The expression of the ineffable: duration, space and the problem of freedom in the Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience of Bergson

• Grant number: 19/10074-8
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Effective date (Start): November 01, 2019
• Effective date (End): April 30, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal researcher: Franklin Leopoldo e Silva
• Grantee: Dani Barki Minkovicius
• Home Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The present study intends to study a fundamental problem of the philosophy of Henri Bergson: the problem of the expression of duration. This, however, will be treated as it was developed in the inaugural work of the philosopher, namely, the Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience. There, the central question is the problem of freedom. Thus, dealing with the problem of the expression of duration via Essai will be dealing with the problem of freedom; or, still, the problem of freedom will be treated as a problem of expression of duration. The study that is sought here must justify and develop these points: what is the problem of freedom; why and how to treat it as a problem of expression of duration; what is the problem of the expression of duration. Before these points, or rather, constitutive of these points, are still the questions: what is or how to deal with a "problem", according to Bergson's philosophy; what means each term of the problems placed. These questions are intermingled, insofar as one understands that to return to them allows one to undertake the philosophical method which Bergson himself proposes. Thus, the present study intends to apply the Bergsonian method in the critical reading of the Essai in order to put and solve the problem of the expression of duration, in the same way as the problem of freedom. In this sense, finally, Bergsonian notions such as duration and space will reveal their originality and relevance. (AU)