Yuri Lotman and Henri Bergson (Semiotics of Art – Philosophy of Life)*

Abstract

In 1980–90s. Lotman’s scientific interests were mainly focused on discovering the processes taking place in the semiosphere. He was interested in the relation of space and time as two semiotic languages irreducible to each other, the prob­lem of emptiness as an object and language of description, the role of explosions and unpredictable processes in the dynamics of culture, the function of historical memory in culture, etc. Many of these ideas turn out to be consonant with Berg­son’s intuitive metaphysics with its concept of duration as the basis of creative evolution. At the same time, the name of Bergson is not mentioned in the works of Lotman. We can only speak of the intermediary channels through which Berg­son’s ideas reached Lotman. He was greatly influenced by V.I. Vernadsky’s doc­trine of the biosphere and I. Prigogine’s theory of dissipative structures. Each of these scientists was influenced by Bergson. For Vernadsky, the idea of irre­versibility of time and duration as a creative process of life was important. Prigozhin, developing Bergson’s ideas about the unpredictability, made the pro­cesses of irreversibility and instability an object of study. But his research was mostly on the chemical and biological level. Lotman extended the study of ran­dom processes to the level of cultural history. A comparison of Lotman’s theoret­ical approaches to understanding the nature and function of art with Bergson’s intuitive philosophy reveals an undeniable similarity, which allows the late Lot­man’s scientific ideas to be considered within the philosophical paradigm origi­nating from Bergson.