Contemporary Bergsonism and Philosophy of Cosmology

Abstract

The article examines the figure of Henri Bergson as a philosopher of science and the relevance of his ideas for modern philosophy of cosmology. In the first part, Bergson’s philosophy is analyzed based on the classification of philosophical ap­proaches to science presented by G. Gutting. It is problematic to classify Berg­son’s philosophy of science in this system due to the fact that he combines fea­tures of empirical and ontological approaches. It is concluded that it is difficult to uncover a systematic philosophy of science in Bergson’s works because they are structured around the notion of duration, rather than around scientific enquiry. The second part describes and analyzes the cosmological motifs in Bergson’s works, the questions of human interaction with the world, preservation of the past in memories, the ontology of duration. In conclusion, three promising areas of Bergsonian research in contemporary philosophy of cosmology are high­lighted: cosmology as a physical discipline, the study of the Universe in the past and in its evolution, and the philosophical problems of many-world models in cosmology.