Bergsonism [Event]
Join me in on Saturday, August 8 for a philosophy discussion on Bergsonism by Gilles Deleuze
August is feeling like a good time to revisit Bergsonism by Gilles Deleuze. You are invited, dear readers, to join me next Saturday, August 8 at 11 am ET.
I’ve been saying that the Bergson/Deleuze thread represents one of the more under-appreciated philosophical lineages in my area of study. During JF Martel’s recent Bergson seminar on Mutations, I commented on how Bergson’s oeuvre needs to be in every ‘evolution of consciousness’ curriculum. Bergsonism, first written by Deleuze in 1966, is the kind of book that should be in heavy rotation.
If we’re reading Teilhard de Chardin’s The Human Phenomenon or considering Sri Aurobindo’s integral yoga, and if we are advocates Alfred North Whitehead’s process philosophy and Jean Gebser’s ‘structures of consciousness,’ then Bergsonism fits right in.
It’s a philosophical treatment of time, problematizing modern conceptions of time (and space) and going further through its offering of an ambitious and alternative evolutionary metaphysics. One that is more adequate for reckoning with Bergson calls our ‘mobile reality,’ a world of becoming.
It’s a solid introduction to Bergson, and by extension, Deleuze too. Bergson was so foundational for Deleuze that this book serves as a kind of ‘key’ for his own philosophical body of work.
More than ever, I think we need new philosophies of time and becoming. As I write about around here, the so-called ‘metacrisis’ is really a time crisis: a spiritual failure to be truly present in and with the world.
Progressive mythologies of time have collapsed, but in their place, we need other temporalities. New relationships with past and future.
Bergson, Deleuze, Gebser, Anzaldua, and other artists and scholars offer important ‘medicine’ for us right now. Their works constellate part of my ‘carrier bag’ theory of worldview shift.
Interested? Read up before the event, or join our discussion as a primer. Either way, do come along for the ride!
Additional readings/media: If you’re looking for good, supplemental material on this Bergson/Deleuze, listen to J.F.’s episode with Lepht Hand on Bergson’s ‘weird’ philosophy, or read Emily Herring’s excellent book on Bergson Herald of a Restless World (and/or her article on Aeon), or Matt Bluemink’s very accessible essay in Epoché Magazine.
PS: If there’s enough interest in these philosophical reading groups, then I’ll be happy to schedule the next in the series. There will likely be one open/public event and one for Mutations members per month. So far on my shortlist I have: Bergson’s Creative Mind, Gloria Anzaldua’s Light in the Dark, and Deleuze’s later Cinema I and Cinema II books.
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Is there a recording of this event? I signed up but was unable to participate and would like to glean something if possible. Thanks
Fantastic topic... thank you for organizing!