Bergson, Politics, and Religion ed. by Alexandre Lefebvre and Melanie White (review)

Henri Bergson's philosophy champions the creative, the new, and the open. This excellent collection of fifteen articles plus Introduction captures the very spirit of his thought and opens up the field of Bergson studies, which, during their resurgence over the past two decades, have had to defer more sustained engagement with Bergson's sociopolitical thought until his central concepts such as time, evolution, life, and memory were recast to correct long-standing misrepresentations. Prejudiced views — that Bergsonian creativity obstructs political analysis, emotion obstructs reasoned political discourse, and mysticism replaces concrete political activity—motivated the rash, mistaken conclusion that Bergson 'fails to engage with [. . .] political categories and [. . .] imports "aesthetic" concept [. . .] into the political realm' (p. 11). The editors' Introduction deftly undermines the view that Bergson's thought contributes nothing but trouble to sociopolitical thought (p. 11) and presents the central concepts of his 1932 Les Deux Sources de la morale et de la religion. Underscoring the Introduction's dual achievement, Leonard Lawlor presents an excellent guide to the 'purpose' of Les Deux Sources, while Hisashi Fujita restores the portrait of a 'political' Bergson that Carl Schmitt and Georges Sorel damaged by advancing a '(mis-)interpretation of Bergson's theory of language' (p. 127). As this volume makes available the rich resources of Bergson's sociopolitical thought—primarily through sustained engagements with Les Deux Sources — it opens the humanities and social sciences to future research concerning contributions Bergson can make to fields such as government, political science, inter-religious dialogue, sociology, and even, perhaps surprisingly, economics. Contributors introduce readers to central political issues such as freedom (Paulina Ochoa Espejo) and equality (John Mullarkey) in democratic regimes, human rights (Suzanne Guerlac, Lefebvre, Carl Powers), religion (Keith Ansell-Pearson and Jim Urpeth, Vladmir Jankélévitch), and war (Philippe Soulez), and examine the influence that apparently extra-political issues have on the political, for example aesthetics and consumerism (Claire Colebrook) and the feasibility of the creative emotion of love extending to all of humanity. Many essays provocatively situate Bergson in contemporary sociopolitical thought, forging dialogues between him and figures such as Badiou, Derrida, Habermas, Bruno Latour, and Charles Taylor. The volume's attention to contemporary discourse perhaps comes at the expense of clarifying Bergson's relation to classical sociopolitical thought. Aristotle and Kant receive sufficient attention, as does Émile Durkheim. However—and I do not wish to make the volume a victim of its own success — some readers might lament the passing treatment of Montesquieu and Rousseau and the bypassing of Thomas Hobbes's thought (in a collection that spends a good deal of time discussing war as 'the practical problem that unites the myriad themes of [Les Deux Sources]' (p. 7)). This observation expresses more an appreciation for, than criticism of, this seminal volume, which invites readers to consider other possible Bergsonian contributions to issues as varied as they are relevant (for instance, technology studies and Bergson's influence on economists such as Keynes and Joseph Schumpeter). Those new to Bergson will find first-rate introductions, written by leading scholars, to Bergson's relation to the humanities and social sciences. Those already initiated into Bergson scholarship will find their thought ignited anew as these expert voices advance a dimension of Bergson's thought overlooked in these salad days of Bergson studies.