New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-07-12
Henri Bergson Explains His
Use of Metaphor and Sin1ile
Having No New Language to
Express Meaning. Forced to
Use Figures.

fF-oln The Tribune Correspondent
London. July Henri Bergson, the
French philosopher, some or whose
works have recently been put on the
index al the Vatican, has given an IN
terview to a correspondent OF "Ihe
Morning Post" in which Bergson ex-
plains his point of view TO some extent.
In response TO the question, why 90
Won make so much use of metaphor and
Smile in your arguments ne replied;
"Ahl that is one OF the things that
nv opponents reproach me with. Well,
il is like this: When began TO study
things for myself found that the way
in which philosophers had classifled
things was unsatisfactory. IL all de-
pends from what point of view you
classify. A butcher and an anatomist
divide a body differently. found that
philosophers had divided experience
rather in the manner % butchers than
in that Of anatomists. They had consid-
cred merely their own convenience m
stead of the nature of experience, and
their classification was in consequence
purely abstract. II was necessary, |
felt, to look at experience as whole
and detect the divisions into which 1t
fell naturally But there were no tech
meal terms in existence to express
these natural divisions of things. SO,
as | could not write new language, l
was obliged to use analogies and SIM
lies in order to express my meaning.
THAI is what makes the great differ
ence between my doctrine and that OF
other philosophers. My philosophy Is
concrete, it embraces all reality, but
reality exhibited always in particular
cases. Each time that | attack a new
problem | try to forget what | know
and treat II as something quite new.
My philosophy does not deal with all
possible worlds, but only with this &C
tual world that we know. For instance,
the system of Leibnitz would be equal
ly applicable to a totally different uni
verse, one in which newborn infants
would eat beefsteaks, or in which there
should be no animals. My system,
which is merely an attempt to under
stand one after the other the various
concrete problems Of our human eXpe-
rience. has and can have no relation to
anything except our definite experience
as it happens to be constituted"
Whereupon he was asked how he
came to look at things in this way.
The DAfculty of Time.
AT first | looked at things from the
point of view of mathematical physics
and very soon came on the difficulty
of time. This led me 10 turn my
thoughts to the interior world of con-
seriousness, and | wrote my first book,
Les Donnees Immediates de la Con-
science Then | came to the rela-
tions of consciousness and matter, and
/ wrote Matiere ct Memoire.' From
that | turned to the movement of life
as whole, and | wrote L'Evolution
Creatice.' All these books have been
dominated by one central idea, my
notion of real time as factor in ex
perience. what | call La Duree Reelle.'
And it is with experience that phil
osophy should deal; it should be the
least abstract of sciences. Other sci
ences such as biology or chemistry
are necessarily abstract, but philoso-
ply is, or should be always, concrete.
VOLTA tout mon secret que je mai
jamais ecrit: de serrer la realte de
pres"
Bergson is optimistic about the
philosophy of the present day. He
says:
"As far as the interest of the public
is concerned. | think it is very good,
and ! attribute this interest to the fact
that philosophy is becoming more con.
crete in its outlook. When people real
ize that philosophy is no dull abstrac.
ton, but on the contrary the most liv-
ing and concrete of studies, they are
bound to find it interesting As to the
actual state of philosophy itself, the
old materialistic rationalism that
placed the explanation of everything in
universal mechanism, taking no ac-
count of the factor of time, is dead.
The fact is that the intelligence needs
to be supplemented by another faculty
which | call intuition consider intui-
ton to be of an intellectual nature, al