Durée et simultanéité: á propos de la théorie d'Einstein

Abstract

WHEN M. Bergson published the original edition of this book last year, he refused to allow its translation because he regarded the work as tentative. It was the result of a special study, which had required a setting aside of purely philosophical research in order to concentrate on mathematical problems. The effect of his intervention in the relativist controversy, which he recognised to be vital in its bearing on the future of mathematics and metaphysics, could not be foreseen. He has now published a second edition, and while he has not found it necessary to revise or alter or modify the first, he has added three appendices, which not only greatly enhance the value, but also enable him in a most striking way to reconcile, and bring into harmony, his theory of time as fundamental reality, l'etoffe meme de l'univers (“il n'y a pas d'etoffe plus resistante ni plus substantielle”), with the principle of relativity, according to which time is a variable coefficient, entering with variable spatial coefficients into infinite systems of reference.

Durée et simultanéité: á propos de la théorie d'Einstein.

Par Henri Bergson. (Bibliothèque de Philosophie contemporaine.) Deuxième èdition, augmentée. Pp. x + 289. (Paris: Félix Alcan, 1923.) 8 francs net.