ARTICOLI / 13 / Anthony Feneuil /
The ecstasy and its echo. Two aspects of Bergson’s theory of mysticism
This article is devoted to displaying two meanings of the notion of «extasis» in Bergson’s Two Sources of Morality and Religion. In a first sense, as a part of Bergson’s theory of mysticism, extasis is to be understood as a purely negative concept referring to a pathological moment of mystical experience. But in a second sense, and because Bergson’s theory of mysticism cannot be separated from a theory of how mysticism changes philosophical knowledge, extasis takes a more positive meaning. Extasis constitutes one of the key concepts necessary to grasp Bergson’s new epistemology of philosophy. Philosophical knowledge, as modified by taking into account mystical experience, can even be considered grounded in some kind of extasis. This article draws a few consequences of this claim.
