Henri Bergson

Born in Paris on October 18, 1859, Henri Bergson became one of the most widely read philosophers of the early 20th century. He taught at the Collège de France and gained an international reputation for works such as Time and Free Will, Matter and Memory, and Creative Evolution.

Bergson is especially associated with the idea of duration—the felt, living flow of time as it is experienced, not just measured by clocks. He argued that reality, consciousness, and life are better understood through movement, change, and intuition than through rigid, mechanical analysis alone.

His writing drew a broad audience well beyond academic philosophy, and in 1927 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for the vitality of his ideas and the brilliance of their expression. Bergson died in Paris on January 4, 1941, but his work continued to shape later thinkers in philosophy, literature, and cultural theory.