Bergson and Politics: Ottoman-Turkish Encounters with Innovation


Irem N.

EUROPEAN LEGACY-TOWARD NEW PARADIGMS, cilt.16, sa.7, ss.873-882, 2011 (AHCI) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 16 Sayı: 7
  • Basım Tarihi: 2011
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1080/10848770.2011.626187
  • Dergi Adı: EUROPEAN LEGACY-TOWARD NEW PARADIGMS
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI), Scopus
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.873-882
  • Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Adresli: Hayır

Özet

This article seeks to explain how Bergson's philosophy was translated into a genuine political position in the Ottoman-Turkish context. I first overview the impact of Bergson's philosophy on continental politics at the beginning of the twentieth century; I then try to explain how Bergson's philosophical claims acquired definite political connotations; and lastly, I aim to display how political Bergsonism became a border language between republican radicals and conservatives in Turkey in the 1920s. I argue that, at the crossroads of all currents of European modernity, political Bergsonism heralded the birth of a new vision of conservative modernity that molded the underlying values and principles of the transformation of Turkey into a modern society.