Leon Brunschvicg and Henri Bergson

Abstract

In the introduction to his Traite Georges Bastide remarks that “it would be just to note that the orientation of our work is in the tradition of the idealism of Brunschvicg, while that of Le Senne came more directly under the influence of the idealism of Hamelin.”1 “But it is no less true,” he continues, “that as far as the great names that preeceded are concerned, Maine de Biran, Ravaisson, Lachelier, Boutroux, Legneau and Bergson constitute our common heritage.”2 It is the purpose of this second chapter, then, to remark briefly the movement of French Idealism, especially as it came to be incorporated into the philosophy of Leon Brunschvicg, who, with Hamelin, represented the “principle movement” in contemporary French idealism.3 Hamelin followed a more synthetic method, “confident in the stability of the dialectical, relational construction of nature and spirit.”4 Brunschvicg, on the other hand, followed a more analytic method, seeking the laws of the spirit and the conditions of their revelation in experience and history. The reflexive method of Georges Bastide, who had Brunschvicg as his teacher, follows Brunschvicg’s approach in this regard. His own spiritual personalism and philosophy of interior transcendence, however, is a further development of Brunschvicg’s philosophy of immanence.