Abstract
Bergson published his last major work The Two Sources of Morality and Religion (1932). This book outlines a basis for a morality that is not restricted to specific regions, cultures or communities. This next chapter gives an account of the relevance of Bergson’s thought for a diagnosis of the present. Rather than seeking to give an account of the history of technology, then the relevance of Bergson’s works for its analysis, to the extrapolate to the present, I have structured this chapter with a specific focus on the nature of the relation between humanity and technology. Bergson’s The Two Sources of Morality and Religion (1932) forms only an introduction to what would become modern philosophy of technology. Seen the relevance of many authors from this field and their direct or indirect relation to Bergson, this chapter will discuss the relation between humanity and technology through the eyes of a broad tradition in philosophy, rather than merely those of Bergson.
Mankind lies groaning, half-crushed beneath the weight of its own progress. Men do not sufficiently realize that their future is in their own hands. Theirs is the task of determining first of all whether they want to go on living or not. Theirs the responsibility, then, for deciding if they want merely to live, or intend to make just the extra effort required for fulfilling, even on their refractory planet, the essential function of the universe, which is a machine for the making of gods
–Henri Bergson, The Two Sources of Morality and Religion
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
This horn was taken from the head of Amalthea, the goat that nourished Zeus when he was hidden in his infancy, and as the goat provided nourishment for the God, the horn provided produce (in the shape of nuts, fruits, vegetables and flowers) for mankind. This symbol that originally applied to agriculture gradually came to refer to any form of abundance or prosperity.
- 2.
In Technics and Time 1: the Fault of Epimetheus (1998), Bernard Stiegler takes this myth as central for understanding technology. In this chapter I will reiterate this myth.
- 3.
Here, again in spite of himself, Bergson echoes an observation already made by Immanuel Kant: in his oeuvre, Kant described three different uses of reason: technical, pragmatic, and moral. They inform respectively skill, prudence, and morality. In his ‘Conjectural beginnings of human history’ (1786) Kant describes their manifestation as the beginning of civilisation. Speculating that the development stage of agricultural technologies necessitated a different role responsibility to earlier stages of development such as nomadic shepherds, moral reasoning presupposes pragmatic reasoning (a notion of prudence), which in its turn presupposes technical reasoning (skill, ability). So also for Kant, technology precedes and is preconditional to morality.
- 4.
These views were the first steps towards an organological philosophy, proponents of which include Georges Canguilhem and, more recently, Bernard Stiegler.
- 5.
Here, it should be taken into account that strong arguments exist in theoretical debates over the nature of ethics, that an evolutionary ethics is, strictly speaking, impossible. The discussions in question relate to both David Hume’s A Treatise on Human Nature, and G.E. Moore’s Principia Ethica (1903).
- 6.
- 7.
And if the universe is infinite, it becomes quite likely there is a place where we can witness such processes.
- 8.
In terms of the similarities and differences between Benjamin and Bergson: he agrees with Bergson that the structure of memory should inform philosophy’s account of experience. But Benjamin was also critical of Bergson’s tendency to generalise duration beyond and above historical experience (see Benjamin 1977 [1939]).
- 9.
To this we might add the term technosphere: the collective systems of manmade technological artefacts, including digital networks as they emerged from the last quarter of the twentieth century (from the Greek τέχνη; that what is made).
- 10.
Lithogenesis: birth from stone, in reference to the parallel evolution of complexity of stone artefacts and the size of the content of our skulls.
- 11.
And, to reiterate the societal and religious stake of the discussion at the time and before that time, not a product of preset creation.
- 12.
Beavers building dams, apes using sticks to angle for ants, parakeets using strips of paper to adorn their tail feathers, crows timing traffic lights to crack nuts under the tires of passing cars.
- 13.
Simondon was justified in his criticism of this limitation of Bergson’s notion of duration; concerning Benjamin’s critique, see footnote 107.
Literature
Ansell-Pearson, K. (2005). The reality of the virtual: Bergson and Deleuze. MLN, 120(5), 1112–1127, (16 pages), Comparative Literature Issue (Dec., 2005).
Bachelard, G. (1986 [1938]). The formation of the scientific mind: A contribution to a psychoanalysis of objective knowledge. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Banerji, D. (2015). Individuation, cosmogenesis and technology: Sri Aurobindo and Gilbert Simondon. Integral Review, 11, 1. See: http://integral-review.org/backissue/vol-11-no-1-feb-2015/.
Barry, A., & Maslin, M. (2016). The politics of the anthropocene: A dialogue. Geo: Geography and Environment, 3(2).
Benjamin, W. (1968 [1935]). Hannah Arendt (ed.). Illuminations [1940], Trans. Harry Zohn (London: Fontana, 1977); The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction. In: Illuminations. London: Fontana; On some motifs on Baudelaire.
Bergson, H. (1988 [1896]). Matter and memory. Translated bys N. M. Paul & W. S. Palmer. New York: Zone Books.
Bergson, H. (1911 [1907]). Creative evolution. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
Bergson, H. (1927a). Banquet speech. In H. Frenz (Ed.), Nobel Lectures, Literature 1901–1967. Amsterdam: Elsevier Publishing Company.
Bergson, H. (1927c). Lettre à Léon Brunschvicg, 22 février 1927. Journal des Débats, 28 février 1927.
Bergson, H. (1977 [1932]). The Two Sources of Morality and Religion (trans. Audra, R. A., Brereton, C.). Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
Canguilhem, G. (1947). Note sur la situation faite en France à la philosophie biologique. Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale, 52(3), 322–332.
Cath, A. (2018). Solace in complexity, a fundamental empirical thought experiment. Doctoral thesis. Vianen: Uitgeverij ProefschriftMaken.
Chabot, P. (2013). The philosophy of Simondon: Between technology and individuation (trans. Krefetz, A., Kirkpatrick, G.). London/New York: Bloomsbury Academic.
Chan, P. (1989). A Guide to Bonsai. London: Bracken Books.
Crutzen, P. J. (2002). Geology of mankind. Nature, 415–423.
Crutzen, P. J., & Stoermer, E. F. (2000). The Anthropocene. Global Change Newsletter, 41, 17.
Deleuze, G. (1991 [1966]). Bergsonism (trans. Tomlinson, H., Habberjam, B.). New York: Zone Books.
Derrida, J. (1981). Dissemination (trans. Johnson, B.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Feuerbach, L. 1881 [1848 [1841]]). Das Wesen des Christenthums. 2nd edition, 1848 (online). (in English) The Essence of Christianity (1854) (trans. Evans, M.). St. Mary s. 2nd edition, 1881. Oxford.
Franssen, T. M. (2017). Prometheus Redivivus. The mythological roots of transhumanism. In E. Sampanikou (Ed.), Audiovisual Posthumanism (pp. 27–49). Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Jankélévitch, V. (2008 [1931]). Henri Bergson. Paris: Presses universitaires de France.
Jones, D. (2007). Review: The Eleatic Bergson; reviewed work: Thinking in time: An introduction to Henri Bergson by Suzanne Guerlac. Diacritics, 37(1), 21–31.
Kant, I. (2007 [1786]). Conjectural beginning of human history. In Anthropology, history, and education. Cambridge University Press.
Kurzweil, R. (2005). The singularity is near. New York: Penguin Group.
Landeweerd, L. (2009). Reconstructing the self: Issues of choice, fate and justification in the eugenics debate. Maastricht: Datawyse.
Landeweerd, L. (2018). Icarus’ flight. Essay for the opening of the academic year at iArts Maastricht. http://www.iartsmaastricht.com/uploads/images/2018-2019/public%20reading%20opening%20day%20iArts%202018%20(1).pdf
Lazzarato, M. (2007). Machines to crystallize time: Bergson. Theory Culture & Society, 24(6), 93–122.
Lemmens, P., & Hui, Y. (2017). Reframing the Technosphere: Peter Sloterdijk and Bernard Stiegler’s Anthropotechnological diagnoses of the Anthropocene. Krisis Journal for Contemporary Philosophy.
Lewis, S. L., & Maslin, M. A. (2015a). A transparent framework for defining the Anthropocene epoch. The Anthropocene Review, 2(2), 128–146.
Lewis, S. L., & Maslin, M. A. (2015b). Defining the anthropocene. Nature, 519(7542), 171–180.
Marrati, P. (2010). The natural cyborg: The stakes of Bergson’s philosophy of evolution. The Southern Journal of Philosophy, 48(2010), 15.
Mcneill, J. R. (2014). The great acceleration: An environmental history of the Anthropocene since 1945. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Nietzsche, F. (1999 [1873]). On truth and lies in a nonmoral sense. In Philosophy and truth: Selections from Nietzsche's notebooks of the early 1870's (trans. Breazeale, D.). New York: Amherst.
Nietzsche, F. (1968 [1885-1892]). Thus spoke Zarathustra. Walter Kaufmann (trans.). In The portable Nietzsche. New York: Viking Press.
Popper, K. R. (1966 [1945]). The open society and its enemies, 2 vols (5th ed.). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd.
Prigogine, I., & Stengers, I. (1997). The end of certainty: Time, Chaos and the new Laws of nature. New York: The Free Press.
Rand, A. (1992 [1957]). Atlas shrugged (35th anniversary ed.). New York: Dutton.
Schopenhauer, A. (1958 [1818]). The world as will and representation volume I (trans: Payne, E.F.J.). Mineola: Dover Publications.
Seuss, E. (1875). Die Entstehung Der Alpen. Vienna: W. Braunmuller.
Sloterdijk, P. (2013 [2009]). You must change your life. Malden, MA: Polity Press.
Stiegler, B. (1998). Technics and time, 1: The fault of Epimetheus (trans: Beardsworth, R., Collins, G.). Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Stiegler, B. (2012). Relational ecology and the digital pharmakon. Culture Machine, 13, 1–19.
Teilhard de Chardin, P. (1966 [1923]). The Vision of the Past (trans. J.M. Cohen). London: Collins.
Vinge, V. (1993). The coming technological singularity: How to survive in the post human era. https://edoras.sdsu.edu/~vinge/misc/singularity.html. Accessed 10 Oct 2019.
Wong, A. (2014). Life and technology in Bergson’s creative evolution. http://hdl.handle.net/2268/186268. Accessed 13 Oct 2019.
Zwart, H. (2017). The oblique perspective: Philosophical diagnostics of contemporary life sciences research. Life Sciences, Society and Policy, 13, 4. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40504-017-0047-9.
Zwart, H., Landeweerd, L., & van Rooij, A. (2014). Adapt or perish? Assessing the recent shift in the European research funding arena from ELSA to RRI. Life Sciences, Society and Policy, 10, 11.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Landeweerd, L. (2021). To Become Gods, or to Perish in the Process…. In: Time, Life & Memory. Library of Ethics and Applied Philosophy, vol 38. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56853-5_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56853-5_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-56852-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-56853-5
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)