Henri Bergson
Analytic Philosophy of Religion
Philosophy of Time
God and Time
Biography:
Originally from the Czech Republic, I obtained my M.A. (First Class Hons.) in Divinity & Philosophy from the University of Aberdeen in 2016 with a dissertation exploring Henri Bergson's critique of Kant in Time and Free Will. In 2017 I completed my M.Phil. (Distinction) in Theology & Religious Studies at the University of Cambridge. My thesis attempted to fuse Stump and Kretzmann's (1981) now predominantly abandoned "atemporal duration" with Bergson's concept of la durée.
Subject area and speciality
- Philosophy of Religion specialists:
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Bathing God in an Atmosphere of Spatiality: Henri Bergson and Analytic Philosophy of Religion
Research Interests
My current research seeks to establish the relevance of Bergson's philosophy to the analytic debate about the relation between God and time, specifically its implications for the problem of divine foreknowledge and human free will. My aim is to create a groundwork for a "Bergsonian" philosophy of religion.
I am also interested in Bergson's potential contribution to the debate about religious language, the theological implications of many-valued logics and their relevance to the ontological status of the future. I am currently exploring ways to use the metaphysical framework of Bergson's philosophy to "dissolve" McTaggart's paradox for the unreality of time.
From September 2018 to June 2019 I worked on Bergson at the École normale supérieure in Paris.
I was the lead organiser of the international conference "Reassessing Bergson", which took place at Pembroke College on 11-12th September 2019. This event was sponsored by the Faculty of Divinity, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the British Society for the History of Philosophy, the Aristotelian Society, the Mind Association, and co-organised together with the Society for Philosophy of Time.
Teaching
Supervision:
Faculty of Divinity, Part IIA: B10: Philosophy of Religion: God, Freedom and the Soul
Faculty of Philosophy, Part IA: Paper 1: Metaphysics
Other Professional Activities
“Bergson, McTaggart, and the A- and B-series”, to be delivered at the Oxford Graduate Philosophy Conference, University of Oxford, UK, 16-17th November 2019
'Bergson, A-Theories, and "Spatialised Time"', to be delivered at the Space and Time: An Interdisciplinary Approach Conference, University of Vilnius, Lithuania, 26-28th September 2019
'Eternity and Ontological Idealism About Time', delivered at the God and Time III International Workshop, Society for Philosophy of Time, University of Lugano, Switzerland, 23-24th August 2019
'A Bergsonian Response to McTaggart's Paradox', delivered at The Now Now International Workshop, Society for Philosophy of Time, University of Siegen, Germany, 30th November 2018
'Henri Bergson and God's durée', delivered at the Summer School on The Nature of God: Personal and A-Personal Concepts of the Divine, Innsbruck, Austria, 4th August 2018
Collaborators
Key Publications
'Aquinas and Kripke on the Genealogy of Essential Properties', The Heythrop Journal (forthcoming)
'A Perpetual Present: Henri Bergson and Atemporal Duration'. European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 11, no. 3 (2019): 197-224.
Other Publications
“Filosofie léčí”, A2 — Kulturní čtrnáctideník, 2019 (co-authored with Jan Potoček)
