Creative Evolution

by Henri Bergson

Book Overview

Creative Evolution, originally published in 1911 by Henry Holt and Company, is the work which catapulted Bergson from obscurity into world-wide fame. A study of the philosophical implications of biological evolutionary theory, the impact of this book reached far beyond biology and seemed to many to herald a new age in philosophy and the sciences

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0819135534
• ISBN13: 9780819135537
• Release Date: November 1983
• Publisher: University Press of America
• Length: 460 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Professor Bergson Begins Modern Science and Intuits Quantum Physics' Improbable Secrets

This book must be read slowly and deliberately -- do so and it will give you an insight into the brilliance of one of the most revolutionary and extraordinarily perceptive philosopher scientists of the 20th Century, IMO. Bergson changed the way scientists see the world by introducing his conception of an "original impetus", which began simply (if "intelligently") and evolved matter into living, increasingly complex lifeforms and concurrently evolved an increasingly complex consciousness within it -- as an "imperceptable thread" (my wording) ultimately called the elan vital. In my case, after reading carefully and filling the book's margins with notes, Professor Bergson seems to be proving (showing) that all science up until his time (circa 1930's) was concerned with objects as they were at a particular moments, whereas in fact these objects were and are in a state of continual "being" (duration), making their actuality or essence unknowable. He chronologically takes us through the writings of Plato and Aristotle (the natural trend of the intellect)-- Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz (becoming in modern science) -- and even through the Criticism of Kant and the evolutionism of Spencer. Bergson thoroughly critques each philosophy and shows us why they are not dealing the world as it really is. Through this he weaves his own philosophical system based on Creation and Evolution by (quote): ". . . showing us in the intellect a local effect of evolution, a flame, perhaps accidental, which lights up the coming and going of living beings in the narrow passage open to their action: an lo! . . . (making) of this lantern glimmering in a tunnel a Sun which can illuminate the world. "Boldly (Kantian and Spencerian science) proceeds with the powers of conceptual thought alone, to the ideal reconstruction of things, even of life. . . . But the essence of things escapes us, and will escape us always; WE MOVE AMONG RELATIONS; THE ABSOLUTE IS NOT IN OUR PROVINCE; WE ARE BROUGHT TO STAND BEFORE THE UNKNOWABLE. " . . . BUT AN INTELLECT BENT UPON THE ACT TO BE PERFOMED AND THE REACTION TO FOLLOW . . . WOULD DIG TO THE VERY ROOT OF NATURE AND MIND." In simpler words, the observation of any object changes reality for that object. It is only real as a moving "being", animated by an original impetus and kept real by an "elan vital" which cannot be known because "being" cannot be defined. What we call "real things" are illusions which beomce "real" to us only when we stop their duration. Heidegger spends thousands of pages unsuccessfully trying to define "being", which ultimately he can only label as "dasein". What we observe as the real world is matter and consciousness evolving concurrently from simple to complex as they move through space and time. This means that the original impetus, the spark, the first flame, began neither in space nor time. Later quantum physics would support Bergson's insight, considering that an electron (as one example) cannot be seen wi

Recommended for fans of Rupert Sheldrake's theories

Bergson's thesis is that Darwinian and Lamarkian evolution are only half the story and that there is a creative urge inherent in life that defines the direction of evolution. It is distinguished from Creationism in that his system does not posit and eschaton or final perfect form, nor an external agent (God). It has some similarity with biologist Rupert Sheldrake's theory of morphic fields. In his theory, there is an energy field (as yet undetected by modern physics) that controls the shape of organic molecules, i.e., one protein is shaped one way and the same collection of atoms gets shaped another way under the same pH and temperature. Aldous Huxley mentions Bergson's theory of consciousness several times in his writings. Bergson thinks that consciousness pervades everything, and that intellect serves as a filter that presents only what is comprehensible to mental categories. This has several implications. One is the possibility for a monistic metaphysic. The other is that it leaves open the possibility of perceiving an alternate reality (what excited Huxley). Chapter 3 is about his metaphysics, which are not very clearly expressed. There appear to be avenues unexplored by him. What are the consequences of matter being infused with consciousness? Magic? Why is it that intellect and geometrical thinking is what produces objects in perception? What is the mechanism. What does have value is his theory that chaos is not the absence of repeatability, but is a stochastic process that can be understood as an aggregate of individual "wills." This is used to support his vital theory of evolution. That each organism "wills" its variation in seemingly random fashion, but at a higher order, it produces the regularity of genera. Chapter 4 is a critique of various philosophic systems after establishing his "cinematographic" theory of perception. His basic point is that matter is in continual flux, yet we are only able to perceive it as a sequence of discrete states, hence the illusion of permanence.

A work of monumental importance

Creative Evolution is not so much a work, but a milestone in print of a new direction of thought. It is a book that is of immense importance to anyone who wants to understand the mystery of humanity.

Fugitive from American Misquotes

At the turn of the 20th century, in response to the enthusiasm of biochemists who claimed they had discovered the secret of life because they could synthesize animal waste products; Henry Bergson, who later recieved a nobel prize for his work, said what was needed was a science that focused on vital actions rather than just psychio-chemical elements. He is misquoted as having said physical-chemical forces which has given rise to a false belief he was seeking non-material substance. I am sure Bergson would say that the changing of a single word through vital actions has given rise to a unique ripple of time that will never come again. For how can finite elements give rise to uniqueness of time unless we observe the change, the evolution of matter. A book on biodynamics that even today holds some challenging questions.

One of the most profound thinkers of our time

Why when Henri Bergson went to lecture to NY in 1913, his presence was celebrated like that of a famous actor? Why such a philosopher created the first traffic jam of the brand-new automotive age? DURATION, the sphere of Life is certainly one of the great contributions of one of the most profound thinkers of mankind. His ideas about time and form were certainly ahead of his time... Time is experienced as a flow; but the concepts through which time is measured are static...we commit a grave error...when we confuse.. spatialized dimension for a dynamic and qualitative flow...but Bersong was conscious of the need of a new, less mechanistic biology...possible founded on a new mathematics...and he was thinking too of a pulsational, quantum like model exhibiting both wave(continuous) and particule(discontinuos) features...Maybe it is time to read Bergson again, and maybe we will find a better way to that domain of the Being, where affirmation is a complete act of the mind, and negation is only an attitude taken by the mind toward an eventual affirmation...