One of the things I have been doing on my research leave is read (surprise!).  Currently I am reading Gary Gutting, French Philosophy in the Twentieth Century.  Besides just interesting, I hope to write one day a biblical theology of knowledge.  That interest has led to reading this and that, including some philosophy.  A few years ago I read Husserl, which led to reading several things by Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre.  The current chapter in Gutting's book is on Henri Bergson.  I thought the following quote was fascinating, and something of a good summary of the modern mood, and the modern notion of the self:

"for a conscious being, to exist is to change, to change is to develop [se murir], to develop is to go on creating oneself endlessly."

 (This is from Bergson's work L'evolution creatrice, and is quoted in Gutting, 66).

• Prev
• Next