Bergson, truth-making, and the retrograde movement of the true
pp. 501-511
in: Anne Reboul (ed), Mind, values, and metaphysics I, Berlin, Springer, 2014Abstract
Henri Bergson (1859–1941) was one of the main exponents of evolutionary thinking in the latter nineteenth and early twentieth century. He gave that kind of thinking an unprecedented metaphysical turn. In consequence of his versatility, he also encountered the notion of truth-making, which he connected with his ever-present concerns about time and duration. Eager to stress the dimension of radical change and of novelty in the nature of things, he rejected (in one form) what he called "the retrograde movement of the true" while championing it—with undeniable delight in the air of paradox—in a derivative form. In this chapter, I explain what "the retrograde movement of the true" consists of—in its two forms.
