Quotes from book
An Introduction to Metaphysics

An Introduction to Metaphysics

"Introduction to Metaphysics" is a 1903 essay about the concept of reality by Henri Bergson. For Bergson, reality occurs not in a series of discrete states but as a process similar to that described by process philosophy or the Greek philosopher Heraclitus. Reality is fluid and cannot be completely understood through reductionistic analysis, which he said "implies that we go around an object", gaining knowledge from various perspectives which are relative. Instead, reality can be grasped absolutely only through intuition, which Bergson expressed as "entering into" the object.


Henri Bergson photo

“I cannot escape the objection that there is no state of mind, however simple, that does not change every moment.”

Henri Bergson book An Introduction to Metaphysics

An Introduction to Metaphysics (1903), translated by T. E. Hulme. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1912, p. 44

Henri Bergson photo

“A philosopher worthy of the name has never said more than a single thing: and even then it is something he has tried to say, rather than actually said. And he has said only one thing because he has seen only one point: and at that it was not so much a vision as a contact…”

Henri Bergson book An Introduction to Metaphysics

Un philosophe digne de ce nom n&#x27;a jamais dit qu&#x27;une seule chose : encore a-t-il plutôt cherché à la dire qu&#x27;il ne l&#x27;a dite véritablement. Et il n&#x27;a dit qu&#x27;une seule chose parce qu&#x27;il n&#x27;a su qu&#x27;un seul point : encore fut-ce moins une vision qu&#x27;un contact... <br class="br"> &quot;L’intuition philosophique (Philosophical Intuition)&quot; http://obvil.paris-sorbonne.fr/corpus/critique/bergson_pensee/body-5 (10 April 1911); translated by Mabelle L. Andison in: Henri Bergson, The Creative Mind: An Introduction to Metaphysics, Courier Dover Publications, 2012, p. 91

Similar authors

Henri Bergson photo
Henri Bergson18
French philosopher 1859–1941
Paul Valéry photo
Paul Valéry89
French poet, essayist, and philosopher None
Pierre Teilhard De Chardin photo
Pierre Teilhard De Chardin64
French philosopher and Jesuit priest None
Emil M. Cioran photo
Emil M. Cioran531
Romanian philosopher and essayist None
Michel Foucault photo
Michel Foucault128
French philosopher None
Jean Paul Sartre photo
Jean Paul Sartre321
French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, sc… None
Albert Camus photo
Albert Camus209
French author and journalist None
Simone Weil photo
Simone Weil193
French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist None
Henri Barbusse photo
Henri Barbusse197
French novelist None
André Maurois photo
André Maurois202
French writer None