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Books Related to Creative Evolution Henri Bergson - ISBN: 1406761206
the light shining between Heraclitus and Bohm - Rated
Henri Bergson's seminal ``Creative Evolution'' starts off with the flowing movement so prevalent in his philosophy of the organism, one idea flows into the next in a smooth undivided motion. Not only does Bergson explain his work with analogies and examples supported by the biology of the time, thereby distancing himself from the purely intellectual pursuit of most philosohpy, trapped in the world of the mind, but he demonstrates his thought in the very way of exposition he uses throughout the book. One feels his thought is produced like a Mozart symphony, all at once with no corrections needed. This aptly demonstrates the idea of duration and time he proposes in this book. His influence is profound in thinkers such as David Bohm and Alfred North Whitehead which so to speak ``run with it'' in the parlance of baseball. This is a book worth reading twice for its rich display of creativity and also to reread sections not followed the first time. One does feel however that at times the flow is interrupted by disturbances in his mode of thinking leading to disjointed reading. Nonetheless, not only does he open a whole new way of thought free of dualism and the old patterns of mechanism, but he also explains the reason for mechanistic thought itself.
Evolution Philosophy - Rated
My only previous exposure to Bergson was Russell's less than complementary essay in his History of Western Philosophy. The Bergson of this book was unrecognisable - he comes across as an early philosopher of science more than anything, although his science is biology, rather than physics. The main thrust of the book concerns his analysis of the concepts of organisation/matter, intelligence/instinct. The first two sections of the book are remarkably lucid, interweaving the then contemporary biological thought with Bergson's own philosophical insight. The latter two sections steer more into abstract territory, and probably require a wider acquaintance with his other thought to be fully appreciated (certainly I found them more valuable on a second reading when I had a bit more Bergson under my belt). While they are worth persevering with on their own merits, if you find them unpalatable I think the more original and interesting portion of the book is the first two sections, and I also believe these sections can be extracted from the book without doing too much damage. All in all, if you have an interest in evolutionary biology from a philosophical standpoint this is very worthwhile. Only three stars however due to limited introduction, glosses etc., although if you don't have any French this is the only thing available.
