Morality in Evolution: The Moral Philosophy of Henri Bergson [Book Review]

Review of Metaphysics 27 (2):384-385 (1973)
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Abstract

This book is an appreciative exposition of Bergson’s Two Sources of Morality and Religion. It maintains that Bergson has a "revolutionary doctrine of the nature of morality." Although the author did not attempt to relate Bergson’s moral philosophy to the contemporary philosophical scene, she did fully display a base in which Bergson’s account can be evaluated in contemporary terms. Of particular interest is Bergson’s distinction between morality of obligation and morality of aspiration, or between static and dynamic morality. The former is a morality of social pressure, the latter a morality of exceptionable individuals who reveal to men "new and higher moral goals." Bergson centers his attention to the morality of aspiration on mystical experience as the "peak" emotional experience. Questions may be raised whether this account can appropriately apply to Oriental mystics, for example, Lao-Tzu and Chuang-Tzu and the Zen Buddhists who seem to give no role to emotion in their account of alleged mystical experiences. It is doubtful whether all paradigmatic individuals recognized by Bergson can be regarded as unequivocal expression of the emotion of love. This narrow account of Bergson on the morality of aspiration does not detract from the importance of at least some analogous distinction to focus on the standard-guiding function of paradigmatic individuals in various moral practices.

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