Aristotle and Bergson on Time

Abstract

Both in Being and Time and Basic Problems of Phenomenology Heidegger criticized Bergson’s views on time by affirming that he misunderstood Aristotle’s traditional exposition from Physics IV. In this paper I will examine Bergson’s distinction between durée and the time of physics to show its relationship with Aristotle’s exposition. I will defend Bergson’s view on time by showing that it does not criticise Aristotle’s, as Heidegger says, but rather develops a different approach that goes beyond the Aristotelian paradigm. For this purpose, I will briefly analyze Aristotle’s texts of the Physics and Bergson’s views on time in his Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness (Essai), Creative Evolution (EC) and Duration and Simultaneity (DS). It will be also helpful to make some remarks on the recently published courses he gave in the Collège de France.