JBSP Online: Florian Vermeiren on dismantling Bergson’s critique of intensive magnitude

journal update

Florian Vermeiren’s essay for the Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, published online in advance of the print edition.

Florian Vermeiren – ‘Bergson and Intensive Magnitude: Dismantling His Critique’: JBSP (Originally published online: 22 April 2020).

Abstract: This article examines Bergson’s critique of intensive magnitude in Time and Free Will. I demonstrate how his rejection of a different kind of quantity that is ordinal and does not allow measurement, and the underlying strict dualism of quantity and quality, is inconsistent with both the letter and the spirit of his later philosophy. I dismantle two main strategies for explaining these inconsistencies. Furthermore, I argue that Bergson’s simplistic conception of quantity in terms of homogeneous multiplicity, which is operative in his rejection of an alternative conception of quantity, lacks justification in the face of the transformations that the concept of quantity underwent in the history of mathematics and physics.

Full article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00071773.2020.1754131

Florian Vermeiren, Husserl-Archives: Centre for Phenomenology and Continental Philosophy, Institute of Philosophy, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

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