Description
Book SynopsisFirst 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 ambitious 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 consciousness or intellect. Yet as Bergson brilliantly shows, the intellect's fragmentary and action- oriented nature, which he likens to the cinematograph, means
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"I have been re-reading Bergson's books, and nothing that I have read for years has so excited and stimulated my thoughts. I am sure that his philosophy has a great future; it breaks through old frameworks and brings things to a solution from which new crystallizations can be reached." - William James (1903)
"An updated translation of Bergson’s most significant and most misunderstood book was long overdue. … Landes – who has previously translated Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception, another, notoriously elegant yet challenging text – more than meets these requirements. … There is no doubt that this new translation will become an absolute reference, not least because Landes has included illuminating passages from the critical apparatus of the most recent French edition of L’Evolution créatrice. But Landes’s most remarkable improvement is in his recreation of the effortless flow of Bergson’s philosophical prose." - Emily Herring, Times Literary Supplement
"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 influential 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 indispensable 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 situates 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
"I have been re-reading Bergson's books, and nothing that I have read for years has so excited and stimulated my thoughts. I am sure that his philosophy has a great future; it breaks through old frameworks and brings things to a solution from which new crystallizations can be reached." - William James (1903)
"An updated translation of Bergson’s most significant and most misunderstood book was long overdue. … Landes – who has previously translated Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception, another, notoriously elegant yet challenging text – more than meets these requirements. … There is no doubt that this new translation will become an absolute reference, not least because Landes has included illuminating passages from the critical apparatus of the most recent French edition of L’Evolution créatrice. But Landes’s most remarkable improvement is in his recreation of the effortless flow of Bergson’s philosophical prose." - Emily Herring, Times Literary Supplement
"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 influential 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 indispensable 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 situates 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
Table of ContentsForeword Elizabeth Grosz Translator’s Introduction Donald A. Landes Creative Evolution, by Henri Bergson, translated by Donald A. Landes Bilingual Table of Contents Introduction 1. On the Evolution of Life. Mechanism and Finality 2. The Diverging Directions of Life: Torpor, Intellect, and Instinct 3. On the Meaning of Life, the Order of Nature, and the Form of the Intellect 4. The Cinematographic Mechanism of Thought and the Mechanistic Illusion. A Glance at the History of Systems. Real Becoming and False Evolutionism Correspondence, Reception, and Commentaries Introduction 1. Correspondence James–Bergson Correspondence (1907) Letter to H. Wildon Carr (1908) Letter to Florian Znaniecki (1911) 2. Critical Reception in Biology Bergson and Le Dantec in Dialogue Ruyer as Reader of Bergson 3. Critical Reception in Mathematics Bergson and Borel in Dialogue 4. Critical Reception in Theology Bergson and Tonquédec in Dialogue 5. Notable Commentaries Canguilhem as Reader of L’évolution créatrice Merleau-Ponty as Reader of L’évolution créatrice Deleuze as Reader of L’évolution créatrice Critical Apparatus Editorial Endnotes Bibliographies Index
