Introduction to Metaphysics

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Introduction to Metaphysics (Introduction à la Métaphysique) is a 1903 essay by Henri Bergson that explores the concept of reality. For Bergson, reality occurs not in a series of discrete states but as a process similar to that described by the Greek philosopher Heraclitus. Reality is fluid and cannot completely understood through reductionistic analysis, which he said "implies that we go around an object", gaining knowledge from various perspectives which are relative. Instead, reality can be grasped absolutely only through intuition, which Bergson expressed as "entering into" the object.

[edit] Publication data

• Henri Bergson. An Introduction to Metaphysics (1903). Hackett Publishing Company 1999: ISBN 0-87220-474-X

The essay is also contained in the collection:

• The Creative Mind: An Introduction to Metaphysics 1923. Citadel Press 1992: ISBN 0-8065-0421-8