Gaston Bachelard
Gaston Bachelard
Gaston Bachelardwas a French philosopher. He made contributions in the fields of poetics and the philosophy of science. To the latter he introduced the concepts of epistemological obstacle and epistemological break. He influenced many subsequent French philosophers, among them Michel Foucault, Louis Althusser, Dominique Lecourt and Jacques Derrida, as well as the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth27 June 1884
CountryFrance
hope past ideas
Ideas are invented only as correctives to the past. Through repeated rectification of this kind one may hope to disengage an idea that is valid.
simple ideas simplicity
Ideas are refined and multiplied in the commerce of minds. In their splendor, images effect a very simple communion of souls.
disappointment ideas giving
Perhaps it is even a good idea to stir up a rivalry between conceptual and imaginative activity. In any case, one will encounter nothing but disappointments if he intends to make them cooperate. The image can not provide matter for a concept. By giving stability to the image, the concept would stifle its life.
destinies future opens poetic poetry
Poetry is one of the destinies of speech. . . . One would say that the poetic image, in its newness, opens a future to language.
real imagination perception
Why should the actions of the imagination not be as real as those of perception?
childhood germs excess
An excess of childhood is the germ of a poem.
life wells ifs
To live life well is to express life poorly; if one expresses life too well, one is living it no longer.
real book proof
The best proof of the specificity of the book is that it is at once a reality of the virtual and a virtuality of the real.
quality term expressive
Any comparison diminishes the expressive qualities of the terms of the comparison.
description subjects objects
Empirical description involves enslavement to the object by decreeing passivity on the part of the subject.
teach cease
He who ceases to learn cannot adequately teach.
fire fields rich
At all times and in all fields the explanation by fire is a rich explanation.
dream owning-a-home house
The house protects the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace
dream house steps
To go upstairs in the word house is to withdraw step by step; while to go down to the cellar is to dream