Ebook: The Dialectic of Duration

Gaston Bachelard (1884-1962) was a seminal figure in contemporary French philosophy. Together with Michel Foucault, Georges Canguilhem and Jean Cavaillès, he shaped the 'French epistemological' school of philosophy of science. In France, Bachelard is a towering presence; in the English-speaking world, he is little known. Now, Zbigniew Kotowicz gives us the first English language, in-depth presentation of the entire spectrum of Bachelard's work: epistemology, poetic imagination and temporality. And he explores an old philosophical tradition that Bachelard's thought opens up - atomism - a doctrine that has been almost forgotten and is much misunderstood. --;The new scientific mind. The epistemological rupture -- The epistemological obstacle -- The ruses of prejudice -- Naïvety -- Science and history -- Rationalism -- Truth, dialectics, the philosophy of No -- Mathematics, la phenomenotechnique -- Against substance -- Pythagorism (and further thoughts on la phenomenotechnique) -- Some concluding remarks -- Appendix to Chapter I : 'Surrationalism' by Gaston Bachelard -- The imaginary. The turn -- The imagining faculty -- Imagination and violence -- Narcissism -- The body, Hylozoism -- A psychoanalysis of a philosophical mind -- The four elements -- The imaginary and philosophy -- Overcoming pain, overcoming death -- Topophilia -- Masculine death, feminine death -- The poetics of time> The instant -- Duration -- The void -- Rhythm and vibration -- Against Bergson -- The void and nothingness -- Concluding remarks Appendix : Bachelard and atomism. Some preliminary remarks on Democritus, Epicurus and Pierre Gassendi -- Democritus and Hylozoism -- The atom in contemporary thought -- The void -- Four atomist systems -- Bachelard and atomism (epistemology) -- Bachelard and atomism ("metaphysics') -- On philosophical aspirations.