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Creative Evolution First published in French in 1907, Henri Bergson’s L’évolution créatrice is a scintillating and radical work by one of the great French philosophers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This outstanding new translation, the first for over a hundred years, brings one of Bergson’s most important and ambi- tious works to a new generation of readers. A sympathetic though critical reader of Darwin, Bergson argues in Creative Evolution against a mechanistic, reductionist view of evolution. For Bergson, all life emerges from a creative, shared impulse, which he famously terms élan vital and which passes like a current through different organisms and generations over time. Whilst this impulse remains as forms of life diverge and multiply, human life is characterized by a distinctive form of conscious- ness or intellect that is modeled upon how objects or parts of objects are juxtaposed in space. Yet as Bergson brilliantly shows, the intellect’s fragmen- tary and action- oriented nature, which he likens to the cinematograph, means it alone cannot grasp nature’s creativity and invention over time. A major task of Creative Evolution is to reconcile these two elements. For Bergson, the answer famously lies in intuition, which brings instinct and intellect together and takes us “into the very interior of life.” A work of great rigor and imaginative richness that contributed to Bergson winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1927, Creative Evolution played an important and controversial role in the trajectory of twentieth-c entury philosophy and continues to create significant discussion and debate. The philosopher and psychologist William James, who admired Bergson’s work, was writing an introduction to the first English translation of the book before his death in 1910. This new translation includes a foreword by Elizabeth Grosz and a helpful translator’s introduction by Donald Landes. Also translated for the first time are additional notes, articles, reviews, and letters on the reception of Creative Evolution in biology, mathematics, and theology. This edition includes fas- cinating commentaries by philosophers Maurice Merleau-P onty, Georges Canguilhem, and Gilles Deleuze. Henri Bergson (1859–1 941) was born in Paris, the year Darwin’s On the Origin of Species was published. Initially drawn equally by the sciences and philosophy, at the age of eighteen Bergson won a prestigious prize for solving a mathematical problem. Choosing philosophy, he attended the École Normale Supérieure and the University of Paris before working as a school teacher in Angers and Clermont-F errand while completing his doctorate at the University of Paris in 1889. He worked for eight years at the Lycée Henri- IV before taking a position as Chair of Greek and Roman Philosophy at the Collège de France in Paris 1900. His weekly lectures soon attracted beyond- capacity crowds, and his visits abroad to England and the United States filled venues and reportedly caused the first- ever traffic jam on Broadway in New York City. Bergson engaged with some of the leading contemporary thinkers, including a famous debate with Einstein in 1922 over the nature of time. He influenced Marcel Proust, Thomas Mann, and the philosopher William James, and was a pioneering figure in the Modernist intellectual movement of the early twentieth century. Henri Bergson Creative Evolution Translated by Donald A. Landes, with a foreword by Elizabeth Grosz Praise for this new edition “This new translation by Donald Landes captures the mesmerizing work that turned Henri Bergson into one of the century’s most provocative thinkers— with expert annotations, correspondence and additional material by influen- tial thinkers from William James to Gilles Deleuze.” - Jimena Canales, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA “Henri Bergson, who personally oversaw the translation of all his books into English, would be delighted by this new edition of his greatest work. Donald Landes’s translation is exquisite and the extensive editorial notes are indis- pensable for the serious study of Creative Evolution.” - Alexandre Lefebvre, University of Sydney, Australia “This splendid new translation provides an exceptional, scholarly tool for serious specialists as well as all readers interested in Bergson’s work. It will swiftly become the definitive reference text for all Anglophone Bergson scholarship.” - Christina Howells, University of Oxford, UK “A major event in post-Kantian philosophy. Featuring a lucid introduction, helpful translator’s notes and a judicious selection from Arnaud François’s illuminating critical dossier, this fine translation of Creative Evolution means that English-language Bergson scholarship has begun to gain the serious editions of his texts that it deserves.” - Mark Sinclair, Roehampton University, UK “This superb translation will introduce a new generation to Bergson. Landes’s cogent introduction and editorial notes and the accompanying dossier of correspondence, reception and commentaries not only situate Creative Evolution in relation to Bergson’s oeuvre, but also to the myriad scientific and philosophical sources informing his thought. An outstanding achievement.” - Mark Antliff, Duke University, USA “This wonderful new translation of Bergson’s classic Creative Evolution is warmly welcomed, as are the rich introduction, comprehensive editorial notes and thoughtful selection of commentaries. There are many improvements to the original translation published over a century ago.” - Emily Thomas, Durham University, UK “Creative Evolution is essential reading today. To translate it well requires a serious engagement with Bergson’s entire body of work, sustained philosophical attention, a feel for context (including discoveries in thermodynamics) and, most importantly, enormous care. Happily, this is what Donald Landes offers us here.” - Suzanne Guerlac, University of California, Berkeley, USA Cover image: Georges Braque, Paysage de l’Estaque (L’Estaque Landscape), 1906. Oil on canvas, Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne, Paris. © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris Portrait of Henri Bergson (1859– 1941), 1919. France Excelsior collection. © Alamy. This edition published in 2023 by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Creative Evolution, by Henri Bergson, originally published as L’évolution créatrice, 1907. English Translation © 2023, Routledge. Foreword © 2023, Elizabeth Grosz. Translator’s Introduction and Translator’s notes, selection and editorial matter © 2023, Donald A. Landes. “Correspondence, Reception and Commentaries,” compiled and edited by Frédéric Worms and Arnaud François, © 2013, Presses Universitaires de France (L’évolution créatrice, “Quadrige” series, 12th edition 2013). English Translation © 2023, Routledge. “The Ideas of Bergson” by Maurice Merleau- Ponty, from Nature: Course Notes from the Collège de France, translated by Robert Vallier. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2003, pp. 51– 70. Originally published in French under the title La nature: Notes, cours du Collège de France. Course notes and compilation copyright © 1995 by Éditions du Seuil. English translation copyright © 2003 by Northwestern University Press. Published 2003. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Bergson, Henri, 1859–1941, author. | Landes, Donald A, translator. Title: Creative evolution / Henri Bergson ; translated by Donald A Landes, with a foreword by Elizabeth Grosz. Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, [2023] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2022008139 (print) | LCCN 2022008140 (ebook) | ISBN 9781138689251 (hbk) | ISBN 9781032319216 (pbk) | ISBN 9781315537818 (ebk) Subjects: LCSH: Life. | Evolution. | Metaphysics. Classification: LCC B2430.B4 E713 2023 (print) | LCC B2430.B4 (ebook) | DDC 113/.8–dc23/eng/20220614 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022008139 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022008140 ISBN: 978- 1- 138- 68925- 1 (hbk) ISBN: 978- 1- 032- 31921- 6 (pbk) ISBN: 978- 1- 315- 53781- 8 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/ 9781315537818 Typeset in Joanna by Newgen Publishing UK C ontents Abbreviations of Bergson’s Works Cited in This Translation x Foreword by Elizabeth Grosz xii Translator’s Introduction by Donald A. Landes xviii Publication Acknowledgments lv Creative Evolution, by Henri Bergson, translated by Donald A. Landes Bilingual Table of Contents lvii Introduction 1 I On the Evolution of Life. Mechanism and Finality 8 II The Diverging Directions of Life’s Evolution: Torpor, Intellect, and Instinct 93 III On the Meaning of Life, the Order of Nature, and the Form of the Intellect 167 IV The Cinematographic Mechanism of Thought and the Mechanistic Illusion. A Glance at the History of Systems. Real Becoming and False Evolutionism 238 viii CONTENTS Correspondence, Reception, and Commentariesa Introduction 319 I Correspondence 321 James–Bergson Correspondence (1907) 321 Letter to H. Wildon Carr (1908) 325 Letter to Florian Znaniecki (1911) 328 II Critical Reception in Biology 330 Bergson and Le Dantec in Dialogue 330 “Bergson’s Biology” (1907), by Félix Le Dantec, translated by Kathleen Hulley 331 “Letter to the Editor of Revue du mois” (1907) 344 Ruyer as Reader of Bergson 348 “Bergson and the Ammophila Sphex” (1959), by Raymond Ruyer, translated by Tano S. Posteraro 349 III Critical Reception in Mathematics 369 Bergson and Borel in Dialogue 369 “The Evolution of Geometrical Intellect” (1907), by Émile Borel, translated by Kathleen Hulley 371 “In Response to ‘The Evolution of Geometrical Intellect’ ” (1908), by Henri Bergson 376 “Letter to the Editor of Revue de métaphysique et de morale” (1908), by Émile Borel 381 IV Critical Reception in Theology 384 Bergson and Tonquédec in Dialogue 384 Preface (1912), by Joseph de Tonquédec 385 “How Should We Interpret the Order of the World?” (1908), by Joseph de Tonquédec 386 Letter from Bergson to Joseph de Tonquédec (May 12, 1908) 390 “Is Bergson a Monist?” (1912), by Joseph de Tonquédec 391 Letter from Bergson to Joseph de Tonquédec (February 20, 1912) 400 a Selections translated by Donald A. Landes unless otherwise indicated. ix CONTENTS V Notable Commentaries 401 Canguilhem as Reader of L’évolution créatrice 401 Commentary on Chapter III of L’évolution créatrice (1943), by Georges Canguilhem 402 Merleau- Ponty as Reader of L’évolution créatrice 415 “The Ideas of Bergson,” from Merleau- Ponty’s Course on Nature at the Collège de France (1956– 1957), by Maurice Merleau- Ponty, translated by Robert Vallier 417 Deleuze as Reader of L’évolution créatrice 439 Lecture Course on Chapter III of Bergson’s Creative Evolution (1960), by Gilles Deleuze, translated by Bryn Loban 440 Critical Apparatus Editorial Endnotes 453 Editorial Endnotes to Creative Evolution, by Arnaud François. Selected, translated, and edited by Donald A. Landes 453 Editorial Endnotes to Correspondence, Reception, and Commentaries 551 Bibliographies 568 Works by Henri Bergson 568 Bibliography of Works Cited by Bergson in L’évolution créatrice 570 Additional Works Cited in Editorial Endnotes and Translator’s Notes 579 Additional Works Cited in Correspondence, Reception, and Commentaries 584 Notable Reviews of and Contemporary Responses to Bergson’s L’évolution créatrice 589 Index 591