Time. Bergson-Einstein debate 100 years later

On the 6th of April 1922 in Paris at the meeting organised by Société française de philosophie, a discussion arose on time between the honoured guest, Albert Einstein, and famous French philosopher, Henri Bergson. While the physicist was presenting his groundbreaking theory, the philosopher raised some issues that in his view were crucial for our understanding of time. Bergson’s criticism was far-reaching, especially since the theory of relativity was still settling in the scientific community.

The conference is organised to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the said meeting. Our aim is not to recreate it, though. It has been done already in numerous books and articles of prominent philosophers and physics. The goal of the conference is to look at the debate from today’s perspective. What more has the philosophy to say in the subject of time? What is the relation between Bergson’s critique of the relativity theory and contemporary philosophy of science? Are Bergson’s and Einstein’s arguments and standpoints still valid, and what could philosophy of science learn from the debate?

We invite researchers from around the world, especially philosophers of science, to submit their proposals in the form of a short paper, related to the aforementioned issues. Please, submit your proposal in English (including abstract, title, academic affiliation, email address), that contains no more than 500 words, to Anna Kuszmiruk, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, at the e-mail address: [email protected], adding “Bergson-Einstein conference” to the subject of your message.

Deadline for proposal submissions: 1 March 2022

Attention! The deadline for proposal submissions has been prolonged till 10th of March 2022!

Notification of proposal acceptance: 15 March 2022

For any additional information, please contact Anna Kuszmiruk via [email protected] or [email protected]