Freedom and creativity in Bergson's Philosophy

Download

index.pdf

Date

2013

Author

Özyurt, Esen

Metadata

Show full item record

Item Usage Stats

264
views

565
downloads

The purpose of this study is to make sense of the notion of freedom in Bergson‘s philosophy. Bergson‘s original approach to the problem of free will is the application of the notion of duration to solve this problem. For Bergson, the problem of free will arises from a misconceived framework which is based on reducing time to space. Throughout the thesis, we tried to show how the notion of duration allows Bergson to reformulate and solve the problem of free will. For that purpose the method of intuition as the method to understand the notion of duration is also elucidated. In the light of the method of intuition and the notion of duration, free acts can be seen as the creative acts of the fundamental self. We arrive at the conclusion that freedom in Bergson‘s philosophy can be understood as a kind of creativity.

Subject Keywords

Free will and determinism., Freedom., Creative ability., Intuition.

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12615556/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/22510

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

Bergson’s method of intuition: towards a philosophy of life / Koçkan, Zöhre; Çırakman, Elif; Department of Philosophy (2014) The purpose of this study is to show how a possible philosophy of life can arise by following Bergson’s method of intuition and to make emphasis on how Bergson’s two fundamental notions (intuition and duration) are capable of grasping the flux of life. The scientific methods, static concepts and classical philosophy are not able to understand the flow of life. Throughout this study it is pointed out a possible philosophy that is able to grasp the flow and the evolution of life. For this aim, Bergson’s metho...
Freedom in the social context: the positions of Aristotle and Jean-Jacques Rousseau Aytemir, Nesil; Ceylan, Yasin; Turan, Şeref Halil; Department of Philosophy (2018) This thesis aims at examining and comparing the concept of freedom in the social context from the viewpoints of Aristotle (384–322 BC) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778). In order to do that, Aristotle’s ideas on slavery, the position of women in city-state, freedom of citizens, and democracy are emphasized for his position; and Rousseau’s ideas on state of nature, social contract theory, and ideal education are stressed on for his position. As both Aristotle and Rousseau mainly seek for an ideal system ...
Reconsidering the Kantian concept of genius through the questions of nature, freedom and creativity Ertene, Merve; Çırakman, Elif; Department of Philosophy (2012) In this thesis, the role and the significance of the Kantian theory of art and concept of genius in Kant’s system is examined. In this examination, it is aimed to answer the question of the meaning of being human in Kant’s system through art and artist. To this end, Kant’s consideration of art from the spectator’s standpoint and ignorance of artist’s perspective are criticized. In conformity with this criticism, throughout the thesis, depending on Kant’s conceptualization of the genius, the artist’s perspec...
Dualities in bergson revisited: towards a reconciliation? Karahan, Gülizar; Çırakman, Elif; Department of Philosophy (2008) The aim of this study is to make an inquiry on the nature and the development of dualities in Bergson’s philosophy. Since the nature of each duality differs from the others and the dualistic pattern inherent in Bergsonian philosophy is subject to change, we base our study on a chronological structure in order to comprehend better how this pattern changes. We claim that such an inquiry will yield relevant outcomes with regard to ontological and epistemological evolution of Bergson’s thought. To state more pr...
Kant’s transcendental freedom Başaran, Burcu; Parkan, Barış; Department of Philosophy (2015) The aim of this study is to initiate a discussion on the reconciliation of freedom and natural causality in Immanuel Kant’s major work Critique of Pure Reason. In the Third Antinomy, Kant problematizes transcendental freedom as the reason of the conflict between causality of freedom and of nature. While the thesis of the Third Antinomy claims that transcendental freedom does not contradict natural causality, the antithesis of the Third Antinomy claims that it contradicts natural causality in the field of ap...

Citation Formats

E. Özyurt, “Freedom and creativity in Bergson’s Philosophy,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2013.