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Life
He argued that the time we live is nothing like the time we measure, and that philosophy had confused the two for two thousand years.
He began as a medical student, became a psychologist, and ended as a philosopher, because the questions kept escaping the disciplines.
Connection
Henri Bergson mutual recognition across the Atlantic William James — James read Bergson with delight and said his work removed obstacles he had struggled with for years; the admiration ran both ways, and the two corresponded warmly.
Ideas
Words
“To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.”
“The present moment that passes does not wait on the moment to come. It goes by itself, and that suffices.”
“Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.”
“The greatest use of a life is to spend it on something that will outlast it.”
Key Moments
1927
Nobel Prize in Literature
Winter 1940: 41
Refuses exemption from anti-Jewish laws
1876
Teaches psychology and philosophy at Harvard
1901-02
Gifford Lectures at Edinburgh
Works
Creative Evolution
The Varieties of Religious Experience