Freedom and creativity in Bergson's Philosophy

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2013

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Özyurt, Esen

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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

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Citation Formats

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