Causality in Henri Bergson: formation of a thought in contact with the experimental sciences

• Grant number: 14/16474-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate (Direct)
• Start date: October 02, 2014
• End date: October 01, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - Epistemology
• Principal Investigator: Franklin Leopoldo e Silva
• Grantee: Marcos Daniel Camolezi
• Supervisor: Jean-François Braunstein
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France
• Associated to the scholarship: 13/22169-7 - Causality and its metaphysical counterparties in bergsonism: a complex epistemology of becoming, BP.DD

Abstract

With this project, I intend to conduct a one-year research under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Jean-François Braunstein (Université Paris 1 - Panthéon-Sorbonne) in order to deepen two key points of my work. Firstly, starting with, Matter and Memory, it is about understanding in detail the Bergson's epistemological relationship with psychologists of his time. More precisely, I shall have occasion to examine works, manuscripts, correspondence and courses of at least three exponents of scientific psychology in France at the turn of the nineteenth century, Joseph Delboeuf (1831-1896), Théodule Ribot (1839- 1916) and Pierre Janet (1859-1947). I plan to occupy myself on books and papers on the concept of attention, psychological heredity, psychological automatism and on textbooks that prescribe the method of scientific psychology. Secondly, it is about grasping the workpieces' analysis on evolutionary biology present in Creative Evolution. I intend to focus on works on heredity, biological variations and mutations by August Weismann (1834-1914), Hugo de Vries (1848-1935), Thomas Morgan (1866-1945), Theodor Eimer (1843-1898) and Yves Delage (1854-1920). I would like to have a precise comprehension of the reasons that led Bergson to concur with Lamarckism, "witch is able to admit an internal and psychological development principle" (EC, p. 78th), and overtake it "on a deeper sense, even more psychological”(Ibid.). From these two fronts, I seek to understand in detail how the philosopher ended up to limit the reach of the laws of nature - essentially a causal reach - when it relates to psychological and vital domains. (AU)