Time and Life: Bergson and Physics

Throughout his oeuvre, Bergson addressed a tenacious problem in the conceptualisation of time in the exact sciences. In his view, approaches in classical mechanics attempted to ‘think’ the universe outside of time. Classical mechanics did embrace a concept of time, but it was a concept of time as a mechanical process; time reduced to spatiality. With this concept, events are supposed to enfold as if occurring in a linear process. This view on time, according to Bergson, was flawed. But also more recent approaches to the issue of time had their weaknesses. This chapter discusses the dialogue between Bergson and physics