Henri Bergson

Henri Bergson (1859–1941) was a French philosopher of Polish-Jewish and English-Jewish descent, born in Paris, who became a naturalized French citizen and profoundly influenced both analytic and continental philosophy with concepts like duration, élan vital, and intuition over rationalism. His major works include Time and Free Will (1889), Matter and Memory (1896), his most famous Creative Evolution (1907), and The Two Sources of Morality and Religion (1932); he won the 1927 Nobel Prize in Literature for his rich ideas and brilliant presentation. Bergson taught at prestigious institutions like the Collège de France, achieved immense popularity before WWI, and died in occupied Paris after rejecting Vichy honors due to his Jewish heritage.