''Creative Evolution'' (french: L'Évolution créatrice) is a 1907 book by French philosopher Henri Bergson. Its English translation appeared in 1911. The book proposed a version of

orthogenesis Orthogenesis, also known as orthogenetic evolution, progressive evolution, evolutionary progress, or progressionism, is an obsolete biological hypothesis that organisms have an innate tendency to evolve in a definite direction towards some go ...

in place of Darwin's mechanism of

natural selection Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Cha ...

, suggesting that

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

is motivated by the

élan vital ''Élan vital'' () is a term coined by French philosopher Henri Bergson in his 1907 book '' Creative Evolution'', in which he addresses the question of self-organisation and spontaneous morphogenesis of things in an increasingly complex manner ...

, a "vital impetus" that can also be understood as humanity's natural creative impulse. The book was very popular in the early decades of the twentieth century. The book also developed concepts of time (offered in Bergson's earlier work) which significantly influenced

modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

writers and thinkers such as Marcel Proust and

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...

. For example, Bergson's term "duration" refers to a more individual, subjective experience of time, as opposed to mathematical, objectively measurable "clock time." In ''Creative Evolution'', Bergson suggests that the experience of time as "duration" can best be understood through

intuition Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without recourse to conscious reasoning. Different fields use the word "intuition" in very different ways, including but not limited to: direct access to unconscious knowledge; unconscious cognition; ...

. According to the translator's note, Harvard philosopher

William James William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher, historian, and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States. James is considered to be a leading thinker of the lat ...

intended to write the introduction to the book's English translation, but died in 1910 prior to the completion of the English edition in 1911.

Editions

*Henri Bergson, ''Creative Evolution'' (1911) tr. Arthur Mitchell, Henry Holt and Company *1944, Modern Library, Random House
1998, Dover Publications
*2005, Cosimo Classics,

External links

Discussion of ''Creative Evolution''
(from th
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
. * 1911 edition online.
Bergson, Henri, ''Creative Evolution''. Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1911
a digitized copy at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

. * 1907 non-fiction books Books about evolution Works by Henri Bergson {{philo-book-stub

Editions

See also

External links