CONTENTS
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Bergson, Henri and Mitchell, Arthur
PAGE
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
23
The quest of a criterion—Examination of the various theories with regard to a particular example—Darwin and insensible variation—De Vries and sudden variation—Eimer and orthogenesis—Neo-Lamarckism and the hereditability of acquired characters
59
Result of the inquiry—The vital impetus
87
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
98
The relation of the animal to the plant—General tendency of animal life—The development of animal life
105
The main directions of the evolution of life: torpor, intelligence, instinct
135
The nature of the intellect
151
The nature of instinct
165
Life and consciousness—The apparent place of man in nature
176
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
186
Simultaneous genesis of matter and intelligence—Geometry inherent in matter—Geometrical tendency of the intellect—Geometry and deduction—Geometry and induction—Physical laws
199
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
220
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
236
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 of the idea of "Nothing"—Relation of metaphysical problems to the idea of "Nothing"—Real meaning of this idea
272
Form and Becoming
298
The philosophy of Forms and its conception of Becoming—Plato and Aristotle—The natural trend of the intellect
304
Becoming in modern science: two views of Time