Intuition as the reward for intellectual effort

Abstract

In the paper the author undertakes the reflection on the category of intuition as the reward for intellectual effort on the ground of pedagogics. The consideration is based on the analysis of Henri Bergson’s thought, a French philosopher, usually included in the current of philosophy of life or philosophy of spirit. In his creative production Bergson linked up positivist trains of thoughts with spiritualist ones. Like Heraclitus and Plotinus, he was interested in change, singling it out as the constitutive feature of the reality. His philosophy, associated with such concepts as real duration (durée réelle) and life force (élan vital), significantly influenced the universal philosophy, especially in the first two decades of the twentieth century.

In the recent decades the interest in Bergson’s thought focused around the interpretations, given to it in the postmodernist spirit by Gilles Deleuze in his own philosophy, the significant part of which was inspired by the two chief categories of the Bergsonian philosophy, multiplicity and duration. However, the author doesn’t refer in his paper to philosophical interpretations, rather: he focuses on pedagogical questions. For it turns out that insofar as Bergson is often evoked by philosophers, he is almost completely omitted by pedagogists. The author reflects why the thought of Bergson, in which as weighty for education concepts, as freedom, creativity, progress, intellect or intuition, are explored, is still waiting for its translation into great pedagogical theories, which in turn would become the basis of fruitful practices? This question is all the more justified that Bergson himself, before he became a professor at Collège de France, had worked for seventeen years as a teacher of philosophy in state high schools. Four interesting lectures, addressed for pupils, remained as a part of his output from this period. Besides, as a member of the French Philosophical Society and French Academy, Bergson spoke out on pedagogical topics in public. Essential pedagogical issues appear also in his main philosophical books. Why then don’t we have the Bergsonian pedagogy? It’s the question that the author answers in the submitted paper.