Vlll 



CREATIVE EVOLUTION 



CHAPTER III 



On the Meaning of Life — The Order of Nature 

 and the Form of Intelligence 



PAGE 



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 prob- 

 lem of genera and the problem of laws — The idea of "dis- 

 order" 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 — Man- 

 kind — The life of the body and the life of the spirit . . 236 



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 of 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 ...... 



272 

 298 



304 

 329 



345 

 356 

 363 



INDEX 



371 



