PHILOSOPHIC LANDMARK.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 187, 22 May 1941, Page 4

PHILOSOPHIC LANDMARK.

The death of Henry Bergson at the age of 82 removes a philosopher who had a far-reaching influence on modern thought in the earlier years of the century, notes the “Spectator.” Ho reached intellectual maturity at a time when the philosophic world was still divided between scientific materialism on the one side and the abstract theories of Hegelians on the other. He knew enough of science to appreciate the scientific point of view and enough of philosophy to judge the transcendental idealists; but was original enough to be dissatisfied with both and to examine all the premises in the light of contemporary knowledge. It is perhaps proper to bracket him with his contemporaries William James and Benedetto Croce. In common with the former he could not rest content with a dogmatism which reduced philosophy to a Avatertight absolutist system. Like the latter lie dwelt- on the all-important part played by the intuition in grasping the nature of reality. His intellectual emancipation began with the conviction that the philosophers Avere Avrong Avho regarded time as an illusion and placed reality in a sphere beyond time and space. Duration, in fact, Avas for him of the very essence of existence. Man might be defined as a being who endures. Change, movement, vitality—persistence in a present Avhich embraces the past and projects itself into the future—these Avere the characteristics of existence, existence meaning to grow and create in the perpetual process of creative evolution. It may be observed that his dynamic vicAV of reality—lns doctrine of the “elan vital”—Avas in harmony Avitli the distinctive thought pf his time in the fields of art and literature, and the ncAver views of the scientists. Philosophy might not be destined to go on expressing itself in just those terms but undoubtedly Bergson represents a philosophic landmark. He expressed bis generation in the ap-propriate-philosophic terms, and he Avon and deserved his mvard in contemporary fame.