Vestiges of a Philosophy
Matter, the Meta-Spiritual, and the Forgotten Bergson
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc
Published:21st Dec '22
Should be back in stock very soon
Vestiges of a Philosophy: Matter, the Meta-Spiritual, and the Forgotten Bergson covers a fascinating yet little known moment in history. At the turn of the twentieth century, Henri Bergson and his sister, Mina Bergson (also known as Moina Mathers), were both living in Paris and working on seemingly very different but nonetheless complementary and even correlated approaches to questions about the nature of matter, spirit, and their interaction. He was a leading professor within the French academy, soon to become the most renowned philosopher in Europe. She was his estranged sister, already celebrated in her own right as a feminist and occultist performing on theatre stages around Paris while also leading one of the most important occult societies of that era, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. One was a respectable if controversial intellectual, the other was a notorious mystic-artist who, together with her husband and fellow-occultist Samuel MacGregor Mathers, have been described as the "neo-pagan power couple" of the Belle Époque. Neither Henri nor Mina left any record of their feelings and attitudes towards the work of the other, but their views on time, mysticism, spirit, and art converge on many fronts, even as they emerged from very different forms of cultural practice. In Vestiges of a Philosophy, John Ó Maoilearca examines this convergence of ideas and uses the Bergsons' strange correlation to tackle contemporary themes in new materialist philosophy, as well as the relationship between mysticism and philosophy.
In this revelatory study of the intersecting interests of mystic Mina Bergson and her brother, philosopher Henri Bergson, Ó Maoilearca meticulously and cautiously tracks philosophical developments from nineteenth-century spiritualism to recent new materialism. In the process, he does no less than uncover occulture's and analytical philosophy's correlated investments in both spiritualism and materialism during the modernist period. This book will prove foundational to the study of modern mysticism as philosophical engagement and materialist analysis. * Dennis Denisoff, author of Decadent Ecology in British Literature and Art, 1860-1910: Decay, Desire, and the Pagan Revival *
Henri and Mina Bergson form one of the most enigmatic sibling duos of the fin-de-siècle. The unfamiliar reader might assume little common ground between the two—the former a highly respected philosopher, the latter a feminist occult leader largely unknown outside of specialist circles today. Exploring both siblings' thought in relation to the other and demonstrating their converging areas of interest, Ó Maoilearca offers a sophisticated, provocative, and beautifully crafted reconsideration of the relationship between Western esotericism and philosophy. A must-read for anyone seeking to understand the ambiguous position of mysticism and magic in the Western intellectual tradition. * Manon Hedenborg White, author of The Eloquent Blood: The Goddess Babalon and the Construction of Femininities in Western Esotericism *
Vestiges of a Philosophy performs its ideas with visionary urgency, as Ó Maoilearca sustains a diffractive reading of a vast array of sources—canonical works alongside obscure archival texts exhumed through meticulous archeology—that proposes conspicuous concordances between the thought of siblings Mina and Henri Bergson. The complex and exhilarating investigation significantly reconfigures the parallel Bergsonisms, contending with their strangeness and poetics, while aligning them with ideas of contemporary philosophy from Karen Barad and François Laruelle among others, in this volume's immaculate consideration of matter, memory, movement, and spirit. * Matthew Goulish, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago *
This interesting, unusual book straddles two worlds...This is a scholarly achievement,...Recommended. Graduate students through researchers and faculty. * Choice *
In this revelatory study of the intersecting interests of mystic Mina Bergson and her brother, philosopher Henri Bergson, Ó Maoilearca meticulously and cautiously tracks philosophical developments from nineteenth-century spiritualism to recent new materialism. In the process, he does no less than uncover occulture's and analytical philosophy's correlated investments in both spiritualism and materialism during the modernist period. This book will prove foundational to the study of modern mysticism as philosophical engagement and materialist analysis. * Dennis Denisoff, Author of Decadent Ecology in British Literature and Art, 1860-1910: Decay, Desire, and the Pagan Revival *
Henri and Mina Bergson form one of the most enigmatic sibling duos of the fin-de-siècle. The unfamiliar reader might assume little common ground between the two-the former a highly respected philosopher, the latter a feminist occult leader largely unknown outside of specialist circles today. Exploring both siblings' thought in relation to the other and demonstrating their converging areas of interest, Ó Maoilearca offers a sophisticated, provocative, and beautifully crafted reconsideration of the relationship between Western esotericism and philosophy. A must-read for anyone seeking to understand the ambiguous position of mysticism and magic in the Western intellectual tradition. * Manon Hedenborg White, Author of The Eloquent Blood: The Goddess Babalon and the Construction of Femininities in Western Esotericism *
ISBN: 9780197613917
Dimensions: 161mm x 239mm x 23mm
Weight: 526g
256 pages