Freedom from Determinism (Time and Free Will)

Time and Free Will is perhaps Bergson’s most well-known text, even though his other works like Matter and Memory and Creative Evolution were ultimately seen as more philosophically decisive contributions. Time and Free Will provides the grounding for almost all of Bergson’s future works, despite his moves beyond, and away from, certain of its insights. Duration will emerge as the singular construct from within this text, with its major affirmation that thinking in time, instead of space, offers a superior way of doing philosophy. As noted in the introduction, though, Bergson’s reconceptualisation of freedom is exemplified in the free act. Bergson in this book, more than in his other works, offers both a reconceptualisation of freedom philosophically, but also a detailed analysis of the free act as its practical instantiation.