Human rights as a way of life : on Bergson's political philosophy

Review "Lefebvre's new book is a fascinating interpretation of Bergson's last work...  Lefebvre teases out the political implications of The Two Sources of Morality and Religion, with its equally lovely and confronting description of open and closed societies... Thinking like Lefebvre's, channeling Bergson, can help jump the needle out of the deepening grooves of party-political discourse." - Miriam Cosic, The Australian Product Description The work of Henri Bergson, the foremost French philosopher of the early twentieth century, is not usually explored for its political dimensions. Indeed, Bergson is best known for his writings on time, evolution, and creativity. This book concentrates instead on his political philosophy―and especially on his late masterpiece, The Two Sources of Morality and Religion―from which Alexandre Lefebvre develops an original approach to human rights.We tend to think of human rights as the urgent international project of protecting all people everywhere from harm. Bergson shows us that human rights can also serve as a medium of personal transformation and self-care. For Bergson, the main purpose of human rights is to initiate all human beings into love. Forging connections between human rights scholarship and philosophy as self-care, Lefebvre uses human rights to channel the whole of Bergson's philosophy. About the Author Alexandre Lefebvre is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Government and International Relations and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Sydney. He is author of The Image of Law: Deleuze, Bergson, Spinoza (Stanford, 2008).