Vitalism, pragmatism, and the future of phenomenology

Megan Craig

pp. 271-296

in: Simmons, James E. Hackett (eds), Phenomenology for the twenty-first century, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016

Abstract

Megan Craig traces the historical and philosophical intersections between Henri Bergson and William James to illustrate the degree to which pragmatism and phenomenology share common roots. Their collaborative efforts helped each of them to conceive of life beyond the reductive dualities between the spiritual and the material, the ideal or the real. Though their works were singular and in many ways incomparable, both sensed the urgency of turning philosophy toward the pressing ethical/political problems of their time, spurring the discipline toward more inclusive, inventive, and activist research. Through their challenges to mechanism, use of imagery, and commitments to pluralism, they collectively laid the ground for a Pragmatic Phenomenology that has yet to be fully explored and whose broad implications have yet to be articulated.

Cited authors

Bergson Henri

James William

Craig Megan