The article follows the steps of Bergson, whose influence on French thought in the twentieth century was undoubtedly very significant. However, the social sciences haven't fully unpacked Bergson, who was a "shock? for his contemporaries, especially for the French rationalists and Kantians. First, one can see an "aversion? against Bergson, especially in the Durkheim-school, in which the new discipline sociology is praised. Second, Bergson himself developed a societal theory, in response to the Durkheim. Third, there is, especially after 1945 and in mostly implicit takeovers of Bergson's philosophy, a certain "paradigm?: a distinctive theoretical framework of society in sociological and ethnological French thought. Leaning on this, we obtain a chapter of the history of sociological and ethnological thought, and also a distinguished approach within sociological theory.