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 V Aristotelian Society of London, and the writer of several studies of "Evolution Creatrice." 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 1 Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, vols. ix. and x., and Hibbert Journal for July, 1910. Of duration in general-Unorganized bodies and abstract time Of transformism and the different ways of interpreting it-Radi- The quest of a criterion-Examination of the various theories with regard to a particular example-Darwin and insensible variation-De Vries and sudden variation-Eimer and or- thogenesis-Neo-Lamarckism and the hereditability of Result of the inquiry--The vital impetus General idea of the evolutionary process-Growth-Divergent and complementary tendencies-The meaning of progress The relation of the animal to the plant-General tendency of The main directions of the evolution of life: torpor, intelligence, Relation of the problem of life to the problem of knowledge- The method of philosophy-Apparent vicious circle of the method proposed-Real vicious circle of the opposite Simultaneous genesis of matter and intelligence-Geometry inherent in matter-Geometrical tendency of the intellect -Geometry and deduction-Geometry and induction- Sketch of a theory of knowledge based on the analysis of the idea of Disorder-Two opposed forms of order: the prob- lem of genera and the problem of laws-The idea of "dis- order" an oscillation of the intellect between the two kinds Creation and evolution-Ideal genesis of matter-The origin Sketch of a criticism of philosophical systems, based on the The philosophy of Forms and its conception of Becoming- Plato and Aristotle-The natural trend of the intellect Becoming in modern science: two views of Time. The metaphysical interpretation of modern science: Descartes, |