Hirai, Y (ed.) Bergson's Scientific Metaphysics: Matter and Memory Today. Bloomsbury

 

publication date: 2023.05.18

https://www.amazon.com/Bergsons-Scientific-Metaphysics-Matter-Memory/dp/1350341975/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_ja_JP=%E3%82%AB%E3%82%BF%E3%82%AB%E3%83%8A&crid=3C2WN920INDN5&keywords=hirai+bergson&qid=1664877750&sprefix=hirai+bergson%2Caps%2C210&sr=8-1

 

This volume brings Bergson's key ideas from Matter and Memory into dialogue with contemporary themes on memory and time in science, across analytic and continental philosophy. Focusing specifically on the application of Bergson's ideas to cognitive science, the circuit between perception and memory receives full explication in 15 different essays.

By re-reading Bergson through a cognitive lens, the essays provide a series of alternative analytic interpretations to the standard continental approach to Bergson's oeuvre, without fully discounting either approach. The relevance of philosophies of mind and memory sit alongside the role of a metaphysics of time in exploring connections to psychology, biology, and physics. This eclecticism includes an exciting focus on numerous topics that are not given sufficient attention in extant studies of Bergson, including the precise nature of his ideas on dualism, memory, and ecological theories of perception, especially in relation to his contemporaries. Led by leading Bergson scholars from France and Japan, this book maps the rich terrain of Bergson's contemporary relevance alongside the historical context of his ideas.

 

Review

“With Bergson's Scientific Metaphysics, not only do we have an essential text in the ongoing return to Bergson, but an exhaustive analysis that puts Matter and Memory back where it should be – at the heart of the most important debates in the metaphysics of time and the philosophy of mind. ” ―John Ó Maoilearca, Professor of Philosophy, Kingston University, UK

“Through its 16 chapters, Bergson's Scientific Metaphysics shows how Bergson's thought, and in particular his difficult Matter and Memory, remain relevant to contemporary cognitive science. Bergson's Scientific Metaphysics confirms Bergson's claims that science reaches the absolute. Bergson himself would have been very proud of this book.” ―Leonard Lawlor, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Philosophy, Penn State University, USA

“This volume gathers important contributions by a large team of renowned international scholars to a renewed, contemporary understanding of Bergson's metaphysics of time and memory. It offers a variety of new perspectives on the real issues and problems, while persistent misunderstandings are cleared away. A crucial text for Bergson studies.” ―Mark Sinclair, Lecturer in Philosophy, Queen's University Belfast, UK

“Yasushi Hirai is a sharp and authoritative reader of Bergson's work. He has curated an enormously valuable collection of writings on Matter and Memory, rightly placing the attention on its fruitfulness in the most current reflections on memory and perception. A source of inspiration for all trying to think in duration.” ―Caterina Zanfi, Researcher and President of the Society of Friends of Bergson, Scientific Research National Centre, France

PBJ 2022 Symposium

In Search of Time and Free Will

                             

3, 4, 10 and 11 November 2022 Online

Registration required: https://forms.gle/xX8Srvz4K2WuwP7S7

Organized by Project Bergson in Japan (PBJ)

Supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) No. 19H01190

 

 

go to the event page. 

 

Remembering: analytic and Bergsonian Perspectives 2

 

We'll have the Analytic x Bergsonian memory workshop "Part 2" in Fukuoka.

 

Speakers include Kourken Michaelian, Shin Sakuragi, Ken-ichi Hara, Hisashi Fujita, Kengo Miyazono and Yasushi Hirai.

 

Language: English

Date: 2 Oct (Sun) 10:00-17:50 JST

Place: Room A701, Building A, Fukuoka University / Zoom

Organisers: Yasushi Hirai, Kourken Mikelian and Shin Sakuragi

 

Programme (all times are in JST):

10:00-10:50         Kourken Michaelian (Université Grenoble Alpes)
Memory without causation? Responding to recent causalist challenges to the simulation theory of memory

11:00-11:50         Ken-ichi Hara (Hokkaido University)
Bergson on Remembering as Action

[11:50-13:00        Lunch Break]

13:00-13:50         Shin Sakuragi (Shibaura Institute of Technology)
A new look on epistemic theory

14:00-14:50         Hisashi Fujita (Kyushu Sangyo University)
On Panoramic Memory: Analytic and Bergsonian Perspectives

[14:50-15:20        Café Break]

15:20-16:10         Yasushi Hirai (Fukuoka University)
A simulationist interpretation of Bergson's pure memory

16:20-17:10         Kengo Miyazono (Hokkaido University)
A Dilemma for Generationism about Imagination and Memory (co-authored with Uku Tooming)

17:20-17:50         General Discussion

 

Registration required: https://forms.gle/Zfpo5266qRDywjE59

PBJ Workshop

Novelty and Life Bergson's Philosophy of Evolution

 

In recent years, Bergson's Creative Evolution has received renewed attention at a global level. Mathilde Tahar, a Bergson scholar at the University of Toulouse, France, who has just completed her doctoral thesis on a contemporary re-reading of Creative Evolution, is visiting Japan as part of a research partnership between CNRS and Fukuoka University.

　In Japan, Tsubasa Yoneda has just published a new book, Living Matter: Henri Bergson and the Idea of Individuation of Life (Seidosha), based on his epochal doctoral thesis on Creative Evolution submitted to Osaka University.

　We are pleased to announce the following international workshop where two young scholars will thoroughly discuss the latest Bergsonian philosophy of life. The specific questioner will be Hirotaka Hiraga, who has also published a topical book on Bergson's mysticism this year. We look forward to your participation.

 

Saturday 18 June, 15:00-18:30 JST

Seminar Room AR, Fukuoka University Seminar House / Zoom

3-4-20 Ropponmatsu, Chuo-ku, Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture

 

Programme:

　　　　　 15:00-15:50 Presentation Mathilde Tahar, University of Toulouse

　　　　　 15:50-16:00 Discussion part 1

　　　　　 16:10-17:00 Presentation Tsubasa Yoneda, Osaka University

　　　　　 17:00-17:10 Discussion part 2

　　　　　 17:20-17:50 Specific questions Hirotaka Hiraga, Rikkyo University

　　　　　 18:00-18:30 Plenary discussion

 

Organisers: Yasushi Hirai (Fukuoka University), Hisashi Fujita (Kyushu Sangyo University)

Language: English, no interpreters available.

Registration required. https://forms.gle/PTd6DRMdVhfs2AnZ6

45th Husserl Abend Lecture

The Élan Vital as a Tendency: Causality in Evolution beyond Aristotelian Modalities

 

Speaker: Mathilde Tahar (Université de Toulouse)

 

Discussants: Ken-ichi Hara (Hokkaido University) and Mayuko Nakahara (Sophia University)

 

Zoom : https://bit.ly/3xeojjd

Contact: tohoku.uni.philosophy.ethics_at_gmail.com

 

Supported by JSPS, PBJ (Project Bergson in Japan) and CNRS

PBJ WORKSHOP

DÉJÀ-VU AND MEMORY

Bergson and Modern Philosophy of Memory

 

Talk : "A neo-Bergsonian view about déjà-vu" by Denis Perrin (Université Grenoble Alps / Centre for Philosophy of Memory)

    Respondent 1: Ken'ichi Hara (Hokkaido University)

    Respondent 2: Yasushi Hirai (Fukuoka University)

 

Date: September 12, 2021, 17:00-18:30 (JST)

Place: Zoom (registration required)

 

Organised by PBJ (Project Bergson in Japan) and Berutetsuken.

Supported by Société Franco-Japonaise de la Philosophie

 

Registration: https://forms.gle/XTWXe2MwRR6pVbzQ9

 

A cross-boundary exchange that aims to reboot Bergson's theory of déjà-vu, with reference to contemporary physiological and philosophical views on déjà-vécu and déjà-vu.

 

La conférence et les correspondances avec les répondants seront en anglais, mais vous pouvez également utiliser le français dans les questions. 

The displayed time in CET is NOT of summertime. Please re-calculate your own time based on JST time. Sorry for the confusion!

 

International Workshop

    Time, Freedom, and Creativity: Bergsonian Perspectives

 

    Dates: July 29, 30.

    CET: 9:00-11:00, 13:00-15:00

    JST: 17:00-19:00, 21:00-23:00. 

    Place: Zoom, virtually London (Registeration Required)

 

    Organizers: Project Bergson in Japan and Barry Dainton

    Speakers: Barry Dainton, Hisashi Fujita, Yasushi Hirai, Kaoru Kamiyama, Anne Sophie Meincke, Tatsuya Murayama, Mark Sinclair, and Yaron Wolf.

 (Mark Sinclair's talk is cancelled.)

 

Register here: https://forms.gle/wNUS51Ka637sAfEG8

 

Programme

 

THURSDAY 29

 

17:00-19:00 (JST), Chair: Tatsuya Murayama

Barry Dainton, Unity and Irreducibility

Yasushi Hirai, Bergson on Causality: A Generative Account on the Sense of Agency

 

21:00-23:00 (JST), Chair: Hisashi Fujita

Kaoru Kamiyama, Bergson on Sympathy

 

Anne Sophie Meincke, With Bergson Towards a New Bio-Processual

Metaphysics of Free Will - or: Why Contemporary Philosophers of Free

Will Ought to Read Bergson

 

 

FRIDAY 30

 

17:00-19:00 (JST), Chair: Barry Dainton

Yaron Wolf, Coinciding with Time's Flow: Intuition and the Experience of Time

Hisashi Fujita, On Personality: Analytical and Bergsonian Approaches

 

21:00-23:00 (JST), Chair: Yasushi Hirai

Tatsuya Murayama, Bergson on the Indefinability of Freedom

 

 

General Discussion

The report of the event is here:

https://bergson.hypotheses.org/1921

NEW!

For a review of the event Bergsonian « duration » and its mathematical ranges, click here.

International Workshop

    Time, Freedom, and Creativity: Bergsonian Perspectives

 

    Dates: March 16, 17.

    Place: University of Liverpool in London (33 Finsbury Square, London

    https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/london/contact/)

    Organizers: Project Bergson in Japan and Barry Dainton

    Speakers: Barry Dainton, Hisashi Fujita, Yasushi Hirai, Kaoru

    Kamiyama, Anne Sophie Meincke, Tatsuya Murayama, Mark Sinclair, and

    Yaron Wolf.

 

International Workshop

Remembering: Analytic and Bergsonian Approaches 

 

    One of the objectives of the PBJ (Project Bergson in Japan) is to attempt to “reboot” Bergsonian inspirations in the current philosophical context by way of interdisciplinary collaboration with different traditions such as modern analytic philosophy and the science of consciousness.
    Co-organized with the CPM (Centre for Philosophy of Memory), which is leading a rapidly growing analytical philosophy of memory, this workshop aims to expand the theoretical range of Bergson's philosophy of memory through to the latest debate on this topic via productive dialogue across the different traditions.

    • Dates：Octobre 28, 29.
    • Place：University of Grenoble Alpes
    • Organizers：Yasushi Hirai (Project Bergson in Japan, Fukuoka University), Kourken Michaelian (Centre for Philosophy of Memory,  Université Grenoble Alpes)
    • NEW Keynote Added: Barry Dainton (University of Liverpool) 
    • See also the Centre for Philosophy of Memory site.
    • Review: https://bergson.hypotheses.org/1410

International Workshop
Physical Time, Biological Time: Bergsonism Today
Temps physique, temps biologique : actualité du bergsonisme

  • Co-organized by PHISCIVI and PBJ
  • Dates: Octobre 24, 25.
  • Place: Université de Toulouse 2 – Jean Jaurès
  • Oragnizers / Organisateurs : Elie During et Paul-Antoine Miquel
  • Program（PDF）available here。

« Durée » bergsonienne et ses portées mathématiques

Bergsonian « duration » and its mathematical ranges

  • 29 Dimanche, Septembre
  • Université de Tokyo, Hongo Campus Faculty of Law&Letters, Bldg. 1 Salle215
  • Sous la responsabilité de Takuya Nagano
  • Ryusuke Okajima (Université de Keio), Sébastien Miravète (Université de Toulouse Jean-Jaurès (France)), The non-local character of duration as a factor of indeterminacy Élie During (Université Paris Nanterre (France)), Takuya Nagano (Kumamoto National Institute of Technology).
  • Langues: français et anglais.
  • Programme (PDF).
  • For a review of the event, click here.

Events

  • « Durée » bergsonienne et ses portées mathématiques
    Bergsonian « duration » and its mathematical ranges
    • 29 Dimanche, Septembre
    • Université de Tokyo, Hongo Campus Faculty of Law&Letters, Bldg. 1 Salle215
    • Sous la responsabilité de Takuya Nagano
    • Ryusuke Okajima (Université de Keio), Sébastien Miravète (Université de Toulouse Jean-Jaurès (France)), The non-local character of duration as a factor of indeterminacy Élie During (Université Paris Nanterre (France)), Takuya Nagano (Kumamoto National Institute of Technology).
    • Langues: français et anglais.
    • Programme (PDF).
  • Temps physique, temps biologique : actualité du bergsonisme
    • Co-organised by PHISCIVI and PBJ
    • Dates：Octobre 24, 25.
    • Place：University of Toulouse
    • Direction：Paul-Antoine Miquel, Elie During
    • Keynote Speakers：Thierry Hoquet, Yasushi Hirai, Barry Dainton, Yukio-Pegio Gunji, Giuseppe Longo、Pierre Henri Gouhion.
  • Remembering: Analytic and Bergsonian Approaches (Franco-Japanese workshop)
    • Co-organised by CPM（Centre for Philosophy of Memory) and PBJ（Project Bergson in Japan）
    • Dates：Octobre 28, 29.
    • Place：University of Grenoble Alpes
    • Direction：Yasushi Hirai (PBJ, Fukuoka University), Kourken Michaelian (CPM,  Université Grenoble Alpes)
    • Speakers：
    • See also the Centre for Philosophy of Memory site.

- 2017 Rebooting Matter and Memory

- 2016 Diagnoses of Matter and Memory

- 2015 The Anatomy of Matter and Memory

"NOUS, BERGSONIENS : MANIFESTE DE KYOTO (2015)" by Elie During (Université Paris Ouest Nanterre) and Paul-Antoine Miquel (Université Toulouse 2)

All the proceedings have been edited and published in Japanese. Go to Books page.

Some of key conceptions (from Hirai's presentation)

This study is supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) under Grant No. 15H03154 and No. 19H01190 from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).

PBJ (Project Bergson in Japan) 2015-2017 : Matter and Memory

研究代表者：平井 靖史（福岡大学人文学部 教授）

Director: Yasushi Hirai (Professor, Fukuoka University, Japan)

email: hiraiya at fukuoka-u.ac.jp