Reconstructing Bergson's Critique of Intensive Magnitude. Issue 52 (2nd January 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bagby, John R.
• Is Part Of: Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology. Issue 52:Number 1(2021)
• Page Start: 80
• Page End: 94
• Publication Date: 2021-01-02
• Subjects: Intensity -- Continuity -- Presence -- Concrete -- Derivation -- Calculus; Phenomenology -- Periodicals; Fenomenologie; Filosofie; Phénoménologie -- Périodiques; Phenomenology; Periodicals; 142.7
• DOI: 10.1080/00071773.2020.1806688
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0007-1773

Abstract

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 final section I examine the importance of infinitesimal thought in Bergson's good sense of intensity.