"Vrahimis' book is one of the first to rigorously consider the question of how the identity of analytic philosophy was constructed in relation to its antagonists. ... The book is an excellent introduction to the disruptive debates between leading philosophers of the twentieth century, it can easily function as a sourcebook for teaching and can do much to make philosophers review their prejudices concerning other traditions." (Ties van Gemert, British Journal for the History of Philosophy, March 15, 2023)
1 Introduction
Bibliography
2 Prelude: Bergsonism and Anglophone Analytic Philosophy
2.1 Before Stardom
2.2 Bergsonism in Britain and America
2.3 Stebbing’s Response to Bergson’s 1911 Lectures
2.4 Russell Meets Bergson
2.5 Costelloe-Stephen’s Response to Russell
Bibliography
3 Henri Bergson: A Misunderstood Celebrity
3.1 Bergson’s Historical Background
Spiritualism in Mid-Nineteenth-Century French Philosophy
‘Spiritualist Positivism’
3.2 A Biological Epistemology of Perception
3.3 Memory and Recognition
3.4 Intellect and Intuition
3.5 Philosophy of Space and Time
Beyond Spencer’s Evolutionary Epistemology
Number, Quantity, and Space
Durée
3.6 Science and Metaphysics
3.7 Language
Bibliography
4 William James and the Anglophone Reception of Bergsonism
4.1 A Philosophical Friendship
4.2 The Portrait of a Maître
4.3 Intellectualism
4.4 Bergson’s Radical Empiricism?
4.5 Radical Empiricism Versus Absolute Idealism
4.6 James’s Influence on Bergson’s Analytic Critics
Bibliography
5 ‘Ants, bees, and Bergson’: Bertrand Russell’s Polemic
5.1 Contra Anti-intellectualism
5.2 Number and Space
5.3 Zeno’s Paradoxes
Zeno’s and Bergson’s Solutions
Russell’s Mathematical Solution
Russell’s Objection to Bergson’s Solution, and the Debate with Carr
5.4 Time and Memory
5.5 Perception and the Subject-Object Distinction
5.6 Russell’s Later Responses to Bergson
‘Jupiter sometimes nods’
‘Evolutionism’ and Scientific Philosophy
Bergson’s Place in the History of Philosophy
Bibliography
6 ‘Analytic’ and ‘Synthetic’ Philosophy: Karin Costelloe-Stephen’s Defences of Bergson
6.1 Mereology
6.2 Recognition, Acquaintance, and the Limits of Thought
6.3 Costelloe-Stephen’s Reply to Russell
Space
Mathematical Continua and Processes of Change
6.4 Complexes and Syntheses
6.5 Russell’s Response to Costelloe-Stephen
6.6 Analytic Versus Continental ‘Synthetic’ Philosophy
Bibliography
7 A Call for Moderation: L. Susan Stebbing’s Critique of Bergson
7.1 How to Avoid Russell’s Errors
7.2 Bergson’s Historical Context
7.3 Bergson Versus the Pragmatists on Truth
7.4 ‘Anti-intellectualism’
7.5 Intuition and Argumentation
7.6 Stebbing’s Objections to Bergson’s Epistemology and Theory of Truth
7.7 Costelloe-Stephen’s Answer to Stebbing’s Objection
Bibliography
8 Entr’acte: Bergson’s Germanophone Reception and the Rise of Lebensphilosophie
8.1 The Philosophers’ Great War
8.2 The Demise of Bergsonism
8.3 The Rise of Lebensphilosophie
8.4 The Vienna Circle’s Opposition to Lebensphilosophie
8.5 Neurath’s Russellian Critique of Spengler
Bibliography
9 Evolutionary Epistemology: Moritz Schlick’s Critique of Intuition
9.1 Anti-biologism
9.2 Schlick’s Naturalised Epistemology
9.3 ‘Intuitive Knowledge’: A Contradiction in Terms
9.4 Images and Concepts
9.5 Judgements and Coordination
9.6 Philosophy’s ‘Great Error’ Revisited
Bibliography
10 From the Critique of Intuition to Overcoming Metaphysics: Schlick’s Dialogue with Carnap
10.1 Schlick on Intuition and Metaphysics
10.2 Carnap on Implicit Definitions and Structure Descriptions
10.3 Carnap’s Critique of Bergson
10.4 Schlick’s Answer to Carnap
10.5 Schlick’s Critique of Russellian Acquaintance
Bibliography
11 Different Kinds of Nothing
11.1 Carnap and Neurath Shift Their Target
11.2 Carnap on Heidegger’s Pseudo-statements
11.3 Carnap’s Response to Lebensphilosophie
11.4 Bergson and Carnap on Pseudo-problems About Nothing
11.5 Heidegger’s Angst Versus Bergson’s Disinterested Intuition
11.6 Sartre Responds to Bergson and Heidegger
11.7 Ayer Contra Sartre on Nothing and Negation
Bibliography
12 Doing Without Masters: Oxford Philosophy and the Analytic-Continental Divide
12.1 Ayer Revives Russell
12.2 Ryle Against the 1953 UNESCO Report
12.3 R.M. Hare’s Proposal for the Institutional Reform of Continental Philosophy
12.4 Ryle Against Continental ‘Fuehrership’
Bibliography
13 Conclusion
Bibliography
Index.
Andreas Vrahimis works at the Department of Classics and Philosophy, University of Cyprus. His previous works include Encounters between Analytic and Continental Philosophy (2013).
During the first quarter of the twentieth century, the French philosopher Henri Bergson became an international celebrity, profoundly influencing contemporary intellectual and artistic currents. While Bergsonism was fashionable, L. Susan Stebbing, Bertrand Russell, Moritz Schlick, and Rudolf Carnap launched different critical attacks against some of Bergson’s views. This book examines this series of critical responses to Bergsonism early in the history of analytic philosophy. Analytic criticisms of Bergsonism were influenced by William James, who saw Bergson as an ‘anti-intellectualist’ ally of American Pragmatism, and Max Scheler, who saw him as a prophet of Lebensphilosophie. Some of the main analytic objections to Bergson are answered in the work of Karin Costelloe-Stephen. Analytic anti-Bergsonism accompanied the earlier refutations of idealism by Russell and Moore, and later influenced the Vienna Circle’s critique of metaphysics. It eventually contributed to the formation of the view that ‘analytic’ philosophy is divided from its ‘continental’ counterpart.