Bergson in Finland

Abstract

In this article, early 20th-century debates on Bergsonism in Finland are considered with particular attention to the selective forms of appropriation that accompany ideational transfers across geographical and linguistic frontiers. Both scholarly and social appropriations are discussed with a view to exploring what the encounter between Bergson and Finnish cultural life can tell us about the international circulation of ideas. The case study draws attention to centre-periphery dynamics in European intellectual life and to philosophical transfers involving several parties. In Finland, Bergson was filtered through the prism of a traditionally German-oriented academic culture and partly mediated by regional celebrities and milieus such as the city of Copenhagen, an important relay point in the traffic of ideas to and from Scandinavia.