Abstract

The paper aims at reconsidering the problem of existence and recognition of the past in modernistic philosophy. For Henri Bergson, duration is one of the most enigmatic constituents of human existence. In 1896, when he tackled the question of memory, Bergson reached for the basic philosophical questions posed at the very beginning of the Early Greek thought, then asked by Berkeley’s radical empiricism (so called Berkeley’s razor) and subsequently by Kantian Transcendentalism. All these questions have led to the existential analysis of duration which allows for the new foundation of the idea of remembrance and finally the phenomenon of memory. Bergson has treated memory as one of the most important manifestations of vital force (fr. élan vital). The paper culminates with the analysis of artefact as the foundation of the Archaeology of Knowledge. Polish bergsonism and its references to the issue of memory were presented in a poem written by Bolesław Leśmian.