Description
In the last sentences of The Two Sources of Morality and Religion, Henri Bergson asks a pressing question; human beings must determine whether they want to go on living or not, and if they do, then make the extra effort to fulfil ‘the essential function of the universe, which is a machine for the making of gods.’ In this paper, I will take Bergson’s claim literally. However, to understand the cosmos as a god-making machine, one needs to complement energetics, especially in their mechanistic postulates. To do so I will focus on philosopher Raymond Ruyer. In examining Ruyer’s axiological revolution, where energy and information are neither confused nor isolated, we can not only sense how thoughts and intentions can have an actual physical effect without violating thermodynamics. Crucially, we can sense how our informational and negentropic god-making, contrary to what one would expect, facilitates the cosmological entropic satisfaction of the very same ‘laws’ that it denies; and we do indeed need to sense that before we respond affirmatively to Bergson’s question: not only do we want to go on living, we stubbornly want to make the extra effort.| Period | 1 Nov 2024 |
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| Event title | Contested & Erased Energy Knowledges |
| Event type | Conference |
| Degree of Recognition | International |