“Some Contemporary Reflections on Bergson’s Time and Free Will”, Essay on the immediate given of Consciousness (Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience - 1889)

By relying on a quotation by F.L. Pogson to be found in the introduction to his translation of Bergson’s Time and Free Will essay, in this paper I discuss Bergson’s theory of the relation between time and free will by analysing three key notion of his philosophy, namely that of creative power of nature, of memory and duration. In particular, I discuss a possible reinterpretation of his metaphysics by using the growing block model of reality, in what sense his anti-associationist philosophy of mind – by him identified with determinism – requires a finite duration of the present experience and then propose a reinterpretation of his conception of free action by using Kane’s contemporary approach to the problem.