The Scientific Moment of the Bergsonian Method

Abstract

This paper explores the role of scientific knowledge from the perspective of Henri Bergson’s philosophical method. For Bergson, scientific knowledge plays a key part in philosophy. He presents his philosophical method as having two moments, the first of which is scientific. The scientific moment means exploring existing scientific studies on the subject matter at hand, before engaging in what Bergson calls a “properly philosophical” moment. Following Bergson’s criticism of positivism, we can ask: Are the facts left purely in the hands of the sciences? Are they simply taken as given without any contribution from philosophy? And how is the scientific moment connected to the second and truly philosophical moment of the methodology? I argue that the role of scientific knowledge can be best captured with the help of Bergson’s concept of lines of facts (lignes de faits). The scientific moment forms the necessary positive basis of any philosophical study, and the “lines of facts” illustrate the philosophical contribution to the scientific facts that form it.