CHAPTER XXVIII BergsonIHENRI BERGSON was the leading French philosopher of the present century. He influenced
William James and Whitehead, and had a considerable effect upon French thought. Sorel, who
was a vehement advocate of syndicalism and the author of a book called Reflections on
Violence, used Bergsonian irrationalism to justify a revolutionary labour movement having no
definite goal. In the end, however, Sorel abandoned syndicalism and became a royalist. The
main effect of Bergson's philosophy was conservative, and it harmonized easily with the
movement which culminated in Vichy. But Bergson's irrationalism made a wide appeal quite
unconnected with politics, for instance to Bernard Shaw, whose Back to Methuselah is pure
Bergsonism. Forgetting politics, it is in its purely philosophical aspect that we must consider it.
I have dealt with it somewhat fully as it exemplifies admirably the revolt against reason which,
beginning with Rousseau, has gradually dominated larger and larger areas in the life and
thought of the world. *
The classification of philosophies is effected, as a rule, either by their methods or by their
results: "empirical" and "a priori" is a classification by methods, "realist" and "idealist" is a
classification by results. An attempt to classify Bergson's philosophy in either of these ways is
hardly likely to be successful, since it cuts across all the recognized divisions.
But there is another way of classifying philosophies, less precise, but perhaps more helpful to
the non-philosophical; in this way, the principle of division is according to the predominant
desire which
* The remainder of this chapter is in the main a reprint of an article published in The Monist
for 1912.