Abstract
On April 6, 1922, Henri Bergson and Albert Einstein met at the Societe francaise de philosophie in Paris to discuss the meaning of relativity. In the years that followed, the philosopher and the physicist became engaged in a bitter dispute.2 It is commonly asserted that during their confrontation Bergson lost to the young physicist; as subsequent commentators have insisted, Bergson made an essential mistake because he did not understand the physics of relativity.3 Their debate exemplified the victory of rationality against intuition.4 It was a key moment which demonstrated that intellectuals (like Bergson) were unable to keep up with revolutions in science. For the physicists Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont, the historical origins of the Science Wars lay in Einstein's and Bergson's fateful meeting. Since then, they have seen the malaise of le bergsonisme continuing to spread-recently reaching Deleuze, after passing through Jankelevitch and Merleau-Ponty.5
Highlights
On April 6, 1922, Henri Bergson and Albert Einstein met at the Société française de philosophie in Paris to discuss the meaning of relativity
It is commonly asserted that during their confrontation Bergson lost to the young physicist; as subsequent commentators have insisted, Bergson made an essential mistake because he did not understand the physics of relativity
Even in the preface to the first edition of Durée et simultanéité, he showed every possible respect for the facts of observation: “. . . we take the formulas of Lorentz, term by term, and we find out to which concrete reality, to what thing perceived or perceptible, each term corresponds.”21 Bergson, who knew Hendrik Lorentz and Albert I
Summary
Bergson, and the experiment that failed: Intellectual cooperation at the League of Nations.
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