Creative Evolution is Henri Bergson’s philosophical work in essay form. It examines evolution, life, time, and consciousness, arguing for a creative vital impetus rather than purely mechanical or finalistic explanations. Listen for its reflections on duration, intuition, and the movement of life.
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Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.
Opening of the book
Transcibers note..The greek contained herein has been transcribed as faithfully as browser limitations allow. CREATIVE EVOLUTION BY HENRI BERGSON MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE PROFESSOR AT THE COLLEGE DE FRANCE AUTHORIZED TRANSLATION BY ARTHUR MITCHELL, Ph.D. NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1911 Copyright, 1911, by HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY CAMELOT PRESS, 18-20 OAK STREET, NEW YORK
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE In the writing of this English translation of Professor Bergson's most important work, I was helped by the friendly interest of Professor William James, to whom I owe the illumination of much that was dark to me as well as the happy rendering of certain words and phrases for which an English equivalent was difficult to find. His sympathetic appreciation of Professor Bergson's thought is well known, and he has expressed his admiration for it in one of the chapters of A Pluralistic Universe. It was his intention, had he lived to see the completion of this translation, himself to introduce it to English readers in a prefatory note. I wish to thank my friend, Dr. George Clarke Cox, for many valuable suggestions. I have endeavored to follow the text as closely as possible, and at the same time to preserve the living union of diction and thought. Professor Bergson has himself carefully revised the whole work. We both of us wish to acknowledge the great assistance of Miss Millicent Murby. She has kindly studied the translation phrase by phrase, weighing each word, and her revision has resulted in many improvements. But above all we must express our acknowledgment to Mr. H. Wildon Carr, the Honorary Secretary of the Aristotelian Society of London, and the writer of several studies of "Evolution Creatrice."[1] We asked him to be kind enough to revise the proofs of our work. He has done much more than revise them: they have come from his hands with his personal mark in many places. We cannot express all that the present work owes to him. ARTHUR MITCHELL Harvard University
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