NATURE 



475 



BIOLOGICAL PHILOSOPHY. 

 Creative Evolution. By Prof. H. Bergson. Author- 

 ised translation by Dr. A. Mitchell. Pp. xv + 425. 

 (London : Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 191 1.) Price 

 10s. net. 



^|OT a few of the great philosophers of the past 

 - J were expert students of science, especially of 

 mathematics and physics. We think at once of men 

 like Descartes, Leibnitz, and Kant, to mention three 

 whose periods are in almost continuous chronological 

 sequence. The widening of the field of knowledge and 

 submission to a correlated division of labour have 

 made it less possible in these later days for a man to 

 be a mathematician in the morning and a meta- 

 physician at night, but the tradition of an alliance 

 between the two disciplines has not been lost. For to 

 a greater extent than is generally recognised there have 

 been of recent years, in the ranks of the philosophers, 

 men having not merely — though that is much — an in- 

 telligent sympathy with scientific work, but familiarity 

 therewith and ability to offer competent criticism. We 

 think, for instance, of men like the late Prof. 

 William James, Prof. Royce, Prof. James Ward, 

 and Prof. A. E. Taylor. Within the same 

 period, too, we have seen one department of 

 science after another making its definite contribution 

 to philosophy. Now a mathematician, and again an 

 embryologist, has been as a Saul among the prophets. 

 We think, for instance, of Mr. Bertrand Russell, Dr. 

 Hans Driesch, and Prof. Lloyd Morgan. It seems 

 then that the time is ripening for a closer cooperation 

 of philosophy and science, and the man of the time is 

 Henri Bergson. 



Metaphysician as he is, M. Bergson seems to be 

 equallv at home with mathematical and biological 

 concepts, and he appreciates the aim of science with 

 a rare sympathy. He recognises that metaphysics, in 

 its endeavour to discover the general conditions of a 

 complete and consistent formulation of experience, 

 mav be of great service to science, but he is equally 

 clear that, in forming its coherent conception of the 

 whole scheme of things, metaphysics -must utilise the 

 materials which the sciences furnish. It is indeed one 

 of the outstanding features of his "Creative Evolu- 

 tion " that its author insists on finding in a more com- 

 plete appreciation of the manifoldness of nature a 

 basis for his new philosophy of life. 



One of the main motives of the essay before us is 

 the conviction that tlieory of knowledge and theory 

 of life are inseparable inquiries. They must join each 

 other and "push each other on unceasingly." In their 

 common enterprise, " they would dig to the very root 

 of nature and of mind." 



" For the false evolutionism of Spencer — which con- 

 sists in cutting up present reality, already evolved, 

 into little bits no less evolved, and then recomposing 

 it with these fragments, thus positing in advance 

 everything that is to be explained — they would substi- 

 tute a true evolutionism, in which reality would be 

 followed in its generation and its growth." 



NO. 2189, VOL. 87] 



The book is divided into four chapters, the sequence 

 of which the author explains. In the first chapter 

 " we try on the evolutionary progress the two ready- 

 made garments that our understanding puts at our 

 disposal," mechanism and finalism ; neither will fit, 

 but finalism "might be recut and resewn, and in this 

 new form fit less badly than the other." In the 

 second chapter, to get beyond the concepts which the 

 understanding puts at our disposal, the author recon- 

 structs the main lines of evolution along which life 

 has travelled — to vegetative torpor, to instinct, to 

 intelligence. Besides the line of evolution which ends 

 in man, there are others which "also express some- 

 thing that is immanent and essential in the evolu- 

 tionary movement." Perhaps certain powers within 

 us that are complementary to conceptual and logical 

 thought, " will become clear and distinct when they 

 perceive themselves at work, so to speak, in the 

 evolution of nature." The third chapter is an effort 

 to bring back the intellect to its generating cause, 

 "which we then have to grasp in itself and follow in 

 its movement." "A fourth and last part is meant to 

 show how our understanding itself, by submitting to a 

 certain discipline, might prepare a philosophy which 

 transcends it." 



Prof. Bergson's book, the translation of which 

 reflects the highest credit on Dr. Arthur Mitchell, has 

 been called both brilliant and profound, and it is too 

 big for us to praise. We wish to say, however, that 

 we have read it three times with increasing enjoyment 

 and gratitude. When we have read it other three 

 times we may perhaps understand it more perfectly, 

 for it is useless to pretend that it is easy. The style 

 is so brilliant and picturesque, the play of the sword 

 is so fascinating, there is such abundance of interest- 

 ing illustration that the pages slip easily past, yet for 

 the student of organic evolution, seeking for fresh 

 light, the thought often seems very abstract and subtle. 

 For example, specialists may find no particular diffi- 

 culty in the conception of "duree," which is so 

 essential to the argument, but that has not been our 

 experience. For the pages of Nature it may be most 

 suitable that we should leave the more purely philo- 

 sophical part of the book alone, and confine ourselves 

 to a few of the salient biological ideas, e.g. of the 

 organism as a historic being, and of evolution as a 

 succession of creations — expressions of sustained 

 "effort." 



One of the pivots of the essay is its conception of 

 the organism, from which, as it seems to us, modern 

 biology has something to learn, something to translate 

 into its own universe of discourse. Bergson dwells on 

 the likeness between the life of the organism and our 

 own personal experience. We change without ceasing 

 and the organism continually exhibits its characteristic 

 metabolism. But both have the mysterious quality of 

 "duree"— a word so difficult to translate, for Bergson 

 means more than duration in the merely physical and 

 chronological sense; he means "the continuous pro- 

 gress of the past which gnaws into the future and 

 which swells as it advances." "Our personality 

 shoots, grows, and ripens without ceasing. Each of 

 its moments is something new added to what was 



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