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:
-
Bathing God in an Atmosphere of Spatiality: Henri Bergson and Analytic Philosophy of Religion
College
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. My current work seeks to find 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 will be working on Bergson at the École normale supérieure in Paris.
Other Professional Activities
'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
'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
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 (forthcoming)
