The twofold aspect of language in the philosophy of Henri Bergson

Postgraduate Thesis uoadl:2814506 909 Read counter

Unit:
Κατεύθυνση Ιστορίας της Φιλοσοφίας
Library of the School of Philosophy
Deposit date:
2018-10-28
Year:
2018
Author:
Koutsopetra Evdokia
Supervisors info:
Ιωάννης Πρελορέντζος, Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Φ.Π.Ψ., Πανεπιστήμιο Ιωαννίνων
Γεώργιος Αραμπατζής, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Φ.Π.Ψ., Φιλοσοφική Σχολή ΕΚΠΑ
Ευάγγελος Δ. Πρωτοπαπαδάκης, Επίκουρος Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Φ.Π.Ψ., Φιλοσοφική Σχολή ΕΚΠΑ
Original Title:
Η διττή διάσταση της γλώσσας στη φιλοσοφία του Henri Bergson
Languages:
Greek
Translated title:
The twofold aspect of language in the philosophy of Henri Bergson
Summary:
Perhaps the greatest philosopher who has studied Bergson’s work, Deleuze, remarks that the French philosopher approaches language the same way he analyzes memory, for which recognizes ontological status and which forms the subject of discuss of his second major work, Matter and Memory (1896); in this work he examines the issue of relation between matter and spirit, whose existence is proven , according to him, through the effect of memory (on the basis of the fundamental disctintion of two types of memory).
On the other hand, Bergson’s work in its totality is full of references to the language, yet without the existence of a chapter or part of a book or an article of his, in which the philosopher does discuss strictly the nature, the function, the use and the utility of the language, as it would be expected for a matter, which pertains to his metaphysical approach.
From the above, arise two queries: in what way Bergson approaches language and why does he not dedicate to this approach a discrete analysis in view of the fact that language is related to his analyses about ontology?
In the present dissertation we work on the first of the queries and we attempt to reconstruct critically Bergson’s arguments about the issue. First of all, we refer to the basic points that we believe that the French philosopher focuses in the respect of his critic to the language: to the distinction between two kinds of multiplicity (quantitative-numeric and qualitative), which language cannot express efficiently due to the use of symbols, to the solidification of reality on behalf of the language and finally to the abstraction and generalization, which characterize language but, yet, which oppose to the more accurate expression of reality, whose one of the basic elements is fluidity and uniqueness.
In the second chapter, commencing by the prominent bergsonian view about homo faber, in Creative Evolution (1907), we attempt to show that language, although places the aforementioned obstacles, is inherently characterized by movement, which, according to the bergsonian meaning of duration, is governed by creativity. We examine this fundamental feature of language, via the reference of Bergson’s analyses about comedy and tragedy, in The Laughter (1900), which lead us to realize the existence of virtual and actual being, as the two dimensions or aspects of reality.
The third chapter is based on the essential role of this discrimination so as to highlight the necessity of forming fluid concepts, according Bergson, which can express the fluid nature of reality, and substantiate the ontological foundation of language on the model of memory, to whose ontological foundation ( as already mentioned) Bergson has dedicated his second major work.
Main subject category:
Philosophy - Psychology
Keywords:
language, duration, memory, intuition, creativity, obstacle, fluid concepts, expression, suggestion, ontology
Index:
No
Number of index pages:
0
Contains images:
No
Number of references:
49
Number of pages:
107
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