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| Home | Topics | History | 19th Century Philosophers | Henri Bergson
Bergsonism by Gilles Deleuze
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Taking as its point of departure Bergson's insistence on precision in philosophy, this volume shows how relevant he is to much of contemporary philosophy. It will prove appealing to teachers and students of philosophy, cognitive science, psychology, religious studies and literature.
F.C.T. Moore's book is the best introduction to the philosophy of Bergson available on the market today. It is interested in Bergson's own method; it does not assume that Bergson was trying to be like Bertrand Russell and failing. The chapters on laughter and on the theory of relativity are brilliant in the way they connect Bergson's "marginal" works to the core of his project. -- Anonymous Review
This book by F.C.T. Moore provides a valid and worth while engagement of the philosophy of one of France's most important philosophers. Bergson's theories of space and time "Duree", were vital in Futurist thinking and provided a grounding for their initial, and some may argue best work. F.C.T Moore presents Bergson's philosophy in a practical and systematic manner, easily understood and comprehensive. -- Anonymous Review
Citation: Henri Bergson. "Table of Contents", Creative Evolution, translated by Arthur Mitchell, Ph.D. New York: Henry Holt and Company (1911).
Translator's Note
Introduction
CHAPTER I The Evolution of Life -- Mechanism and Teleology
Of duration in general -- Unorganized bodies and abstract time -- Organized bodies and real duration -- Individuality and the process of growing old
Of transformism and the different ways of interpreting it -- Radical mechanism and real duration: the relation of biology to physics and chemistry -- Radical finalism and real duration: the relation of biology to philosophy
The quest of a criterion -- Examination of the various theories with regard to a particular example -- Darwin and insensible varion -- Devries and sudden variation -- Eimer and orthogenesis -- Neo-Lamarkism and the hereditability of acquired characters
Results of the inquiry -- The vital impulse
CHAPTER II The Divergent Directions of the Evolution of Life -- Torpor, Intelligence, Instinct
General idea of the evolutionary process -- Growth -- Divergent and complementary tendencies -- The meaning of progress and of adaptation
The relation of the animal to the plant -- General tendency of animal life -- The development of animal life
The main directions of the evolution of life: torpor, intelligence, instinct
The nature of the intellect
The nature of instinct
Life and consciousness -- The apparent place of man in nature
CHAPTER III On the Meaning of Life -- The Order of Nature and the Form of Intelligence
Relation of the problem of life to the problem of knowledge -- The method of philosophy -- Apparent vicious circle of the method proposed -- Real vicious circle of the opposite method
Simultaneous genesis of matter and intelligence -- Geometry inherent in matter -- Geometrical tendency of the intellect -- Geometry and deduction -- Geometry and induction -- Physical laws
Sketch of a theory of knowledge based on the analysis of the idea of Disorder -- Two opposed forms of order: the problem of genera and the problem of laws -- The idea of "disorder" an oscillation of the intellect between the two kinds of order
Creation and evolution -- Ideal genesis of matter -- The origin and function of life -- The essential and the accidental in the vital process and in the evolutionary movement -- Mankind -- The life of the body and the life of the spirit
CHAPTER IV The Cinematographical Mechanism of Thought and the Mechanistic Illusion -- A Glance at the History of Systems -- Real Becoming and False Evolutionism
Sketch of a criticism of philosophical systems, based on the analysis of the idea of Immutability and the idea of "Nothing" -- Relation of metaphysical problems to the idea of "Nothing" -- Real meaning of this idea
Form and Becoming
The philosophy of Forms and its conception of Becoming -- Plato and Aristotle -- The natural trend of the intellect
Becoming in modern science: two views of Time.
The metaphysical interpretation of modern science: Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz
The Criticism of Kant
The evolutionism of Spencer
