ARTICOLI / 3 / Leonard Lawlor /
L’évolution du problème de la liberté is a course in the history of philosophy. While the historical expositions are fascinating, what makes the course important is the fact that these lectures try to translate the feeling of freedom into a theory. In fact, by studying these lectures, one sees that Bergson defines freedom in four ways. Overall, the essay constructs the logic that organizes these four definitions. It reconstructs Bergson’s theory of freedom in L’évolution du problème de la liberté. Bergson’s theory of freedom is first of all subjective; freedom is the feeling that we are the author of our own actions. The feeling is validated by the fact that consciousness was not made extinct by evolution. Once validated, then certain arguments have to be defeated: the argument for the excluded middle; this is the Megarian School argument. Then, the argument, exemplified by Kant, that the entire universe is subject to mathematical, mechanical necessity has to be defeated. In conjunction with this belief, the belief that the sciences are unified must be defeated. Finally, we must assert freedom as creation. In addition to Kant’s idea of universal, mathematical necessity, Kant saw something true in freedom: he saw that when we decide to act, we produce an action, which is unforeseeable.
