Philosophy and the adventure of the virtual : Bergson and the time of life / Keith Ansell Pearson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ansell-Pearson, Keith, 1960-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bergson, Henri, 1859-1941.

Bergson, Henri.

Time.

Physical Description:

ix, 246 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Routledge, 2002.

Summary:

The concept of the virtual has recently assumed a remarkable level of importance, spanning a diverse range of different disciplines and approaches. Yet in spite of the attention it has received, its precise ontological status is mysterious for many and the extent of its application to time, perception, and memory is largely unexplored and unknown. Philosophy and the Adventure of the Virtual: Bergson and the time of life brings the virtual to centre stage and argues for its importance in thinking anew the central philosophical questions of being and time.

Keith Ansell Pearson examines the nature of continuity, probes relativity, pursues a notion of creative evolution, and outlines a novel approach to perception and memory. Staging a series of encounters between Bergson and philosophers as diverse as Kant, Nietzsche, Russell, Popper, Dennett, Badiou, and Sartre, the book provides some genuinely insightful readings of Bergson and endeavours to revitalize Bergsonism for a contemporary audience.

Philosophy and the Adventure of the Virtual is a lucidly written and imaginatively argued volume of essays, and will be of interest to philosophers across the analytic and continental divide and to anyone open to the possibilities of thinking.

Contents:

1 Introducing time as a virtual multiplicity 9

The two multiplicities 13

The time of number 18

Is time space? 21

Bergson and Russell on continuity 24

One time and one space 28

Towards an ontology of duration 35

The whole of duration 38

2 'A life of the real' and a single time: relativity and virtual multiplicity 43

Popper on Parmenides 44

The problem of change 46

Popper on Einstein as a Parmenidean 47

Bergson on the ancients and the moderns 49

Bergson and relativity 55

Popper encounters Bergson 65

Conclusion: towards the time of life 68

3 Duration and evolution: the time of life 70

Life as a virtual multiplicity 71

The possible and the real 74

Dennett on Darwin's dangerous idea 79

Bachelard on Bergsonism 87

Some problems 89

4 The simple virtual: a renewed thinking of the One 97

The One of pluralism: Bergson and Deleuze on Plotinus 98

Deleuze on the difference of life 105

5 The elan vital as an image of thought: Bergson and Kant on finality 115

Kant: the problem of teleology 121

Bergson's response 124

Bergson and finality 130

The image of the elan vital 135

6 Virtual image: Bergson on matter and perception 140

All is image 143

Between idealism and realism 149

Beyond the identity thinking of materialism 155

Beyond idealism 159

7 The being of memory and the time of the self: from psychology to an ontology of the virtual 167

From psychology to ontology: Bergson on pure memory 171

Virtual memory and a crystal-image of time 180

The synthesis of the pure past in Difference and Repetition 185

The depths of time 190

The straight line of time: Nietzsche and Kant 197.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 230-241) and index.

ISBN:

0415237270

0415237289

OCLC:

47013170