difference as expressed in concrete continuity. In the finally section I examine the importance of infinitesimal thought in Bergson’s good sense of intensity.
Full article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00071773.2020.1806688
John R. Bagby, Philosophy Department, Boston College, Boston, MA, USA
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