jadenquest's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
4.5
janthonytucson's review against another edition
4.0
This book is brilliant and maddening at the same time. There are times when an entire reading session was spent on a page and a half and attempting to understand fully what was being communicated.
I have no background in Bergson before reading this and I believe this hindered my ability to fully grasp several of the concepts in the beginning but after slow analysis a coherent picture emerged.
I can also see where Deleuze obtained many of his insights that you see in his works such as in Capitalism and Schizophrenia for example. To be honest reading this after reading Deleuze and Guattari lessens the sheen of their brilliance a bit as you see the unoriginality in some of their main concepts that previous to reading this book I thought were original to the pair.
I have no background in Bergson before reading this and I believe this hindered my ability to fully grasp several of the concepts in the beginning but after slow analysis a coherent picture emerged.
I can also see where Deleuze obtained many of his insights that you see in his works such as in Capitalism and Schizophrenia for example. To be honest reading this after reading Deleuze and Guattari lessens the sheen of their brilliance a bit as you see the unoriginality in some of their main concepts that previous to reading this book I thought were original to the pair.
diegokmenendez's review against another edition
4.0
very interesting for understanding deleuze. i still like dialectics tho
breadandmushrooms's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
alexander0's review against another edition
4.0
This is a great read to pick up if you have just read some of Bergson. It puts some perspective on why what he was saying was monumental, and it further situates Deleuze's work in a more earnest way than a lot of other books Deleuze wrote about other philosophers.
Deleuze offers a lot of books in ways that births monstrosities of the philosophers he interprets, but here, I would not say that's exactly the case. Here it seems that Deleuze offers a particular interpretation of Bergson that simply disagrees with Bergson by taking advantage of an ambiguity in Bergsonian thought. Specifically, Deleuze points out that Bergsons' later works are not so quick to avoid differences in degree for differences in kind, and he offers a particular solution to this issue by schematizing Bergson in a particular way. While I like Deleuze's interpretation, and the work that this book offers in explaining Deleuze's own philosophy to his mentor, one who studies Bergson might easily say that Deleuze has stretched Bergson's intentions and assumptions for a personal need to explain an ambiguity in Deleuze's use of Bergson's work.
So, in total, I think this book is a great bridge between Deleuze and Bergson which enables me to connect aspects of Bergsonian duration to Deleuze in a way that is more well developed. This is not a through introduction to Bergson. This is a particularly personal interpretation for Deleuze's personal exposition.
Deleuze offers a lot of books in ways that births monstrosities of the philosophers he interprets, but here, I would not say that's exactly the case. Here it seems that Deleuze offers a particular interpretation of Bergson that simply disagrees with Bergson by taking advantage of an ambiguity in Bergsonian thought. Specifically, Deleuze points out that Bergsons' later works are not so quick to avoid differences in degree for differences in kind, and he offers a particular solution to this issue by schematizing Bergson in a particular way. While I like Deleuze's interpretation, and the work that this book offers in explaining Deleuze's own philosophy to his mentor, one who studies Bergson might easily say that Deleuze has stretched Bergson's intentions and assumptions for a personal need to explain an ambiguity in Deleuze's use of Bergson's work.
So, in total, I think this book is a great bridge between Deleuze and Bergson which enables me to connect aspects of Bergsonian duration to Deleuze in a way that is more well developed. This is not a through introduction to Bergson. This is a particularly personal interpretation for Deleuze's personal exposition.
More...