Time as the Source of Inalienable Freedom: Henri Bergson’s “Immunizing” the Self

The paper looks at the idea of grounding human freedom in selfhood, with particular attention to the strategies of “denaturalizing” time, resulting in its separation into different modalities. The perspective of practical philosophy, interested in accounting for and making legitimate the spontaneous first person assumption of being a free agent, is enriched with some historical references to different ontological and anthropological attempts at inscribing verticality or transcendence into the human self in order to secure to this self what is called here inalienable freedom. The paper focuses on some elements of Henri Bergson’s thought and tries to reinterpret them in terms of an example of a modern, anti-reductionist “immunization” of the triad of freedom – self – humanity. It also emphasizes the emancipatory potential and the novelty of Bergson’s conception of the human self.