Henri-Louis Bergson (French pronunciation: [bɛʁkˈsɔ̃]; 18 October 1859–4 January 1941) was a major French philosopher, influential especially in the first half of the 20th century.
Bergson was born in the Rue Lamartine in Paris, not far from the Palais Garnier (the old Paris opera house) in 1859 (the year of the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species). His father, the musician Michał Bergson had a Polish Jewish family background...
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Henri-Louis Bergson (French pronunciation: [bɛʁkˈsɔ̃]; 18 October 1859–4 January 1941) was a major French philosopher, influential especially in the first half of the 20th century.
Bergson was born in the Rue Lamartine in Paris, not far from the Palais Garnier (the old Paris opera house) in 1859 (the year of the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species). His father, the musician Michał Bergson had a Polish Jewish family background (originally bearing the name Bereksohn). His mother, Katherine Levison, daughter of a Yorkshire doctor, was from an English and Irish Jewish background. The Bereksohns were a famous Jewish entrepreneurial family of Polish descent. Henri Bergson's great-great-grandfather, Szmul Jakubowicz Sonnenberg, called Zbytkower, was a prominent banker and King Stanisław August Poniatowski's protégé. His family lived in London for a few years after his birth, and he obtained an early familiarity with the English language from his mother. Before he was...
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