Mark Sinclair, Bergson

Mark Sinclair's Bergson follows the preset format for the series ‘Routledge Philosophers’: Each chapter explicates a particular concept or idea in the philosopher under consideration, and within each chapter, there is a summary at the end and a suggestion for further reading. The book opens with a biography and closes with Bergson's legacy. There is also a helpful glossary of Bergson terms at the end. The chapter explications in Bergson are clear and well-argued. Sinclair takes full advantage of the Bergson courses that have been recently published (but not yet available in English). Moreover, each chapter demonstrates that Sinclair has deep and broad knowledge of the history of philosophy (and in particular nineteenth-century French philosophy). They also demonstrate his knowledge of both the analytic and ‘continental’ traditions in philosophy. Sinclair's knowledge of Bergson scholarship is comprehensive. The summaries that end each chapter are clear and precise. Finally, if the reader explores any of the suggested ‘further readings’, he or she will be rewarded with a more profound understanding of Bergson's thought. Working within this format, Sinclair demonstrates that Bergson's thought is innovative and still relevant to contemporary philosophy. Bergson provides extra force for the Bergson revitalization that has been going on for the last 25 years or so.

Art history · Biography · Continental philosophy · Epistemology · Glossary · Reading (process) · Scholarship · Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology · History · History of Science and Natural History · Law · Philosophical and Theoretical Analysis · Philosophy