Project Bergson in Japan

An international collaborative research project

Founded in 2007. An international research framework connecting Bergson’s philosophy with contemporary sciences. Director: Yasushi Hirai.
Modified

August 16, 2026

Project Bergson in Japan (PBJ) is an international collaborative research framework that takes Bergson’s philosophy as its starting point and aims to connect the history of philosophy with the contemporary sciences. Founded in 2007, it is funded by JSPS Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (Kiban B).

Researchers from France and elsewhere work together with Japanese scholars, reading a single text closely over several years, and then bringing the issues that emerge into dialogue with researchers in philosophy of mind, philosophy of time, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, and biology. Extended Bergsonism is the orientation that has grown out of this exchange.

Phases

Phase Period Theme Director
I–II –2014 Foundational Bergson studies Shin Abiko
III 2015–2018 Matter and Memory: a comprehensive study Yasushi Hirai
IV 2019– Time and Free Will: a comprehensive study Yasushi Hirai
V 2024– Pluralistic developments of Bergson’s thought on time Yasushi Hirai

KAKEN database: Phase III (15H03154)　|　Phase IV (19H01190)　|　Phase V (24K00005)

Selected publications

Bergson’s Scientific Metaphysics: Matter and Memory Today

Yasushi Hirai (ed.), Bloomsbury, 2023.

An English-language volume growing out of the 2015 international symposium on Matter and Memory.

The Matter and Memory trilogy (Shoshi-Shinsui, in Japanese)

  • Dissecting Bergson’s Matter and Memory (2016)
  • Diagnosing Bergson’s Matter and Memory (2017)
  • Rebooting Bergson’s Matter and Memory (2018)

Translations

  • Bergson, Histoire de l’idée de temps: Cours au Collège de France 1902–1903 (Japanese translation, 2019)
  • Bergson, Histoire des théories de la mémoire: Cours au Collège de France (Japanese translation, 2023)

Both are based on newly discovered stenographic records of Bergson’s lectures.

Activities

For symposia, workshops, and lecture series, see the activity record (in Japanese) and the PBJ official site.