Lectures on Psychology: At Lyceé Henr-IV 1892-3

These Lectures on Psychology give a privileged insight into the thought of Henri Bergson, especially some much needed background for making sense of Matter and Memory. The course covers topics from psychology to metaphysics with explanations and details regarding some of the richest and most elusive terms in his lexicon and his interpretations, and critiques, of Leibniz, Hume, Kant, Maine de Biran, and Ravaisson, as well as Darwin, Spencer, and James. We find the same cast of French and German psychologists engaged with in his published works: Taine, Ribot, Richet, Weber, Fechner, Lotze, just to name a few. Best of all, we see him beginning to carve out the form that his own science of the psyche would take by the end of Matter and Memory. The appendix includes two other prominent speeches from the same time period "Good Sense and Classical Studies" and "Of Intelligence."