Creative Evolution [Hardcover]

Henri Bergson (1859-1941) is one of the truly great philosophers of the modernist period, and there is currently a major renaissance of interest in his unduly neglected texts and ideas amongst philosophers, literary theorists, and social theorists. Creative Evolution (1907) is the text that made Bergson world-famous in his own lifetime; in it Bergson responds to the challenge presented to our habits of thought by modern evolutionary theory, and attempts to show that the theory of knowledge must have its basis in a theory of life.Series Preface Introduction; K.Ansell Pearson Editions and translations of Bergson used Further Reading CREATIVE EVOLUTION; H. Bergson Translator's Note; A.Mitchell The Evolution of Life - Mechanism and Teleology The Divergent Directions of the Evolution of Life. Torpor, Intelligence, Instinct On the Meaning of Life - The Order of Nature and the Form of Intelligence The Cinematographical Mechanism of Thought and the Mechanistic Illusion - A Glance at the History of Systems - Real Becoming and False EvolutionBibliographical MaterialBiographical SynopsesGlossary of Biological TermsIndex

'Palgrave Macmillan is to be congratulated for reissuing these classic Bergson texts. This is a timely decision since Bergson was the great thinker of life and it seems, nearly one hundred years later, that we find ourselves once again required to conceive life. Keith Ansell Pearson and John Mullarkey have been at the forefront of the new conception of life, therefore no better editors for these volumes could be selected.' - Professor Leonard Lawlor, Department of Philosophy, University of Memphis, USA

'Long absent from the center of discussion in Western philosophy, Bergson has recently made a reappearance. The Centennial Series of his works undertaken by Palgrave Macmillan thus comes at an opportune time, making it possible for those interested in Bergson's ideas t have access to newly annotated versions of several of his chief writilc+