Bergson's Critique of Kant in Time and Free Will

Book excerpt: Essay from the year 2007 in the subject Philosophy - Philosophy of the 19th Century, grade: 70% - First Class, University of Greenwich, course: Fundamental Texts of Western Philosophy, language: English, abstract: Henri Bergson's philosophy has proved to be revolutionary, with his idea of duration, first introduced in Time and Free Will, having significantly influenced subsequent thinkers of the twentieth century. The central theme of Time and Free Will - Essai Sur Les Données Immédiates De La Conscience, in its original French title - is that of freedom, a theme which is also heavily present in Immanuel Kant's philosophy. In this work, Bergson attempts to show that free will not only exists but that the arguments against it derive from a misunderstanding of the conception of time. His aim in this book is to clarify this misunderstanding and show how the idea of determinism is erroneous, to ultimately prove that absolute free will, in opposition to Kant's view, does exist. [...]