Henri Bergson (1859-1941): French philosopher, awarded Nobel Prize for Literature in 1927; argued that the intuition is deeper than the intellect; his works 'Creative Evolution' (1907) and 'Matter and Memory' (1896) attempted to integrate the findings of biological science with a theory of consciousness; concept of 'élan vital' ('creative impulse' or 'living energy'); offered an interpretation of consciousness as existing on two levels, the first to be reached by deep introspection, the second an external projection of the first. The deeper self is the seat of creative becoming and of free will. Bergson also suggested that the traditional association between the model of space and time is incoherent. Unlike space, time is not measurable by objective standard.

Quotations by Henri Bergson:
"To perceive means to immobilize . . . we seize, in the act of perception, something which outruns perception itself" and "An absolute can only be given in an intuition, while all the rest has to do with analysis. We call intuition here the sympathy by which one is transported into the interior of an object in order to coincide with what there is unique and consequently inexpressible in it. Analysis, on the contrary, is the operation which reduces the object to elements already known."

Other Links:
Nobel e-Museum: Henri Bergson

Snippets:
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Writer: André Breton (1896-1966): French Surrealist. Nadja (1928)
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Photographer: Gisele Freund (1908-2000): French, Portraits of Paris Writers.
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Video: Tesla - Master of Lightning (2000), PBS Video: good summary of Tesla's life and work
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CD: Minus 8: Elysian Fields (2000): Nu Jazz
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