Creative Evolution: Humanity's Natural Creative Impulse

A misconception that may prevent prospective readers from Bergson’s creative evolution is that it has anything to do with intelligent design, theodicy or other pseudo-sciences. In fact, it is an extended argument for a new approach to philosophy; one that went largely unheeded but still has enough truth in it to stimulate thought.Bergson’s main insight is that the human intellect can not handle continuous time. Whether we speak of the eternal ideas of the ancients or the law embracing relations of modern sciences one only analyzes successive moments. Like a old movie projector these selective instances may give the appearance of motion but are in fact nothing but successive still frames.Building on this insight, Bergson argues that the world can not be fully understood by the human intellect. Instead we need to use our intuition to grasp that which evolves—hence the title. He then proposes that this movement, this drive, is the source of life and consciousness. Our efforts to understand these dynamic processes with disconnected images/concepts are then doomed to failure.I am not trying to agree or disagree with Bergson—just provide a sketch of his argument in case prospective readers might be interested. As far as I know few philosophers have viewed a renewed emphasis on intuition as essential to understanding life and consciousness but this may more be a result of the dramatic diminution of interest in any of his work since his passing in 1941.Personally, I think it’s worth reading by those interested in the philosophy of biology but recognize it may have a more significant place merely in the history of ideas. I should note that Bergson is always an original and always a master of Western thought. Readers can decide for themselves whether it’s worth their finite leisure time.

thkx

This is a wonderful and profound book which explains how the spirit is present in the material world.Good for scientists.

Henri-Louis Bergson (1859-1941) was a French philosopher, who was awarded the 1927 Nobel Prize in Literature. His other works include  The Creative Mind: An Introduction to Metaphysics , Matter and Memory , Time and Free Will , etc. [NOTE: page numbers refer to the 453-page hardcover Modern Library edition.]He wrote in the Introduction to this 1907 book, "The history of the evolution of life... already reveals to us how the intellect has been formed, by an uninterrupted progress, along a line which ascends through the vertebrate series up to man, It shows us in the faculty of understanding an appendage of the faculty of acting, a more and more precise, more and more complex and supple adaptation of the consciousness of living beings to the conditions of existence that are made for them. Hence should result this consequence of our intellect, in the narrow sense of the word, is intended to secure the perfect fitting of our body to its environment, to represent the relations of external things among themselves.---in short, to think matter. Such will indeed be one of the conclusions of the present essay." (Pg. xix)He argues, "evolution does not mark out a solitary route, that it takes directions without aiming at ends, and that it remains inventive even in its adaptations. But, if the evolution of life is something other than a series of adaptations to accidental circumstances, so also it is not the realization of a plan... If... evolution is a creation unceasingly renewed, it creates, as it goes on, not only the forms of life, but the ideas that will enable the intellect to understand it, the terms which will serve to express it... its future ... cannot be sketched out therein in an idea." (Pg. 114)He asserts, "From this point of view, not only does consciousness appear as the motive principle of evolution, but also, conscious beings themselves, man comes to occupy a privileged place. Between him and the animals the difference is no longer one of degree, but of kind." (Pg. 200) But he also adds, "If, now, we should wish to express this in terms of finality, we should have to say that consciousness... has sought an issue in the double direction of instinct and intelligence... So that, in the last analysis, man might be considered the reason for the existence of the entire organization of life on our planet. But this would only be a manner of speaking. There is, in reality, only a current of existence and the opposing current; thence proceeds the whole evolution of life." (Pg. 203)He states, "The impetus of life... consists in a need of creation. It cannot create absolutely, because it is confronted with matter... But it seizes upon this matter... and strives to introduce into it the largest possible amount of indetermination and liberty... all life, animal and vegetable, seems in its essence like an effort to accumulate energy and then to let it flow into flexible channels, changeable in shape, at the end of which it will accomplish infinitely varied kinds of work. That is what the VITAL IMPETUS [Fr. "Élan Vital"], passing through matter, would fain do all at once. It would succeed, no doubt, if its power was unlimited, or if some reinforcement could come to it from without. But the impetus is finite... It cannot overcome all obstacles. The movement it starts is sometimes turned aside, sometimes divided, always opposed; and the evolution of the organized world is the unrolling of this conflict... The part played by contingency in evolution is therefore great... it is not even necessary that life should be concentrated and determined in organisms... energy might be saved up, and then expended on varying lines running across a matter not yet solidified... It is therefore conceivable that life might have assumed a totally different outward appearance and designed forms very different from those we know." (Pg. 274; 276-280)He continues, "it is consciousness, or rather supra-consciousness, that is at the origin of life... But this consciousness, which is a NEED OF CREATION, is made manifest to itself only where creation is possible. It lies dormant where life is condemned to automatism... In reality, a living being is a center of action. It represents a certain sum of contingency entering into the world... In reality, consciousness does not spring from the brain; but brain and consciousness correspond because equally they measure, the one by the complexity of its structure and the other by the intensity of its awareness." (Pg. 284-286) He adds, "With man, consciousness breaks the chain. In man, and in man alone, it sets itself free. The whole history of life until man has been that of the effort of consciousness to raise matter, and of the more or less complete overwhelming of consciousness by the matter which has fallen back on it... our brain, our society, and our language are only the external and various signs of one and the same internal superiority. They tell... the unique, exceptional success which life has won at a given moment of its evolution. They express the difference of kind, and not only of degree, which separates men from the rest of the animal world... It is in this quite special sense that man is the `term' and the `end' of evolution. Life... is essentially a current sent through matter, drawing from it what it can... it is abundantly evident that the rest of nature is not for the sake of man... it would be wrong to regard humanity ... as pre-figured in the evolutionary movement. It cannot even be said to be the outcome of the whole of evolution..." (Pg. 288-289)He goes on, "Philosophy introduces us thus into the spiritual life. And it shows us at the same time the relation of the life of the spirit to that of the body... The matter that [consciousness] bears along with it... alone can divide it into distinct individualities. On flows the current, running through human generations, subdividing itself into individuals. This subdivision ... would not have been made clear without matter. Thus souls are continually being created, which, nevertheless, in a certain sense pre-existed. They are nothing else than the little rills into which the great river of life divides itself, flowing through the body of humanity... The animal takes its stand on the plant, man bestrides animality, and the whole of humanity, in in space and in time, is one immense army galloping beside and before and behind each of us in an overwhelming charge able to beat down every resistance and clear the most formidable obstacles, perhaps even death." (Pg. 292-295)Bergson's book will be loved by those looking for speculative and philosophical interpretations of the evolutionary process... but will also probably be dismissed as "nonsense" by some others of a more skeptical bent.

A book without an illustrative photograph.

His idea of the elan vital should always be understood as necessary mental componant, together with the physical componantin nature. "The physical without the mental is lame, the mental without the physical is blind" bruno.espinosas 2012 panidism