Life Lessons from Bergson

Life Lessons

by Michael Foley

Written for 'The School of Life series, Foley takes one of his favourite philosophers, Henri Bergson, and highlights the ideas from Bergson that are most relevant to our ordinary everyday dilemmas.

Genres: Philosophy

128 pages, Paperback

First published September 12, 2013

About the author

Originally from Killavullen, Co Cork, Michael Foley has written Kings of September, winner of the 2007 BoyleSports Irish Sportsbook of the year. He also ghostwrote Harte: Presence Is the Only Thing, the autobiography of Tyrone gaelic football manager Mickey Harte, shortlisted for the 2009 William Hill Irish Sportsbook of the Year.

Winner of the GAA’s McNamee Award in 2008 and shortlisted for Sports Journalist of the Year in 2003, he is acting sports editor and GAA correspondent for the Irish edition of the Sunday Times. This is his third book. He currently resides in Macroom, Co Cork.

Reviews

[Ronan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I saw a book on Bergson for cheap and it wasn't till after I bought it that I noticed it's a School of Life publication. Despite this being from School of Life it was better than most other things I've seen come out of the publisher. It still has a lot of problems, the fact it's not up to an academic standard with broad claims and no sources but the quotes it picked are quite good ones taking widely from the works of Bergson and William James.

The author clearly knows a good amount about Bergson and James and I'm sure he could make some interesting works on them not focused on self help because I feel the self help angle often distracted from more interesting discussions of their works. It also veered into some dubious takes here and there like when it states that before we had a word for time we had no concept of time.

I'd recommend the work of James and Bergson over this book but it's not an awful discussion of their work by any means. There were some very interesting quotes in the book.

[Iulia Alexandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspiring and, most of all, useful.

[Elen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely helped me figure out what the fuck Bergson was talking about, however it also helped me figure out what the fuck Politzer was talking about when he said that Bergson was a bourgeois reactionary and why it was so wild that Gilles Deleuze liked him so much (albeit liked him a lot while abandoning some of the more bleh aspects of his work). Good and short.

[Nougat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a short book packed full of inspiration and ideas on life that have circled around in my thoughts and affected my decisions and even my actions, since reading it. I found it exhilarating. Life is process - nothing in life stands still. This is Foley at his best.

[Julie Gardner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I've only just discovered the work of Henri Bergson and Michael Foley writes about his work in an accessible and interesting way. I've borrowed it from the library and sadly it's out of print now but I'm going to try and find a second hand copy.