176 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



He approves, on the other hand, of the element of psychology in 

 Lamarckism, but says it means nothing in the vegetable kingdom, and 

 besides he does not believe it shown that acquired characters are trans- 

 mitted as a general rule. 



Bergson's "Life-Force" Theory 



In the remaining ten pages of the chapter, Bergson offers his own 

 theory of evolution, which he calls "Creative Evolution," and which 

 after study of his previous works one might feel inclined to call 

 "Durational Evolution." According to this view, the "elan vital," 

 sustained right along the lines of evolution, among which it gets 

 divided in the shock with matter, is the fundamental cause of varia- 

 tions : at least of those which are passed on to accumulate and create 

 new species. Life is seeking to act upon inert matter: vision is one 

 of the possibilities of this action upon matter, therefore life is trying 

 to see. 



The eye has a very complex structure, but a very simple function. 

 It is just this contrast between structure (our analysis), and function 

 (nature's synthesis), which should give us pause. Both mechanism 

 and teleology agree in regarding the eye as a marvelous machine, 

 built as human beings build machines, by assembling parts for a pur- 

 pose. But life does not proceed by the association and addition of 

 elements. On the very contrary, life proceeds by dissociation and 

 division. A very simple object seen from every possible point of view 

 seems endlessly complex. Think how many infinitesimal squares of 

 colored mosaic it would require to reproduce a painting; yet the 

 painter may have made it by a few simple movements. Our eyes and 

 our intellects are such as to lend the greatest complexity to things 

 which in themselves are quite simple. Nature has no more trouble 

 in making an eye than I have in raising my hand — an exceedingly 

 simple movement, though infinitely complex to the anatomist and to 

 the mathematician. It is one thing to be a clever calculating manu- 

 facturer, and quite another to be a creator of living organisms; and 

 although science must always stick to the machine theory for practical 

 ends, yet it will never explain the simplest fact of life and motion. 



