,a ,,new ,,philosophy3 ,,henri ,,bergson by ,edouard le ,roy ,translated from the ,french by ,vincent ,benson ,preface ,this little book is due to two articles published under the same title in the ,revue des ,deux ,mondes1 #ast and #aeth ,february #aiab4 ,their object was to present ,mr ,bergson's philosophy to the public at large1 giving as short a sketch as possible1 and describing1 without too minute details1 the general trend of his movement4 ,these articles ,i have here reprinted intact4 ,but ,i have added1 in the form of continuous notes1 some additional explanations on points which did not come within the scope of investigation in the original sketch4 ,i need hardly add that my work1 though thus far complete1 does not in any way claim to be a profound critical study4 ,indeed1 such a study1 dealing with a thinker who has not yet said his last word1 would today be premature4 ,i have simply aimed at writing an introduction which will make it easier to read and understand ,mr ,bergson's works1 and serve as a preliminary guide to those who desire initiation in the new philosophy4 ,i have therefore firmly waived all the paraphernalia of technical discussions1 and have made no comparisons1 learned or otherwise1 between ,mr ,bergson's teaching and that of older philosophies4 ,i can conceive no better method of misunderstanding the point at issue1 ,i mean the simple unity of productive intuition1 than that of pigeon-holing names of systems1 collecting instances of resemblance1 making up analogies1 and specifying ingredients4 ,an original philosophy is not meant to be studied as a mosaic which takes to pieces1 a compound which analyses1 or a body which dissects4 ,on the contrary1 it is by considering it as a living act1 not as a rather clever discourse1 by examining the peculiar excellence of its soul rather than the formation of its body1 that the inquirer will succeed in understanding it4 ,properly speaking1 ,i have only applied to ,mr ,bergson the method which he himself justifiably prescribes in a recent article 7,revue de ,metaphysique et de ,morale1 ,november #aiaa71 the only method1 in fact1 which is in all senses of the word fully exact4 ,i shall none the less be glad if these brief pages can be of any interest to professional philosophers1 and have endeavoured1 as far as possible1 to allow them to trace1 under the concise formulae employed1 the scheme which ,i have refused to develop4 ,it has become evident to me that even today the interpretation of ,mr ,bergson's position is in many cases full of faults1 which it would undoubtedly be worth while to assist in removing4 ,i may or may not have succeeded in my attempt1 but such1 at any rate1 is the precise end ,i had in view4 ,in conclusion1 ,i may say that ,i have not had the honour of being ,mr ,bergson's pupil2 and1 at the time when ,i became acquainted with his outlook1 my own direct reflection on science and life had already produced in me similar trains of thought4 ,i found in his work the striking realisation of a presentiment and a desire4 ,this correspondence1 which ,i have not exaggerated1 proved at once a help and a hindrance to me in entering into the exact comprehension of so profoundly original a doctrine4 ,the reader will thus understand that ,i think it in place to quote my authority to him in the following lines which ,mr ,bergson kindly wrote me after the publication of the articles reproduced in this volume3 ,underneath and beyond the method you have caught the intention and the spirit444,your study could not be more conscientious or true to the original4 ,as it advances1 condensation increases in a marked degree3 the reader becomes aware that the explanation is undergoing a progressive involution similar to the involution by which we determine the reality of ,time4 ,to produce this feeling1 much more has been necessary than a close study of my works3 it has required deep sympathy of thought1 the power1 in fact1 of rethinking the subject in a personal and original manner4 ,nowhere is this sympathy more in evidence than in your concluding pages1 where in a few words you point out the possibilities of further developments of the doctrine4 ,in this direction ,i should myself say exactly what you have said4 ,paris1 #bhth ,march #aiab4 ,,contents ,preface ,,general ,,view ,i4 ,method4 ,scope of ,henri ,bergson's ,philosophy4 ,material and ,authorities4 ,investigation of ,common-sense4 ,value of ,science4 ,perception ,discussed4 ,practical ,life and ,reality4 ,concepts and ,symbolism4 ,intuition and ,analysis4 ,use of ,metaphor4 ,the ,philosopher's ,task4 ,,ii4 ,teaching4 ,the ,ego4 ,space and ,number4 ,parallelism4 ,henri ,bergson's ,view of ,mind and ,matter4 ,qualitative ,continuity4 ,memory4 ,real ,duration ,heterogeneous4 ,liberty and ,determinism4 ,meaning of ,reality4 ,evolution and ,automatism4 ,triumph of ,man4 ,the ,vital ,impulse4 ,objections ,refuted4 ,place of ,religion in the ,new ,philosophy4 ,,additional ,,explanations ,i4 ,henri ,bergson's ,work and the ,general ,directions of ,contemporary ,thought4 ,mathematics and ,philosophy4 ,the ,inert and the ,living4 ,realism and ,positivism4 ,henri ,bergson and the ,intuition of ,duration4 ,,ii4 ,immediacy4 ,necessity of ,criticism4 ,utilitarianism of ,common-sense4 ,perception of ,immediacy4 ,,iii4 ,theory of ,perception4 ,pure and ,ordinary ,perception4 ,kant's ,position4 ,relation of ,perception to ,matter4 ,complete ,experience4 ,,iv4 ,critique of ,language4 ,dynamic ,schemes4 ,dangers of ,language4 ,the ,eleatic ,dialectic4 ,scientific ,thought and the ,task of ,intuition4 ,discussion of ,change4 ,v4 ,the ,problem of ,consciousness3 ,duration and ,liberty4 ,states as ,phases in ,duration4 ,the ,scientific ,view of ,time4 ,duration and ,freedom4 ,liberty and ,determinism in the ,light of ,henri ,bergson's ,philosophy4 ,,vi4 ,the ,problem of ,evolution3 ,life and ,matter4 ,evolution and ,creation4 ,laws of ,conservation and ,degradation4 ,quantity and ,quality4 ,secondary ,value of ,matter4 ,,vii4 ,the ,problem of ,knowledge3 ,analysis and ,intuition4 ,difficulties of ,kant's ,position4 ,insufficiency of ,intelligence4 ,henri ,bergson and the ,problem of ,reason4 ,geometric and ,vital ,types of ,order4 ,,viii4 ,conclusion4 ,moral and ,religious ,problems4 ,henri ,bergson's ,position4 ,a ,,new ,,philosophy ,,general ,,view ,i4 ,method4 ,there is a thinker whose name is today on everybody's lips1 who is deemed by acknowledged philosophers worthy of comparison with the greatest1 and who1 with his pen as well as his brain1 has overleapt all technical obstacles1 and won himself a reading both outside and inside the schools4 ,beyond any doubt1 and by common consent1 ,mr ,henri ,bergson's work will appear to future eyes among the most characteristic1 fertile1 and glorious of our era4 ,it marks a never-to-be-forgotten date in history2 it opens up a phase of metaphysical thought2 it lays down a principle of development the limits of which are indeterminable2 and it is after cool consideration1 with full consciousness of the exact value of words1 that we are able to pronounce the revolution which it effects equal in importance to that effected by ,kant1 or even by ,socrates4 ,everybody1 indeed1 has become aware of this more or less clearly4 ,else how are we to explain1 except through such recognition1 the sudden striking spread of this new philosophy which1 by its learned rigorism1 precluded the likelihood of so rapid a triumph8 ,twenty years have sufficed to make its results felt far beyond traditional limits3 and now its influence is alive and working from one pole of thought to the other2 and the active leaven contained in it can be seen already extending to the most varied and distant spheres3 in social and political spheres1 where from opposite points1 and not without certain abuses1 an attempt is already being made to wrench it in contrary directions2 in the sphere of religious speculation1 where it has been more legitimately summoned to a distinguished1 illuminative1 and beneficent career2 in the sphere of pure science1 where1 despite old separatist prejudices1 the ideas sown are pushing up here and there2 and lastly1 in the sphere of art1 where there are indications that it is likely to help certain presentiments1 which have till now remained obscure1 to become conscious of themselves4 ,the moment is favourable to a study of ,mr ,bergson's philosophy2 but in the face of so many attempted methods of employment1 some of them a trifle premature1 the point of paramount importance1 applying ,mr ,bergson's own method to himself1 is to study his philosophy in itself1 for itself1 in its profound trend and its authenticated action1 without claiming to enlist it in the ranks of any cause whatsoever4 ,i4 ,mr ,bergson's readers will undergo at almost every page they read an intense and singular experience4 ,the curtain drawn between ourselves and reality1 enveloping everything including ourselves in its illusive folds1 seems of a sudden to fall1 dissipated by enchantment1 and display to the mind depths of light till then undreamt1 in which reality itself1 contemplated face to face for the first time1 stands fully revealed4 ,the revelation is overpowering1 and once vouchsafed will never afterwards be forgotten4 ,nothing can convey to the reader the effects of this direct and intimate mental vision4 ,everything which he thought he knew already finds new birth and vigour in the clear light of morning3 on all hands1 in the glow of dawn1 new intuitions spring up and open out2 we feel them big with infinite consequences1 heavy and saturated with life4 ,each of them is no sooner blown than it appears fertile for ever4 ,and yet there is nothing paradoxical or disturbing in the novelty4 ,it is a reply to our expectation1 an answer to some dim hope4 ,so vivid is the impression of truth1 that afterwards we are even ready to believe we recognise the revelation as if we had always darkly anticipated it in some mysterious twilight at the back of consciousness4 ,afterwards1 no doubt1 in certain cases1 incertitude reappears1 sometimes even decided objections4 ,the reader1 who at first was under a magic spell1 corrects his thought1 or at least hesitates4 ,what he has seen is still at bottom so new1 so unexpected1 so far removed from familiar conceptions4 ,for this surging wave of thought our mind contains none of those ready-cut channels which render comprehension easy4 ,but whether1 in the long run1 we each of us give or refuse complete or partial adhesion1 all of us1 at least1 have received a regenerating shock1 an internal upheaval not readily silenced3 the network of our intellectual habits is broken2 henceforth a new leaven works and ferments in us2 we shall no longer think as we used to think2 and be we pupils or critics1 we cannot mistake the fact that we have here a principle of integral renewal for ancient philosophy and its old and timeworn problems4 ,it is obviously impossible to sketch in brief all the aspects and all the wealth of so original a work4 ,still less shall ,i be able to answer here the many questions which arise4 ,i must decide to pass rapidly over the technical detail of clear1 closely-argued1 and penetrating discussions2 over the scope and exactness of the evidence borrowed from the most diverse positive sciences2 over the marvellous dexterity of the psychological analysis2 over the magic of a style which can call up what words cannot express4 ,the solidity of the construction will not be evidenced in these pages1 nor its austere and subtle beauty4 ,but what ,i do at all costs wish to bring out1 in shorter form1 in this new philosophy1 is its directing idea and general movement4 ,in such an undertaking1 where the end is to understand rather than to judge1 criticism ought to take second place4 ,it is more profitable to attempt to feel oneself into the heart of the teaching1 to relive its genesis1 to perceive the principle of organic unity1 to come at the mainspring4 ,let our reading be a course of meditation which we live4 ,the only true homage we can render to the masters of thought consists in ourselves thinking1 as far as we can do so1 in their train1 under their inspiration1 and along the paths which they have opened up4 ,in the case before us this road is landmarked by several books which it will be sufficient to study one after the other1 and take successively as the text of our reflections4 ,in #ahhi ,mr ,bergson made his appearance with an ,essay on the ,immediate ,data of ,consciousness4 ,this was his doctor's thesis4 ,taking up his position inside the human personality1 in its inmost mind1 he endeavoured to lay hold of the depths of life and free action in their commonly overlooked and fugitive originality4 ,some years later1 in #ahif1 passing this time to the externals of consciousness1 the contact surface between things and the ego1 he published ,matter and ,memory1 a masterly study of perception and recollection1 which he himself put forward as an inquiry into the relation between body and mind4 ,in #aijg he followed with ,creative ,evolution1 in which the new metaphysic was outlined in its full breadth1 and developed with a wealth of suggestion and perspective opening upon the distances of infinity2 universal evolution1 the meaning of life1 the nature of mind and matter1 of intelligence and instinct1 were the great problems here treated1 ending in a general critique of knowledge and a completely original definition of philosophy4 ,these will be our guides which we shall carefully follow1 step by step4 ,it is not1 ,i must confess1 without some apprehension that ,i undertake the task of summing up so much research1 and of condensing into a few pages so many and such new conclusions4 ,mr ,bergson excels1 even on points of least significance1 in producing the feeling of unfathomed depths and infinite levels4 ,never has anyone better understood how to fulfil the philosopher's first task1 in pointing out the hidden mystery in everything4 ,with him we see all at once the concrete thickness and inexhaustible extension of the most familiar reality1 which has always been before our eyes1 where before we were aware only of the external film4 ,do not imagine that this is simply a poetical delusion4 ,we must be grateful if the philosopher uses exquisite language and writes in a style which abounds in living images4 ,these are rare qualities4 ,but let us avoid being duped by a show of printed matter3 these unannotated pages are supported by positive science submitted to the most minute inspection4 ,one day1 in #aija1 at the ,french ,philosophical ,society1 ,mr ,bergson related the genesis of ,matter and ,memory4 ,twelve years or so before its appearance1 ,i had set myself the following problem3 ',what would be the teaching of the physiology and pathology of today upon the ancient question of the connection between physical and moral to an unprejudiced mind1 determined to forget all speculation in which it has indulged on this point1 determined also to neglect1 in the enunciations of philosophers1 all that is not pure and simple statement of fact8' ,i set myself to solve the problem1 and ,i very soon perceived that the question was susceptible of a provisional solution1 and even of precise formulation1 only if restricted to the problem of memory4 ,in memory itself ,i was forced to determine bounds which ,i had afterwards to narrow considerably4 ,after confining myself to the recollection of words ,i saw that the problem1 as stated1 was still too broad1 and that1 to put the question in its most precise and interesting form1 ,i should have to substitute the recollection of the sound of words4 ,the literature on aphasia is enormous4 ,i took five years to sift it4 ,and ,i arrived at this conclusion1 that between the psychological fact and its corresponding basis in the brain there must be a relation which answers to none of the ready-made concepts furnished us by philosophy4 ,certain characteristics of ,mr ,bergson's manner will be remarked throughout3 his provisional effort of forgetfulness to recreate a new and untrammelled mind2 his mixture of positive inquiry and bold invention2 his stupendous reading2 his vast pioneer work carried on with indefatigable patience2 his constant correction by criticism1 informed of the minutest details and swift to follow up each of them at every turn4 ,with a problem which would at first have seemed secondary and incomplete1 but which reappears as the subject deepens and is thereby metamorphosed1 he connects his entire philosophy2 and so well does he blend the whole and breathe upon it the breath of life that the final statement leaves the reader with an impression of sovereign ease4 ,examples will be necessary to enable us1 even to a feeble extent1 to understand this proceeding better4 ,but before we come to examples1 a preliminary question requires examination4 ,in the preface to his first ,essay ,mr ,bergson defined the principle of a method which was afterwards to reappear in its identity throughout his various works2 and we must recall the terms he employed4 ,we are forced to express ourselves in words1 and we think1 most often1 in space4 ,to put it another way1 language compels us to establish between our ideas the same clear and precise distinctions1 and the same break in continuity1 as between material objects4 ,this assimilation is useful in practical life and necessary in most sciences4 ,but we are right in asking whether the insuperable difficulties of certain philosophical problems do not arise from the fact that we persist in placing non-spatial phenomena next one another in space1 and whether1 if we did away with the vulgar illustrations round which we dispute1 we should not sometimes put an end to the dispute4 ,that is to say1 it is stated to be the philosopher's duty from the outset to renounce the usual forms of analytic and synthetic thought1 and to achieve a direct intuitional effort which shall put him in immediate contact with reality4 ,without doubt it is this question of method which demands our first attention4 ,it is the leading question4 ,mr ,bergson himself presents his works as essays which do not aim at solving the greatest problems all at once1 but seek merely to define the method and disclose the possibility of applying it on some essential points4 7,preface to ,creative ,evolution47 ,it is also a delicate question1 for it dominates all the rest1 and decides whether we shall fully understand what is to follow4 ,we must therefore pause here a moment4 ,to direct us in this preliminary study we have an admirable ,introduction to ,metaphysis1 which appeared as an article in the ,metaphysical and ,moral ,review 7,january #aijc73 a short but marvellously suggestive memoire1 constituting the best preface to the reading of the books themselves4 ,we may say in passing1 that we should be grateful to ,mr ,bergson if he would have it bound in volume form1 along with some other articles which are scarcely to be had at all today4 ,,ii4 ,every philosophy1 prior to taking shape in a group of co-ordinated theses1 presents itself1 in its initial stage1 as an attitude1 a frame of mind1 a method4 ,nothing can be more important than to study this starting-point1 this elementary act of direction and movement1 if we wish afterwards to arrive at the precise shade of meaning of the subsequent teaching4 ,here is really the fountain-head of thought2 it is here that the form of the future system is determined1 and here that contact with reality takes effect4 ,the last point1 particularly1 is vital4 ,to return to the direct view of things beyond all figurative symbols1 to descend into the inmost depths of being1 to watch the throbbing life in its pure state1 and listen to the secret rhythm of its inmost breath1 to measure it1 at least so far as measurement is possible1 has always been the philosopher's ambition2 and the new philosophy has not departed from this ideal4 ,but in what light does it regard its task8 ,that is the first point to clear up4 ,for the problem is complex1 and the goal distant4 ,we are made as much1 and more1 for action than for thought1 says ,mr ,bergson2 or rather1 when we follow our natural impulse1 it is to act that we think4 7,l',evolution ,creatrice1 page #cba47 ,and again1 ,what we ordinarily call a fact is not reality such as it would appear to an immediate intuition1 but an adaptation of reality to practical interests and the demands of social life4 7,matiere et ,memoire1 page #bja47 ,hence the question which takes precedence of all others is3 to distinguish in our common representation of the world1 the fact in its true sense from the combinations which we have introduced in view of action and language4 ,now1 to rediscover nature in her fresh springs of reality1 it is not sufficient to abandon the images and conceptions invented by human initiative2 still less is it sufficient to fling ourselves into the torrent of brute sensations4 ,by so doing we are in danger of dissolving our thought in dream or quenching it in night4 ,above all1 we are in danger of committal to a path which it is impossible to follow4 ,the philosopher is not free to begin the work of knowledge again upon other planes1 with a mind which would be adequate to the new and virgin issue of a simple writ of oblivion4 ,at the time when critical reflection begins1 we have already been long engaged in action and science1 by the training of individual life1 as by hereditary and racial experience1 our faculties of perception and conception1 our senses and our understanding1 have contracted habits1 which are by this time unconscious and instinctive2 we are haunted by all kinds of ideas and principles1 so familiar today that they even pass unobserved4 ,but what is it all worth8 ,does it1 in its present state1 help us to know the nature of a disinterested intuition8 ,nothing but a methodical examination of consciousness can tell us that2 and it will take more than a renunciation of explicit knowledge to recreate in us a new mind1 capable of grasping the bare fact exactly as it is3 what we require is perhaps a penetrating reform1 a kind of conversion4 ,the rational and perceptive function we term our intelligence emerges from darkness through a slowly lifting dawn4 ,during this twilight period it has lived1 worked1 acted1 fashioned and informed itself4 ,on the threshold of philosophical speculation it is full of more or less concealed beliefs1 which are literally prejudices1 and branded with a secret mark influencing its every movement4 ,here is an actual situation4 ,exemption from it is beyond anyone's province4 ,whether we will or no1 we are from the beginning of our inquiry immersed in a doctrine which disguises nature to us1 and already at bottom constitutes a complete metaphysic4 ,this we term common-sense1 and positive science is itself only an extension and refinement of it4 ,what is the value of this work performed without clear consciousness or critical attention8 ,does it bring us into true relation with things1 into relation with pure consciousness8 ,this is our first and inevitable doubt1 which requires solution4 ,but it would be a quixotic proceeding first to make a void in our mind1 and afterwards to admit into it1 one by one1 after investigation1 such and such a concept1 or such and such a principle4 ,the illusion of the clean sweep and total reconstruction can never be too vigorously condemned4 ,is it from the void that we set out to think8 ,do we think in void1 and with nothing8 ,common ideas of necessity form the groundwork for the broidery of our advanced thought4 ,further1 even if we succeeded in our impossible task1 should we1 in so doing1 have corrected the causes of error which are today graven upon the very structure of our intelligence1 such as our past life has made it8 ,these errors would not cease to act imperceptibly upon the work of revision intended to apply the remedy4 ,it is from within1 by an effort of immanent purgation1 that the necessary reform must be brought about4 ,and philosophy's first task is to institute critical reflection upon the obscure beginnings of thought1 with a view to shedding light upon its spontaneous virgin condition1 but without any vain claim to lift it out of the current in which it is actually plunged4 ,one conclusion is already plain3 the groundwork of common-sense is sure1 but the form is suspicious4 ,in common-sense is contained1 at any rate virtually and in embryo1 all that can ever be attained of reality1 for reality is verification1 not construction4 ,everything has its starting-point in construction and verification4 ,thus philosophical research can only be a conscious and deliberate return to the facts of primal intuition4 ,but common-sense1 being prepossessed in a practical direction1 has doubtless subjected these facts to a process of interested alteration1 which is artificial in proportion to the labour bestowed4 ,such is ,mr ,bergson's fundamental hypothesis1 and it is far-reaching4 ,many metaphysical difficulties probably arise from our habit of confounding speculation and practice2 or of pushing an idea in the direction of utility1 when we think we fathom it in theory2 or1 lastly1 of employing in thought the forms of action4 7,preface to ,matter and ,memory4 ,first edition47 ,the work of reform will consist therefore in freeing our intelligence from its utilitarian habits1 by endeavouring at the outset to become clearly conscious of them4 ,notice how far presumption is in favour of our hypothesis4 ,whether we regard organic life in the genesis and preservation of the individual1 or in the evolution of species1 we see its natural direction to be towards utility3 but the effort of thought comes after the effort of life2 it is not added from outside1 it is the continuance and the flower of the former effort4 ,must we not expect from this that it will preserve its former habits8 ,and what do we actually observe8 ,the first gleam of human intelligence in prehistoric times is revealed to us by an industry2 the cut flint of the primitive caves marks the first stage of the road which was one day to end in the most sublime philosophies4 ,again1 every science has begun by practical arts4 ,indeed1 our science of today1 however disinterested it may have become1 remains none the less in close relation with the demands of our action2 it permits us to speak of and to handle things rather than to see them in their intimate and profound nature4 ,analysis1 when applied to our operations of knowledge1 shows us that our understanding parcels out1 arrests1 and quantifies1 whereas reality1 as it appears to immediate intuition1 is a moving series1 a flux of blended qualities4 ,that is to say1 our understanding solidifies all that it touches4 ,have we not here exactly the essential postulates of action and speech8 ,to speak1 as to act1 we must have separable elements1 terms and objects which remain inert while the operation goes on1 maintaining between themselves the constant relations which find their most perfect and ideal presentment in mathematics4 ,everything tends1 then1 to incline us towards the hypothesis in question4 ,let us regard it henceforward as expressing a fact4 ,the forms of knowledge elaborated by common-sense were not originally intended to allow us to see reality as it is4 ,their task was rather1 and remains so1 to enable us to grasp its practical aspect4 ,it is for that they are made1 not for philosophical speculation4 ,now these forms nevertheless have existed in us as inveterate habits1 soon becoming unconscious1 even when we have reached the point of desiring knowledge for its own sake4 ,but in this new stage they preserve the bias of their original utilitarian function1 and carry this mark with them everywhere1 leaving it upon the fresh tasks which we are fain to make them accomplish4 ,an inner reform is therefore imperative today1 if we are to succeed in unearthing and sifting1 in our perception of nature1 under the veinstone of practical symbolism1 the true intuitional content4 ,this attempt at return to the standpoint of pure contemplation and disinterested experience is a task very different from the task of science4 ,it is one thing to regard more and more or less and less closely with the eyes made for us by utilitarian evolution3 it is another to labour at remaking for ourselves eyes capable of seeing1 in order to see1 and not in order to live4 ,philosophy understood in this manner--and we shall see more and more clearly as we go on that there is no other legitimate method of understanding it--demands from us an almost violent act of reform and conversion4 ,the mind must turn round upon itself1 invert the habitual direction of its thought1 climb the hill down which its instinct towards action has carried it1 and go to seek experience at its source1 above the critical bend where it inclines towards our practical use and becomes1 properly speaking1 human experience4 7,matter and ,memory1 page #bjc47 ,in short1 by a twin effort of criticism and expansion1 it must pass outside common-sense and synthetic understanding to return to pure intuition4 ,philosophy consists in reliving the immediate over again1 and in interpreting our rational science and everyday perception by its light4 ,that1 at least1 is the first stage4 ,we shall find afterwards that that is not all4 ,here is a genuinely new conception of philosophy4 ,here1 for the first time1 philosophy is made specifically distinct from science1 yet remains no less positive4 ,what science really does is to preserve the general attitude of common-sense1 with its apparatus of forms and principles4 ,it is true that science develops and perfects it1 refines and extends it1 and even now and again corrects it4 ,but science does not change either the direction or the essential steps4 ,in this philosophy1 on the contrary1 what is at first suspected and finally modified1 is the setting of the points before the journey begins4 ,not that1 in saying so1 we mean to condemn science2 but we must recognise its just limits4 ,the methods of science proper are in their place and appropriate1 and lead to a knowledge which is true 7though still symbolical71 so long as the object studied is the world of practical action1 or1 to put it briefly1 the world of inert matter4 ,but soul1 life1 and activity escape it1 and yet these are the spring and ultimate basis of everything3 and it is the appreciation of this fact1 with what it entails1 that is new4 ,and yet1 new as ,mr ,bergson's conception of philosophy may deservedly appear1 it does not any the less1 from another point of view1 deserve to be styled classic and traditional4 ,what it really defines is not so much a particular philosophy as philosophy itself1 in its original function4 ,everywhere in history we find its secret current at its task4 ,all great philosophers have had glimpses of it1 and employed it in moments of discovery4 ,only as a general rule they have not clearly recognised what they were doing1 and so have soon turned aside4 ,but on this point ,i cannot insist without going into lengthy detail1 and am obliged to refer the reader to the fourth chapter of ,creative ,evolution1 where he will find the whole question dealt with4 ,one remark1 however1 has still to be made4 ,philosophy1 according to ,mr ,bergson's conception1 implies and demands time2 it does not aim at completion all at once1 for the mental reform in question is of the kind which requires gradual fulfilment4 ,the truth which it involves does not set out to be a non-temporal essence1 which a sufficiently powerful genius would be able1 under pressure1 to perceive in its entirety at one view2 and that again seems to be very new4 ,i do not1 of course1 wish to abuse systems of philosophy4 ,each of them is an experience of thought1 a moment in the life of thought1 a method of exploring reality1 a reagent which reveals an aspect4 ,truth undergoes analysis into systems as does light into colours4 ,but the mere name system calls up the static idea of a finished building4 ,here there is nothing of the kind4 ,the new philosophy desires to be a proceeding as much as1 and even more than1 to be a system4 ,it insists on being lived as well as thought4 ,it demands that thought should work at living its true life1 an inner life related to itself1 effective1 active1 and creative1 but not on that account directed towards external action4 ,and1 says ,mr ,bergson1 it can only be constructed by the collective and progressive effort of many thinkers1 and of many observers1 completing1 correcting1 and righting one another4 7,preface to ,creative ,evolution47 ,let us see how it begins1 and what is its generating act4 ,,iii4 ,how are we to attain the immediate8 ,how are we to realise this perception of pure fact which we stated to be the philosopher's first step8 ,unless we can clear up this doubt1 the end proposed will remain to our gaze an abstract and lifeless ideal4 ,this is1 then1 the point which requires instant explanation4 ,for there is a serious difficulty in which the very employment of the word immediate might lead us astray4 ,the immediate1 in the sense which concerns us1 is not at all1 or at least is no longer for us the passive experience1 the indefinable something which we should inevitably receive1 provided we opened our eyes and abstained from reflection4 ,as a matter of fact1 we cannot abstain from reflection3 reflection is today part of our very vision2 it comes into play as soon as we open our eyes4 ,so that1 to come on the trail of the immediate1 there must be effort and work4 ,how are we to guide this effort8 ,in what will this work consist8 ,by what sign shall we be able to recognise that the result has been obtained8 ,these are the questions to be cleared up4 ,mr ,bergson speaks of them chiefly in connection with the realities of consciousness1 or1 more generally speaking1 of life4 ,and it is here1 in fact1 that the consequences are most weighty and far-reaching4 ,we shall need to refer to them again in detail4 ,but to simplify my explanation1 ,i will here choose another example3 that of inert matter1 of the perception on which the physical is based4 ,it is in this case that the divergence between common perception and pure perception1 however real it may be1 assumes least proportions4 ,therefore it appears most in place in the sketch ,i desire to trace of an exceedingly complex work1 where ,i can only hope1 evidently1 to indicate the main lines and general direction4 ,we readily believe that when we cast our eyes upon surrounding objects1 we enter into them unresistingly and apprehend them all at once in their intrinsic nature4 ,perception would thus be nothing but simple passive registration4 ,but nothing could be more untrue1 if we are speaking of the perception which we employ without profound criticism in the course of our daily life4 ,what we here take to be pure fact is1 on the contrary1 the last term in a highly complicated series of mental operations4 ,and this term contains as much of us as of things4 ,in fact1 all concrete perception comes up for analysis as an indissoluble mixture of construction and fact1 in which the fact is only revealed through the construction1 and takes on its complexion4 ,we all know by experience how incapable the uneducated person is of explaining the simple appearance of the least fact1 without embodying a crowd of false interpretations4 ,we know to a less extent1 but it is also true1 that the most enlightened and adroit person proceeds in just the same manner3 his interpretation is better1 but it is still interpretation4 ,that is why accurate observation is so difficult2 we see or we do not see1 we notice such and such an aspect1 we read this or that1 according to our state of consciousness at the time1 according to the direction of the investigation on which we are engaged4 ,who was it defined art as nature seen through a mind8 ,perception1 too1 is an art4 ,this art has its processes1 its conventions1 and its tools4 ,go into a laboratory and study one of those complex instruments which make our senses finer or more powerful2 each of them is literally a sheaf of materialised theories1 and by means of it all acquired science is brought to bear on each new observation of the student4 ,in exactly the same way our organs of sense are actual instruments constructed by the unconscious work of the mind in the course of biological evolution2 they too sum up and give concrete form and expression to a system of enlightening theories4 ,but that is not all4 ,the most elementary psychology shows us the amount of thought1 in the correct sense of the term1 recollection1 or inference1 which enters into what we should be tempted to call pure perception4 ,establishment of fact is not the simple reception of the faithful imprint of that fact2 it is invariably interpreted1 systematised1 and placed in pre-existing forms which constitute veritable theoretical frames4 ,that is why the child has to learn to perceive4 ,there is an education of the senses which he acquires by long training4 ,one day1 which aid of habit1 he will almost cease to see things3 a few lines1 a few glimpses1 a few simple signs noted in a brief passing glance1 will enable him to recognise them2 and he will hardly retain any more of reality than its schemes and symbols4 ,perception1 says ,mr ,bergson on this subject1 becomes in the end only an opportunity of recollection4 7,matter and ,memory1 page #ei47 ,all concrete perception1 it is true1 is directed less upon the present than the past4 ,the part of pure perception in it is small1 and immediately covered and almost buried by the contribution of memory4 ,this infinitesimal part acts as a bait4 ,it is a summons to recollection1 challenging us to extract from our previous experience1 and construct with our acquired wealth a system of images which permits us to read the experience of the moment4 ,with our scheme of interpretation thus constituted we encounter the few fugitive traits which we have actually perceived4 ,if the theory we have elaborated adapts itself1 and succeeds in accounting for1 connecting1 and making sense of these traits1 we shall finally have a perception properly so called4 ,perception then1 in the usual sense of the word1 is the resolution of a problem1 the verification of a theory4 ,thus are explained errors of the senses1 which are in reality errors of interpretation4 ,thus too1 and in the same manner1 we have the explanation of dreams4 ,let us take a simple example4 ,when you read a book1 do you spell each syllable1 one by one1 to group the syllables afterwards into words1 and the words into phrases1 thus travelling from print to meaning8 ,not at all3 you grasp a few letters accurately1 a few downstrokes in their graphical outline2 then you guess the remainder1 travelling in the reverse direction1 from a probable meaning to the print which you are interpreting4 ,this is what causes mistakes in reading1 and the well-known difficulty in seeing printing errors4 ,this observation is confirmed by curious experiments4 ,write some everyday phrase or other on a blackboard2 let there be a few intentional mistakes here and there1 a letter or two altered1 or left out4 ,place the words in a dark room in front of a person who1 of course1 does not know what has been written4 ,then turn on the light without allowing the observer sufficient time to spell the writing4 ,in spite of this1 he will in most cases read the entire phrase1 without hesitation or difficulty4 ,he has restored what was missing1 or corrected what was at fault4 ,now1 ask him what letters he is certain he saw1 and you will find he will tell you an omitted or altered letter as well as a letter actually written4 ,the observer then thinks he sees in broad light a letter which is not there1 if that letter1 in virtue of the general sense1 ought to appear in the phrase4 ,but you can go further1 and vary the experiment4 ,suppose we write the word tumult correctly4 ,after doing so1 to direct the memory of the observer into a certain trend of recollection1 call out in his ear1 during the short time the light is turned on1 another word of different meaning1 for example1 the word railway4 ,the observer will read tunnel2 that is to say1 a word1 the graphical outline of which is like that of the written word1 but connected in sense with the order of recollection called up4 ,in this mistake in reading1 as in the spontaneous correction of the previous experiment1 we see very clearly that perception is always the fulfilment of guesswork4 ,it is the direction of this work that we are concerned to determine4 ,according to the popular idea1 perception has a completely speculative interest3 it is pure knowledge4 ,therein lies the fundamental mistake4 ,notice first of all how much more probable it is1 a priori1 that the work of perception1 just as any other natural and spontaneous work1 should have a utilitarian signification4 ,life1 says ,mr ,bergson with justice1 is the acceptance from objects of nothing but the useful impression1 with the response of the appropriate reactions4 7,laughter1 page #aed47 ,and this view receives striking objective confirmation if1 with the author of ,matter and ,memory1 we follow the progress of the perceptive functions along the animal series from the protoplasm to the higher vertebrates2 or if1 with him1 we analyse the task of the body1 and discover that the nervous system is manifested in its very structure as1 before all1 an instrument of action4 ,have we not already besides proof of this in the fact that each of us always appears in his own eyes to occupy the centre of the world he perceives8 ,the ,riquet of ,anatole ,france voices ,mr ,bergson's view3 ,i am always in the centre of everything1 and men and beasts and things1 for or against me1 range themselves around4 ,but direct analysis leads us still more plainly to the same conclusion4 ,let us take the perception of bodies4 ,it is easy to show--and ,i regret that ,i cannot here reproduce ,mr ,bergson's masterly demonstration--that the division of matter into distinct objects with sharp outlines is produced by a selection of images which is completely relative to our practical needs4 ,the distinct outlines which we assign to an object1 and which bestow upon it its individuality1 are nothing but the graph of a certain kind of influence which we should be able to employ at a certain point in space3 it is the plan of our future actions which is submitted to our eyes1 as in a mirror1 when we perceive the surfaces and edges of things4 ,remove this action1 and in consequence the high roads which it makes for itself in advance by perception1 in the web of reality1 and the individuality of the body will be reabsorbed in the universal interaction which is without doubt reality itself4 ,which is tantamount to saying that rough bodies are cut in the material of nature by a perception of which the scissors follow1 in some sort1 the dotted line along which the action would pass4 7,creative ,evolution1 page #ab47 ,bodies independent of common experience do not then appear1 to an attentive criticism1 as veritable realities which would have an existence in themselves4 ,they are only centres of co-ordination for our actions4 ,or1 if you prefer it1 our needs are so many shafts of light which1 when played upon the continuity of perceptible qualities1 produce in them the outline of distinct bodies4 7,matter and ,memory1 page #bbj47 ,does not science too1 after its own fashion1 resolve the atom into a centre of intersecting relations1 which finally extend by degrees to the entire universe in an indissoluble interpenetration8 ,a qualitative continuity1 imperceptibly shaded off1 over which pass quivers that here and there converge1 is the image by which we are forced to recognise a superior degree of reality4 ,but is this perceptible material1 this qualitative continuity1 the pure fact in matter8 ,not yet4 ,perception1 we said just now1 is always in reality complicated by memory4 ,there is more truth in this than we had seen4 ,reality is not a motionless spectrum1 extending to our view its infinite shades2 it might rather be termed a leaping flame in the spectrum4 ,all is in passage1 in process of becoming4 ,on this flux consciousness concentrates at long intervals1 each time condensing into one quality an immense period of the inner history of things4 ,in just this way the thousand successive positions of a runner contract into one single symbolic attitude1 which our eye perceives1 which art reproduces1 and which becomes for everybody the representation of a man running4 7,matter and ,memory1 page #bcc47 ,in the same way again1 a red light1 continuing one second1 embodies such a large number of elementary pulsations that it would take #be1jjj years of our time to see its distinct passage4 ,from here springs the subjectivity of our perception4 ,the different qualities correspond1 roughly speaking1 to the different rhythms of contraction or dilution1 to the different degrees of inner tension in the perceiving consciousness4 ,pushing the case to its limits1 and imagining a complete expansion1 matter would resolve into colourless disturbances1 and become the pure matter of the natural philosopher4 ,let us now unite in one single continuity the different periods of the preceding dialectic4 ,vibration1 qualities1 and bodies are none of them reality by themselves2 but all the same they are part of reality4 ,and absolute reality would be the whole of these degrees and moments1 and many others as well1 no doubt4 ,or rather1 to secure absolute intuition of matter1 we should have on the one hand to get rid of all that our practical needs have constructed1 restore on the other all the effective tendencies they have extinguished1 follow the complete scale of qualitative concentrations and dilutions1 and pass1 by a kind of sympathy1 into the incessantly moving play of all the possible innumerable contractions or resolutions2 with the result that in the end we should succeed1 by a simultaneous view as it were1 in grasping1 according to their infinitely various modes1 the phases of this matter which1 though at present latent1 admit of perception4 ,thus1 in the case before us1 absolute knowledge is found to be the result of integral experience2 and though we cannot attain the term1 we see at any rate in what direction we should have to work to reach it4 ,now it must be stated that our realisable knowledge is at every moment partial and limited rather than exterior and relative1 for our effective perception is related to matter in itself as the part to the whole4 ,our least perceptions are actually based on pure perception1 and we are aware of the elementary disturbances which constitute matter1 in the perceptible quality in which they suffer contraction1 as we are aware of the beating of our heart in the general feeling that we have of living4 7,the ,journal of ,philosophy1 ,psychology1 and ,scientific ,methods1 #gth ,july #aiaj47 ,but the preoccupation of practical action1 coming between reality and ourselves1 produces the fragmentary world of common-sense1 much as an absorbing medium resolves into separate rays the continuous spectrum of a luminous body2 whilst the rhythm of duration1 and the degree of tension peculiar to our consciousness1 limit us to the apprehension of certain qualities only4 ,what then have we to do to progress towards absolute knowledge8 ,not to quit experience3 quite the contrary2 but to extend it and diversify it by science1 while1 at the same time1 by criticism1 we correct in it the disturbing effects of action1 and finally quicken all the results thus obtained by an effort of sympathy which will make us familiar with the object until we feel its profound throbbing and its inner wealth4 ,in connection with this last vital point1 which is decisive1 call to mind a celebrated page of ,sainte-,beuve where he defines his method3 ,enter into your author1 make yourself at home in him1 produce him under his different aspects1 make him live1 move1 and speak as he must have done2 follow him to his fireside and in his domestic habits1 as closely as you can444 ,study him1 turn him round and round1 ask him questions at your leisure2 place him before you444,every feature will appear in its turn1 and take the place of the man himself in this expression444 ,an individual reality will gradually blend with and become incarnate in the vague1 abstract1 and general type444,there is our man444 ,yes1 that is exactly what we want3 it could not be better put4 ,transpose this page from the literary to the metaphysical order1 and you have intuition1 as defined by ,mr ,bergson4 ,you have the return to immediacy4 ,but a new problem then arises3 ,is not our intuition of immediacy in danger of remaining inexpressible8 ,for our language has been formed in view of practical life1 not of pure knowledge4 ,,iv4 ,the immediate perception of reality is not all2 we have still to translate this perception into intelligible language1 into a connected chain of concepts2 failing which1 it would seem1 we should not have knowledge in the strict sense of the word1 we should not have truth4 ,without language1 intuition1 supposing it came to birth1 would remain intransmissible and incommunicable1 and would perish in a solitary cry4 ,by language alone are we enabled to submit it to a positive test3 the letter is the ballast of the mind1 the body which allows it to act1 and in acting to scatter the unreal delusions of dream4 ,the act of pure intuition demands so great an inner tension from thought that it can only be very rare and very fugitive3 a few rapid gleams here and there2 and these dawning glimpses must be sustained1 and afterwards united1 and that again is the work of language4 ,but while language is thus necessary1 no less necessary is a criticism of ordinary language1 and of the methods familiar to the understanding4 ,these forms of reflected knowledge1 these processes of analysis really convey secretly all the postulates of practical action4 ,but it is imperative that language should translate1 not betray2 that the body of formulae should not stifle the soul of intuition4 ,we shall see in what the work of reform and conversion imposed on the philosopher precisely consists4 ,the attitude of the ordinary proceedings of common thought can be stated in a few words4 ,place the object studied before yourself as an exterior thing4 ,then place yourself outside it1 in perspective1 at points of vantage on a circumference1 whence you can only see the object of your investigation at a distance1 with such interval as would be sufficient for the contemplation of a picture2 in short1 move round the object instead of entering boldly into it4 ,but these proceedings lead to what ,i shall term analysis by concepts2 that is to say1 the attempt to resolve all reality into general ideas4 ,what are concepts and abstract ideas really1 but distant and simplified views1 species of model drawings1 giving only a few summary features of their object1 which vary according to direction and angle8 ,by means of them we claim to determine the object from outside1 as if1 in order to know it1 it were sufficient to enclose it in a system of logical sides and angles4 ,and perhaps in this way we do really grasp it1 perhaps we do establish its precise description1 but we do not penetrate it4 ,concepts translate relations resulting from comparisons by which each object is finally expressed as a function of what it is not4 ,they dismember it1 divide it up piece by piece1 and mount it in various frames4 ,they lay hold of it only by ends and corners1 by resemblances and differences4 ,is not that obviously what is done by the converting theories which explain the soul by the body1 life by matter1 quality by movements1 space itself by pure number8 ,is not that what is done generally by all criticisms1 all doctrines which connect one idea to another1 or to a group of other ideas8 ,in this way we reach only the surface of things1 the reciprocal contacts1 mutual intersections1 and parts common1 but not the organic unity nor the inner essence4 ,in vain we multiply our points of view1 our perspectives and plane projections3 no accumulation of this kind will reconstruct the concrete solid4 ,we can pass from an object directly perceived to the pictures which represent it1 the prints which represent the pictures1 the scheme representing the prints1 because each stage contains less than the one before1 and is obtained from it by simple diminution4 ,but1 inversely1 you may take all the schemes1 prints1 pictures you like--supposing that it is not absurd to conceive as given what is by nature interminable and inexhaustible1 lending itself to indefinite enumeration and endless development and multiplicity--but you will never recompose the profound and original unity of the source4 ,how1 by forcing yourself to seek the object outside itself1 where it certainly is not1 except in echo and reflection1 would you ever find its intimate and specific reality8 ,you are but condemning yourself to symbolism1 for one thing can only be in another symbolically4 ,to go further still1 your knowledge of things will remain irremediably relative1 relative to the symbols selected and the points of view adopted4 ,everything will happen as in a movement of which the appearance and formula vary with the spot from which you regard it1 with the marks to which you relate it4 ,absolute revelation is only given to the man who passes into the object1 flings himself upon its stream1 and lives within its rhythm4 ,the thesis which maintains the inevitable relativity of all human knowledge originates mainly from the metaphors employed to describe the act of knowledge4 ,the subject occupies this point1 the object that2 how are we to span the distance8 ,our perceptory organs fill the interval2 how are we to grasp anything but what reaches us in the receiver at the end of the wire8 ,the mind itself is a projecting lantern playing a shaft of light on nature2 how should it do otherwise than tint nature its own colour8 ,but these difficulties all arise out of the spatial metaphors employed2 and these metaphors in their turn do little but illustrate and translate the common method of analysis by concepts3 and this method is essentially regulated by the practical needs of action and language4 ,the philosopher must adopt an attitude entirely inverse2 not keep at a distance from things1 but listen in a manner to their inward breathing1 and1 above all1 supply the effort of sympathy by which he establishes himself in the object1 becomes on intimate terms with it1 tunes himself to its rhythm1 and1 in a word1 lives it4 ,there is really nothing mysterious or strange in this4 ,consider your daily judgments in matters of art1 profession1 or sport4 ,between knowledge by theory and knowledge by experience1 between understanding by external analogy and perception by profound intuition1 what difference and divergence there is6 ,who has absolute knowledge of a machine1 the student who analyses it in mechanical theorems1 or the engineer who has lived in comradeship with it1 even to sharing the physical sensation of its laboured or easy working1 who feels the play of its inner muscles1 its likes and dislikes1 who notes its movements and the task before it1 as the machine itself would do were it conscious1 for whom it has become an extension of his own body1 a new sensori-motor organ1 a group of prearranged gestures and automatic habits8 ,the student's knowledge is more useful to the builder1 and ,i do not wish to claim that we should ever neglect it2 but the only true knowledge is that of the engineer4 ,and what ,i have just said does not concern material objects only4 ,who has absolute knowledge of religion1 he who analyses it in psychology1 sociology1 history1 and metaphysics1 or he who1 from within1 by a living experience1 participates in its essence and holds communion with its duration8 ,but the external nature of the knowledge obtained by conceptual analysis is only its least fault4 ,there are others still more serious4 ,if concepts actually express what is common1 general1 unspecific1 what should make us feel the need of recasting them when we apply them to a new object8 ,does not their ground1 their utility1 and their interest exactly consist in sparing us this labour8 ,we regard them as elaborated once for all4 ,they are building-material1 ready-hewn blocks1 which we have only to bring together4 ,they are atoms1 simple elements--a mathematician would say prime factors--capable of associating with infinity1 but without undergoing any inner modification in contact with it4 ,they admit linkage2 they can be attached externally1 but they leave the aggregate as they went into it4 ,juxtaposition and arrangement are the geometrical operations which typify the work of knowledge in such a case2 or else we must fall back on metaphors from some mental chemistry1 such as proportioning and combination4 ,in all cases1 the method is still that of alignment and blending of pre-existent concepts4 ,now the mere fact of proceeding thus is equivalent to setting up the concept as a symbol of an abstract class4 ,that being done1 explanation of a thing is no more than showing it in the intersection of several classes1 partaking of each of them in definite proportions3 which is the same as considering it sufficiently expressed by a list of general frames into which it will go4 ,the unknown is then1 on principle1 and in virtue of this theory1 referred to the already known2 and it thereby becomes impossible ever to grasp any true novelty or any irreducible originality4 ,on principle1 once more1 we claim to reconstruct nature with pure symbols2 and it thereby becomes impossible ever to reach its concrete reality1 the invisible and present soul4 ,this intuitional coinage in fixed standard concepts1 this creation of an easily handled intellectual cash1 is no doubt of evident practical utility4 ,for knowledge in the usual sense of the word is not a disinterested operation2 it consists in finding out what profit we can draw from an object1 how we are to conduct ourselves towards it1 what label we can suitably attach to it1 under what already known class it comes1 to what degree it is deserving of this or that title which determines an attitude we must take up1 or a step we must perform4 ,our end is to place the object in its approximate class1 having regard to advantageous employment or to everyday language4 ,then1 and only then1 we find our pigeon-holes all ready-made2 and the same parcel of reagents meets all cases4 ,a universal catechism is here in existence to meet every research2 its different clauses define so many unshifting points of view1 from which we regard each object1 and our study is subsequently limited to applying a kind of nomenclature to the preconstructed frames4 ,once again the philosopher has to proceed in exactly the opposite direction4 ,he has not to confine himself to ready-made business concepts1 of the ordinary kind1 suits cut to an average model1 which fit nobody because they almost fit everybody2 but he has to work to measure1 incessantly renew his plant1 continually recreate his mind1 and meet each new problem with a fresh adaptive effort4 ,he must not go from concepts to things1 as if each of them were only the cutting-point of several concurrent generalities1 an ideal centre of intersecting abstractions2 on the contrary1 he must go from things to concepts1 incessantly creating new thoughts1 and incessantly recasting the old4 ,there could be no solution of the problem in a more or less ingenious mosaic or tessellation of rigid concepts1 pre-existing to be employed4 ,we need plastic fluid1 supple and living concepts1 capable of being continually modelled on reality1 of delicately following its infinite curves4 ,the philosopher's task is then to create concepts much more than to combine them4 ,and each of the concepts he creates must remain open and adjustable1 ready for the necessary renewal and adaptation1 like a method or a programme3 it must be the arrow pointing to a path which descends from intuition to language1 not a boundary marking a terminus4 ,in this way only does philosophy remain what it ought to be3 the examination into the consciousness of the human mind1 the effort towards enlargement and depth which it attempts unremittingly1 in order to advance beyond its present intellectual condition4 ,do you want an example8 ,i will take that of human personality4 ,the ego is one2 the ego is many3 no one contests this double formula4 ,but everything admits of it2 and what is its lesson to us8 ,observe what is bound to happen to the two concepts of unity and multiplicity1 by the mere fact that we take them for general frames independent of the reality contained1 for detached language admitting empty and blank definition1 always representable by the same word1 no matter what the circumstances3 they are no longer living and coloured ideas1 but abstract1 motionless1 and neutral forms1 without shades or gradations1 without distinction of case1 characterising two points of view from which you can observe anything and everything4 ,this being so1 how could the application of these forms help us to grasp the original and peculiar nature of the unity and multiplicity of the ego8 ,still further1 how could we1 between two such entities1 statically defined by their opposition1 ever imagine a synthesis8 ,correctly speaking1 the interesting question is not whether there is unity1 multiplicity1 combination1 one with the other1 but to see what sort of unity1 multiplicity1 or combination realises the case in point2 above all1 to understand how the living person is at once multiple unity and one multiplicity1 how these two poles of conceptual dissociation are connected1 how these two diverging branches of abstraction join at the roots4 ,the interesting point1 in a word1 is not the two symbolical colourless marks indicating the two ends of the spectrum2 it is the continuity between1 with its changing wealth of colouring1 and the double progress of shades which resolve it into red and violet4 ,but it is impossible to arrive at this concrete transition unless we begin from direct intuition and descend to the analysing concepts4 ,again1 the same duty of reversing our familiar attitude1 of inverting our customary proceeding1 becomes ours for another reason4 ,the conceptual atomism of common thought leads it to place movement in a lower order than rest1 fact in a lower order than becoming4 ,according to common thought1 movement is added to the atom1 as a supplementary accident to a body previously at rest2 and1 by becoming1 the pre-existent terms are strung together like pearls on a necklace4 ,it delights in rest1 and endeavours to bring to rest all that moves4 ,immobility appears to it to be the base of existence4 ,it decomposes and pulverises every change and every phenomenon1 until it finds the invariable element in them4 ,it is immobility which it esteems as primary1 fundamental1 intelligible of itself2 and motion1 on the contrary1 which it seeks to explain as a function of immobility4 ,and so it tends1 out of progresses and transitions1 to make things4 ,to see distinctly1 it appears to need a dead halt4 ,what indeed are concepts but logical look-out stations along the path of becoming8 what are they but motionless external views1 taken at intervals1 of an uninterrupted stream of movement8 ,each of them isolates and fixes an aspect1 as the instantaneous lightning flashes on a storm-scene in the darkness4 7,matter and ,memory1 page #bji47 ,placed together1 they make a net laid in advance1 a strong meshwork in which the human intelligence posts itself securely to spy the flux of reality1 and seize it as it passes4 ,such a proceeding is made for the practical world1 and is out of place in the speculative4 ,everywhere we are trying to find constants1 identities1 non-variants1 states2 and we imagine ideal science as an open eye which gazes for ever upon objects that do not move4 ,the constant is the concrete support demanded by our action3 the matter upon which we operate must not escape our grasp and slip through our hands1 if we are to be able to work it4 ,the constant1 again1 is the element of language1 in which the word represents its inert permanence1 in which it constitutes the solid fulcrum1 the foundation and landmark of dialectic progress1 being that which can be discarded by the mind1 whose attention is thus free for other tasks4 ,in this respect analysis by concepts is the natural method of common-sense4 ,it consists in asking from time to time what point the object studied has reached1 what it has become1 in order to see what one could derive from it1 or what it is fitting to say of it4 ,but this method has only a practical reach4 ,reality1 which in its essence is becoming1 passes through our concepts without ever letting itself be caught1 as a moving body passes fixed points4 ,when we filter it1 we retain only its deposit1 the result of the becoming drifted down to us4 ,do the dams1 canals1 and buoys make the current of the river8 ,do the festoons of dead seaweed ranged along the sand make the rising tide8 ,let us beware of confounding the stream of becoming with the sharp outline of its result4 ,analysis by concepts is a cinematograph method1 and it is plain that the inner organisation of the movement is not seen in the moving pictures4 ,every moment we have fixed views of moving objects4 ,with such conceptual sections taken in the stream of continuity1 however many we accumulate1 should we ever reconstruct the movement itself1 the dynamic connection1 the march of the images1 the transition from one view to another8 ,this capacity for movement must be contained in the picture apparatus1 and must therefore be given in addition to the views themselves2 and nothing can better prove how1 after all1 movement is never explicable except by itself1 never grasped except in itself4 ,but if we take movement as our principle1 it is1 on the contrary1 possible1 and even easy1 to slacken speed by imperceptible degrees1 and stop dead4 ,from a dead stop we shall never get our movement again2 but rest can very well be conceived as the limit of movement1 as its arrest or extinction2 for rest is less than movement4 ,in this way the true philosophical method1 which is the inverse of the common method1 consists in taking up a position from the very outset in the bosom of becoming1 in adopting its changing curves and variable tension1 in sympathising with the rhythm of its genesis1 in perceiving all existence from within1 as a growth1 in following it in its inner generation2 in short1 in promoting movement to fundamental reality1 and1 inversely1 in degrading fixed states to the rank of secondary and derived reality4 ,and thus1 to come back to the example of the human personality1 the philosopher must seek in the ego not so much a ready-made unity or multiplicity as1 if ,i may venture the expression1 two antagonistic and correlative movements of unification and plurification4 ,there is then a radical difference between philosophic intuition and conceptual analysis4 ,the latter delights in the play of dialectic1 in fountains of knowledge1 where it is interested only in the immovable basins2 the former goes back to the source of the concepts1 and seeks to possess it where it gushes out4 ,analysis cuts the channels2 intuition supplies the water4 ,intuition acquires and analysis expends4 ,it is not a question of banning analysis2 science could not do without it1 and philosophy could not do without science4 ,but we must reserve for it its normal place and its just task4 ,concepts are the deposited sediment of intuition3 intuition produces the concepts1 not the concepts intuition4 ,from the heart of intuition you will have no difficulty in seeing how it splits up and analyses into concepts1 concepts of such and such a kind or such and such a shade4 ,but by successive analyses you will never reconstruct the least intuition1 just as1 no matter how you distribute water1 you will never reconstruct the reservoir in its original condition4 ,begin from intuition3 it is a summit from which we can descend by infinite slopes2 it is a picture which we can place in an infinite number of frames4 ,but all the frames together will not recompose the picture1 and the lower ends of all the slopes will not explain how they meet at the summit4 ,intuition is a necessary beginning2 it is the impulse which sets the analysis in motion1 and gives it direction2 it is the sounding which brings it to solid bottom2 the soul which assures its unity4 ,i shall never understand how black and white interpenetrate1 if ,i have not seen grey1 but ,i understand without trouble1 after once seeing grey1 how we can regard it from the double point of view of black and white4 7,introduction to ,metaphysics47 ,here are some letters which you can arrange in chains in a thousand ways3 the indivisible sense running along the chain1 and making one phrase of it1 is the original cause of the writing1 not its consequence4 ,thus it is with intuition in relation to analysis4 ,but beginnings and generative activities are the proper object of the philosopher4 ,thus the conversion and reform incumbent on him consist essentially in a transition from the analytic to the intuitive point of view4 ,the result is that the chosen instrument of philosophic thought is metaphor2 and of metaphor we know ,mr ,bergson to be an incomparable master4 ,what we have to do1 he says himself1 is to elicit a certain active force which in most men is liable to be trammelled by mental habits more useful to life1 to awaken in them the feeling of the immediate1 original1 and concrete4 ,but many different images1 borrowed from very different orders of things1 can1 by their convergent action1 direct consciousness to the precise point where there is a certain intuition to be seized4 ,by choosing images as unlike as possible1 we prevent any one of them from usurping the place of the intuition it is intended to call up1 since it would in that case be immediately routed by its rivals4 ,in making them all1 despite their different aspects1 demand of our mind the same kind of attention1 and in some way the same degree of tension1 we accustom our consciousness little by little to a quite peculiar and well-determined disposition1 precisely the one which it ought to adopt to appear to itself unmasked4 7,introduction to ,metaphysics47 ,strictly speaking1 the intuition of immediacy is inexpressible4 ,but it can be suggested and called up4 ,how8 ,by ringing it round with concurrent metaphors4 ,our aim is to modify the habits of imagination in ourselves which are opposed to a simple and direct view1 to break through the mechanical imagery in which we have allowed ourselves to be caught2 and it is by awakening other imagery and other habits that we can succeed in so doing4 ,but then1 you will say1 where is the difference between philosophy and art1 between metaphysical and aesthetic intuition8 ,art also tends to reveal nature to us1 to suggest to us a direct vision of it1 to lift the veil of illusion which hides us from ourselves2 and aesthetic intuition is1 in its own way1 perception of immediacy4 ,we revive the feeling of reality obliterated by habit1 we summon the deep and penetrating soul of things3 the object is the same in both cases2 and the means are also the same2 images and metaphors4 ,is ,mr ,bergson only a poet1 and does his work amount to nothing but the introduction of impressionism in metaphysics8 ,it is an old objection4 ,if the truth be told1 ,mr ,bergson's immense scientific knowledge should be sufficient refutation4 ,only those who have not read the mass of carefully proved and positive discussions could give way thus to the impressions of art awakened by what is truly a magic style4 ,but we can go further and put it better4 ,that there are analogies between philosophy and art1 between metaphysical and aesthetic intuition1 is unquestionable and uncontested4 ,at the same time1 the analogies must not be allowed to hide the differences4 ,art is1 to a certain extent1 philosophy previous to analysis1 previous to criticism and science2 the aesthetic intuition is metaphysical intuition in process of birth1 bounded by dream1 not proceeding to the test of positive verification4 ,reciprocally1 philosophy is the art which follows upon science1 and takes account of it1 the art which uses the results of analysis as its material1 and submits itself to the demands of stern criticism2 metaphysical intuition is the aesthetic intuition verified1 systematised1 ballasted by the language of reason4 ,philosophy then differs from art in two essential points3 first of all1 it rests upon1 envelops1 and supposes science2 secondly1 it implies a test of verification in its strict meaning4 ,instead of stopping at the acts of common-sense1 it completes them with all the contributions of analysis and scientific investigation4 ,we said just now of common-sense that1 in its inmost depths1 it possesses reality3 that is only quite exact when we mean common-sense developed in positive science2 and that is why philosophy takes the results of science as its basis1 for each of these results1 like the facts and data of common perception1 opens a way for critical penetration towards the immediate4 ,just now ,i was comparing the two kinds of knowledge which the theorist and the engineer can have of a machine1 and ,i allowed the advantage of absolute knowledge to practical experience1 whilst theory seemed to me mainly relative to the constructive industry4 ,that is true1 and ,i do not go back upon it4 ,but the most experienced engineer1 who did not know the mechanism of his machine1 who possessed only unanalysed feelings about it1 would have only an artist's1 not a philosopher's knowledge4 ,for absolute intuition1 in the full sense of the word1 we must have integral experience2 that is to say1 a living application of rational theory no less than of working technique4 ,to journey towards living intuition1 starting from complete science and complete sensation1 is the philosopher's task2 and this task is governed by standards unknown to art4 ,metaphysical intuition offers a victorious resistance to the test of thorough and continued experiment1 to the test of calculation as to that of working1 to the complete experiment which brings into play all the various deoxidising agents of criticism2 it shows itself capable of withstanding analysis without dissolving or succumbing2 it abounds in concepts which satisfy the understanding1 and exalt it2 in a word1 it creates light and truth on all mental planes2 and these characteristics are sufficient to distinguish it in a profound degree from aesthetic intuition4 ,the latter is only the prophetic type of the former1 a dream or presentiment1 a veiled and still uncertain dawn1 a twilight myth preceding and proclaiming1 in the half-darkness1 the full day of positive revelation444 ,every philosophy has two faces1 and must be studied in two movements--method and teaching4 ,these are its two moments1 its two aspects1 no doubt co-ordinate and mutually dependent1 but none the less distinct4 ,we have just examined the method of the new philosophy inaugurated by ,mr ,bergson4 ,to what teaching has this method led us1 and to what can we foresee that it will lead us8 ,this is what we have still to find4 ,,ii4 ,teaching4 ,the sciences properly so called1 those that are by agreement termed positive1 present themselves as so many external and circumferential points from which we view reality4 ,they leave us on the outside of things1 and confine themselves to investigating from a distance4 ,the views they give us resemble the brief perspectives of a town which we obtain in looking at it from different angles on the surrounding hills4 ,less even than that3 for very soon1 by increasing abstraction1 the coloured views give place to regular lines1 and even to simple conventional notes1 which are more practical in use and waste less time4 ,and so the sciences remain prisoners of the symbol1 and all the inevitable relativity involved in its use4 ,but philosophy claims to pierce within reality1 establish itself in the object1 follow its thousand turns and folds1 obtain from it a direct and immediate feeling1 and penetrate right into the concrete depths of its heart2 it is not content with an analysis1 but demands an intuition4 ,now there is one existence which1 at the outset1 we know better and more surely than any other2 there is a privileged case in which the effort of sympathetic revelation is natural and almost easy to us2 there is one reality at least which we grasp from within1 which we perceive in its deep and internal content4 ,this reality is ourselves4 ,it is typical of all reality1 and our study may fitly begin here4 ,psychology puts us in direct contact with it1 and metaphysics attempt to generalise this contact4 ,but such a generalisation can only be attempted if1 to begin with1 we are familiar with reality at the point where we have immediate access to it4 ,the path of thought which the philosopher must take is from the inner to the outer being4 ,i4 ,know thyself3 the old maxim has remained the motto of philosophy since ,socrates1 the motto at least which marks its initial moment1 when1 inclining towards the depth of the subject1 it commences its true work of penetration1 whilst science continues to extend on the surface4 ,each philosophy in turn has commented upon and applied this old motto4 ,but ,mr ,bergson1 more than anyone else1 has given it1 as he does everything else he takes up1 a new and profound meaning4 ,what was the current interpretation before him8 ,speaking only of the last century1 we may say that1 under the influence of ,kant1 criticism had till now been principally engaged in unravelling the contribution of the subject in the act of consciousness1 in establishing our perception of things through certain representative forms borrowed from our own constitution4 ,such was1 even yesterday1 the authenticated way of regarding the problem4 ,and it is precisely this attitude which ,mr ,bergson1 by a volte-face which will remain familiar to him in the course of his researches1 reverses from the outset4 ,it has appeared to me1 says he1 7,essay on the ,immediate ,data of ,consciousness1 ,conclusion47 that there was ground for setting oneself the inverse problem1 and asking whether the most apparent states of the ego itself1 which we think we grasp directly1 are not most of the time perceived through certain forms borrowed from the outer world1 which in this way gives us back what we have lent it4 ,a priori1 it seems fairly probable that this is what goes on4 ,for supposing that the forms of which we are speaking1 to which we adapt matter1 come entirely from the mind1 it seems difficult to apply them constantly to objects without soon producing the colouring of the objects in the forms2 therefore in using these forms for the knowledge of our own personality1 we risk taking a reflection of the frame in which we place them--that is1 actually1 the external world--for the very colouring of the ego4 ,but we can go further1 and state that forms applicable to things cannot be entirely our own work2 that they must result from a compromise between matter and mind2 that if we give much to this matter1 we doubtless receive something from it2 and that1 in this way1 when we try to possess ourselves again after an excursion into the outer world1 we no longer have our hands free4 ,to avoid such a consequence1 there is1 we must admit1 a conceivable loophole4 ,it consists in maintaining on principle an absolute analogy1 an exact similitude between internal reality and external objects4 ,the forms which suit the one would then also suit the other4 ,but it must be observed that such a principle constitutes in the highest degree a metaphysical thesis which it would be on all hands illegal to assert previously as a postulate of method4 ,secondly1 and above all1 it must be observed that on this head experience is decisive1 and manifests more plainly every day the failure of the theories which try to assimilate the world of consciousness to that of matter1 to copy psychology from physics4 ,we have here two different orders4 ,the apparatus of the first does not admit of being employed in the second4 ,hence the necessity of the attitude adopted by ,mr ,bergson4 ,we have an effort to make1 a work of reform to undertake1 to lift the veil of symbols which envelops our usual representation of the ego1 and thus conceals us from our own view1 in order to find out what we are in reality1 immediately1 in our inmost selves4 ,this effort and this work are necessary1 because1 in order to contemplate the ego in its original purity1 psychology must eliminate or correct certain forms which bear the visible mark of the outer world4 7,essay on the ,immediate ,data of ,consciousness1 ,conclusion47 ,what are these forms8 ,let us confine ourselves to the most important4 ,things appear to us as numerable units1 placed side by side in space4 ,they compose numerical and spatial multiplicity1 a dust of terms between which geometrical ties are established4 ,but space and number are the two forms of immobility1 the two schemes of analysis1 by which we must not let ourselves be obsessed4 ,i do not say that there is no place to give them1 even in the internal world4 ,but the more deeply we enter into the heart of psychological life1 the less they are in place4 ,the fact is1 there are several planes of consciousness1 situated at different depths1 marking all the intervening degrees between pure thought and bodily action1 and each mental phenomenon interests all these planes simultaneously1 and is thus repeated in a thousand higher tones1 like the harmonies of one and the same note4 ,or1 if you prefer it1 the life of the spirit is not the uniform transparent surface of a mere2 rather it is a gushing spring which1 at first pent in1 spreads upwards and outwards1 like a sheaf of corn1 passing through many different states1 from the dark and concentrated welling of the source to the gleam of the scattered tumbling spray2 and each of its moods presents in its turn a similar character1 being itself only a thread within the whole4 ,such without doubt is the central and activating idea of the admirable book entitled ,matter and ,memory4 ,i cannot possibly condense its substance here1 or convey its astonishing synthetic power1 which succeeds in contracting a complete metaphysic1 and in gripping it so firmly that the examination ends by passing to the discussion of a few humble facts relative to the philosophy of the brain6 ,but its technical severity and its very conciseness1 combined with the wealth it contains1 render it irresumable2 and ,i can only in a few words indicate its conclusions4 ,first of all1 however little we pride ourselves on positive method1 we must admit the existence of an internal world1 of a spiritual activity distinct from matter and its mechanism4 ,no chemistry of the brain1 no dance of atoms1 is equivalent to the least thought1 or indeed to the least sensation4 ,some1 it is true1 have brought forward a thesis of parallelism1 according to which each mental phenomenon corresponds point by point to a phenomenon in the brain1 without adding anything to it1 without influencing its course1 merely translating it into another tongue1 so that a glance sufficiently penetrating to follow the molecular revolutions and the fluxes of nervous production in their least episodes would immediately read the inmost secrets of the associated consciousness4 ,but no one will deny that a thesis of this kind is only in reality a hypothesis1 that it goes enormously beyond the certain data of current biology1 and that it can only be formulated by anticipating future discoveries in a preconceived direction4 ,let us be candid3 it is not really a thesis of positive science1 but a metaphysical thesis in the unpleasant meaning of the term4 ,taking it at its best1 its worth today could only be one of intelligibleness4 ,and intelligible it is not4 ,how are we to understand a consciousness destitute of activity and consequently without connection with reality1 a kind of phosphorescence which emphasises the lines of vibration in the brain1 and renders in miraculous duplicate1 by its mysterious and useless light1 certain phenomena already complete without it8 ,one day ,mr ,bergson came down into the arena of dialectic1 and1 talking to his opponents in their own language1 pulled their psycho-physiological paralogism to pieces before their eyes2 it is only by confounding in one and the same argument two systems of incompatible notations1 idealism and realism1 that we succeed in enunciating the parallelist thesis4 ,this reasoning went home1 all the more as it was adapted to the usual form of discussions between philosophers4 ,but a more positive and more categorical proof is to be found all through ,matter and ,memory4 ,from the precise example of recollection analysed to its lowest depths1 ,mr ,bergson completely grasps and measures the divergence between soul and body1 between mind and matter4 ,then1 putting into practice what he said elsewhere about the creation of new concepts1 he arrives at the conclusion--these are his own expressions--that between the psychological fact and its counterpart in the brain there must be a relation sui generis1 which is neither the determination of the one by the other1 nor their reciprocal independence1 nor the production of the latter by the former1 nor of the former by the latter1 nor their simple parallel concomitance2 in short1 a relation which answers to none of the ready-made concepts which abstraction puts at our service1 but which may be approximately formulated in these terms3 7,report of the ,french ,philosophical ,society1 meeting1 #bnd ,may #aija47 ,given a psychological state1 that part of the state which admits of play1 the part which would be translated by an attitude of the body or by bodily actions1 is represented in the brain2 the remainder is independent of it1 and has no equivalent in the brain4 ,so that to one and the same state of the brain there may be many different psychological states which correspond1 though not all kinds of states4 ,they are psychological states which all have in common the same motor scheme4 ,into one and the same frame many pictures may go1 but not all pictures4 ,let us take a lofty abstract philosophical thought4 ,we do not conceive it without adding to it an image representing it1 which we place beneath4 ,we do not represent the image to ourselves1 again1 without supporting it by a design which resumes its leading features4 ,we do not imagine this design itself without imagining and1 in so doing1 sketching certain movements which would reproduce it4 ,it is this sketch1 and this sketch only1 which is represented in the brain4 ,frame the sketch1 there is a margin for the image4 ,frame the image again1 there remains a margin1 and a still larger margin1 for the thought4 ,the thought is thus relatively free and indeterminate in relation to the activity which conditions it in the brain1 for this activity expresses only the motive articulation of the idea1 and the articulation may be the same for ideas absolutely different4 ,and yet it is not complete liberty nor absolute indetermination1 since any kind of idea1 taken at hazard1 would not present the articulation desired4 ,in short1 none of the simple concepts furnished us by philosophy could express the relation we seek1 but this relation appears with tolerable clearness to result from experiment4 ,the same analysis of facts tells us how the planes of consciousness1 of which ,i spoke just now1 are arranged1 the law by which they are distributed1 and the meaning which attaches to their disposition4 ,let us neglect the intervening multiples1 and look only at the extreme poles of the series4 ,we are inclined to imagine too abrupt a severance between gesture and dream1 between action and thought1 between body and mind4 ,there are not two plane surfaces1 without thickness or transition1 placed one above the other on different levels2 it is by an imperceptible degradation of increasing depth1 and decreasing materiality1 that we pass from one term to the other4 ,and the characteristics are continually changing in the course of the transition4 ,thus our initial problem confronts us again1 more acutely than ever3 are the forms of number and space equally suitable on all planes of consciousness8 ,let us consider the most external of these planes of life1 and one which is in contact with the outer world1 the one which receives directly the impressions of external reality4 ,we live as a rule on the surface of ourselves1 in the numerical and spatial dispersion of language and gesture4 ,our deeper ego is covered as it were with a tough crust1 hardened in action3 it is a skein of motionless and numerable habits1 side by side1 and of distinct and solid things1 with sharp outlines and mechanical relations4 ,and it is for the representation of the phenomena which occur within this dead rind that space and number are valid4 ,for we have to live1 ,i mean live our common daily life1 with our body1 with our customary mechanism rather than with our true depths4 ,our attention is therefore most often directed by a natural inclination to the practical worth and useful function of our internal states1 to the public object of which they are the sign1 to the effect they produce externally1 to the gestures by which we express them in space4 ,a social average of individual modalities interests us more than the incommunicable originality of our deeper life4 ,the words of language besides offer us so many symbolic centres round which crystallise groups of motor mechanisms set up by habit1 the only usual elements of our internal determinations4 ,now1 contact with society has rendered these motor mechanisms practically identical in all men4 ,hence1 whether it be a question of sensation1 feeling1 or ideas1 we have these neutral dry and colourless residua1 which spread lifeless over the surface of ourselves1 like dead leaves on the water of a pond4 7,essay on the ,immediate ,data1 page #ajb47 ,thus the progress we have lived falls into the rank of a thing that can be handled4 ,space and number lay hold of it4 ,and soon all that remains of what was movement and life is combinations formed and annulled1 and forces mechanically composed in a whole of juxtaposed atoms1 and to represent this whole a collection of petrified concepts1 manipulated in dialectic like counters4 ,quite different appears the true inner reality1 and quite different are its profound characteristics4 ,to begin with1 it contains nothing quantitative2 the intensity of a psychological state is not a magnitude1 nor can it be measured4 ,the ,essay on the ,immediate ,data of ,consciousness begins with the proof of this leading statement4 ,if it is a question of a simple state1 such as a sensation of light or weight1 the intensity is measured by a certain quality of shade which indicates to us approximately1 by an association of ideas and thanks to our acquired experience1 the magnitude of the objective cause from which it proceeds4 ,if1 on the contrary1 it is a question of a complex state1 such as those impressions of profound joy or sorrow which lay hold of us entirely1 invading and overwhelming us1 what we call their intensity expresses only the confused feeling of a qualitative progress1 and increasing wealth4 ,take1 for example1 an obscure desire1 which has gradually become a profound passion4 ,you will see that the feeble intensity of this desire consisted first of all in the fact that it seemed to you isolated and in a way foreign to all the rest of your inner life4 ,but little by little it penetrated a larger number of psychic elements1 dyeing them1 so to speak1 its own colour2 and now you find your point of view on things as a whole appears to you to have changed4 ,is it not true that you become aware of a profound passion1 once it has taken root1 by the fact that the same objects no longer produce the same impression upon you8 ,all your sensations1 all your ideas1 appear to you refreshed by it2 it is like a new childhood4 7,loc4 cit41 page #f47 ,there is here none of the homogeneity which is the property of magnitude1 and the necessary condition of measurement1 giving a view of the less in the bosom of the more4 ,the element of number has vanished1 and with it numerical multiplicity extended in space4 ,our inner states form a qualitative continuity2 they are prolonged and blended into one another2 they are grouped in harmonies1 each note of which contains an echo of the whole2 they are encircled by an innumerable degradation of halos1 which gradually colour the total content of consciousness2 they live each in the bosom of his fellow4 ,i am the scent of roses1 were the words ,condillac put in the mouth of his statue2 and these words translate the immediate truth exactly1 as soon as observation becomes naive and simple enough to attain pure fact4 ,in a passing breath ,i breathe my childhood2 in the rustle of leaves1 in a ray of moonlight1 ,i find an infinite series of reflections and dreams4 ,a thought1 a feeling1 an act1 may reveal a complete soul4 ,my ideas1 my sensations1 are like me4 ,how would such facts be possible1 if the multiple unity of the ego did not present the essential characteristic of vibrating in its entirety in the depths of each of the parts descried or rather determined in it by analysis8 ,all physical determinations envelop and imply each other reciprocally4 ,and the fact that the soul is thus present in its entirety in each of its acts1 its feelings1 for example1 or its ideas in its sensations1 its recollections in its percepts1 its inclinations in its obvious states1 is the justifying principle of metaphors1 the source of all poetry1 the truth which modern philosophy proclaims with more force every day under the name of immanence of thought1 the fact which explains our moral responsibility with regard to our affections and our beliefs themselves2 and finally1 it is the best of us1 since it is this which ensures our being able to surrender ourselves1 genuinely and unreservedly1 and this which constitutes the real unity of our person4 ,let us push still further into the hidden retreat of the soul4 ,here we are in these regions of twilight and dream1 where our ego takes shape1 where the spring within us gushes up1 in the warm secrecy of the darkness which ushers our trembling being into birth4 ,distinctions fail us4 ,words are useless now4 ,we hear the wells of consciousness at their mysterious task like an invisible shiver of running water through the mossy shadow of the caves4 ,i dissolve in the joy of becoming4 ,i abandon myself to the delight of being a pulsing reality4 ,i no longer know whether ,i see scents1 breathe sounds1 or smell colours4 ,do ,i love8 ,do ,i think8 ,the question has no longer a meaning for me4 ,i am1 in my complete self1 each of my attitudes1 each of my changes4 ,it is not my sight which is indistinct or my attention which is idle4 ,it is ,i who have resumed contact with pure reality1 whose essential movement admits no form of number4 ,he who thus makes the really deep and inner effort necessary to becoming--were it only for an elusive moment--discovers1 under the simplest appearance1 inexhaustible sources of unsuspected wealth2 the rhythm of his duration becomes amplified and refined2 his acts become more conscious2 and in what seemed to him at first sudden severance or instantaneous pulsation he discovers complex transitions imperceptibly shaded off1 musical transitions full of unexpected repetitions and threaded movements4 ,thus1 the deeper we go in consciousness1 the less suitable become these schemes of separation and fixity existing in spatial and numerical forms4 ,the inner world is that of pure quality4 ,there is no measurable homogeneity1 no collection of atomically constructed elements4 ,the phenomena distinguished in it by analysis are not composing units1 but phases4 ,and it is only when they reach the surface1 when they come in contact with the external world1 when they are incarnated in language or gesture1 that the categories of matter become adapted to them4 ,in its true nature1 reality appears as an uninterrupted flow1 an impalpable shiver of fluid changing tones1 a perpetual flux of waves which ebb and break and dissolve into one another without shock or jar4 ,everything is ceaseless change2 and the state which appears the most stable is already change1 since it continues and grows old4 ,constant quantities are represented only by the materialisation of habit or by means of practical symbols4 ,and it is on this point that ,mr ,bergson rightly insists4 7,creative ,evolution1 page #c47 ,the apparent discontinuity of psychological life is due1 then1 to the fact that our attention is concentrated on it in a series of discontinuous acts2 where there is only a gentle slope1 we think we see1 when we follow the broken line of our attention1 the steps of a staircase4 ,it is true that our psychological life is full of surprises4 ,a thousand incidents arise which seem to contrast with what precedes them1 and not to be connected with what follows4 ,but the gap in their appearances stands out against the continuous background on which they are represented1 and to which they owe the very intervals that separate them2 they are the drumbeats which break into the symphony at intervals4 ,our attention is fixed upon them because they interest it more1 but each of them proceeds from the fluid mass of our entire psychological existence4 ,each of them is only the brightest point in a moving zone which understands all that we feel1 think1 wish2 in fact1 all that we are at a given moment4 ,it is this zone which really constitutes our state4 ,but we may observe that states defined in this way are not distinct elements4 ,they are an endless stream of mutual continuity4 ,and do not think that perhaps such a description represents only or principally our life of feeling4 ,reason and thought share the same characteristic1 as soon as we penetrate their living depth1 whether it be a question of creative invention or of those primordial judgments which direct our activity4 ,if they evidence greater stability1 it is in permanence of direction1 because our past remains present to us4 ,for we are endowed with memory1 and that perhaps is1 on the whole1 our most profound characteristic4 ,it is by memory we enlarge ourselves and draw continually upon the wealth of our treasuries4 ,hence comes the completely original nature of the change which constitutes us4 ,but it is here that we must shake off familiar representations6 ,common-sense cannot think in terms of movement4 ,it forges a static conception of it1 and destroys it by arresting it under pretext of seeing it better4 ,to define movement as a series of positions1 with a generating law1 with a time-table or correspondence sheet between places and times1 is surely a ready-made presentation4 ,are we not confusing the trajectory and its performance1 the points traversed and the traversing of the points1 the result of the genesis of the result2 in short1 the quantitative distance over which the flight extends1 and the qualitative flight which puts this distance behind it8 ,in this way the very mobility which is the essence of movement vanishes4 ,there is the same common mistake about time4 ,analytic and synthetic thought can see in time only a string of coincidences1 each of them instantaneous1 a logical series of relations4 ,it imagines the whole of it to be a graduated slide-rule1 in which the luminous point called the present is the geometrical index4 ,thus it gives form to time in space1 a kind of fourth dimension1 7,essay on the ,immediate ,data47 or at least it reduces it to nothing more than an abstract scheme of succession1 a stream without bottom or sides1 flowing without determinable strength1 in an indefinable direction4 7,introduction to ,metaphysics47 ,it requires time to be homogeneous1 and every homogeneous medium is space1 for as homogeneity consists here in the absence of any quality1 it is not clear how two forms of homogeneity could be distinguished one from the other4 7,essay on the ,immediate ,data1 page #gd47 ,quite different appears real duration1 the duration which is lived4 ,it is pure heterogeneity4 ,it contains a thousand different degrees of tension or relaxation1 and its rhythm varies without end4 ,the magic silence of calm nights or the wild disorder of a tempest1 the still joy of ecstasy or the tumult of passion unchained1 a steep climb towards a difficult truth or a gentle descent from a luminous principle to consequences which easily follow1 a moral crisis or a shooting pain1 call up intuitions admitting no comparison with one another4 ,we have here no series of moments1 but prolonged and interpenetrating phases2 their sequence is not a substitution of one point for another1 but rather resembles a musical resolution of harmony into harmony4 ,and of this ever-new melody which constitutes our inner life every moment contains a resonance or an echo of past moments4 ,what are we really1 what is our character1 except the condensation of the history which we have lived since our birth1 even before our birth1 since we bring with us our prenatal dispositions8 ,without doubt we think only with a small part of our past2 but it is with our complete past1 including our original bias of soul1 that we desire1 wish1 and act4 7,creative ,evolution1 pages #e-f47 ,this is what makes our duration irreversible1 and its novelty perpetual1 for each of the states through which it passes envelops the recollection of all past states4 ,and thus we see1 in the end1 how1 for a being endowed with memory1 existence consists in change1 change in ripening1 ripening in endless self-creation4 7,creative ,evolution1 page #h47 ,with this formula we face the capital problem in which psychology and metaphysics meet1 that of liberty4 ,the solution given by ,mr ,bergson marks one of the culminating points of his philosophy4 ,it is from this summit that he finds light thrown on the riddle of inner being4 ,and it is the centre where all the lines of his research converge4 ,what is liberty8 ,what must we understand by this word8 ,beware of the answer you are going to give4 ,every definition1 in the strict sense of the term1 will imply the determinist thesis in advance1 since1 under pain of going round in a circle1 it will be bound to express liberty as a function of what it is not4 ,either psychological liberty is an illusive appearance1 or1 if it is real1 we can only grasp it by intuition1 not by analysis1 in the light of an immediate feeling4 ,for a reality is verified1 not constructed2 and we are now or never in one of those situations where the philosopher's task is to create some new concept1 instead of abiding by a combination of previous elements4 ,man is free1 says common-sense1 in so far as his action depends only on himself4 ,we are free1 says ,mr ,bergson1 7,essay on the ,immediate ,data of ,consciousness1 page #aca47 when our acts proceed from our entire personality1 when they express it1 when they exhibit that indefinable resemblance to it which we find occasionally between the artist and his work4 ,that is all we need seek2 two conceptions which are equivalent to each other1 two concordant formulae4 ,it is true that this amounts to determining the free act by its very originality1 in the etymological sense of the word3 which is at bottom only another way of declaring it incommensurable with every concept1 and reluctant to be confined by any definition4 ,but1 after all1 is not that the only true immediate fact8 ,that our spiritual life is genuine action1 capable of independence1 initiative1 and irreducible novelty1 not mere result produced from outside1 not simple extension of external mechanism1 that it is so much ours as to constitute every moment1 for him who can see1 an essentially incomparable and new invention1 is exactly what represents for us the name of liberty4 ,understood thus1 and decidedly it is like this that we must understand it1 liberty is a profound thing3 we seek it only in those moments of high and solemn choice which come into our life1 not in the petty familiar actions which their very insignificance submits to all surrounding influences1 to every wandering breeze4 ,liberty is rare2 many live and die and have never known it4 ,liberty is a thing which contains an infinite number of degrees and shades2 it is measured by our capacity for the inner life4 ,liberty is a thing which goes on in us unceasingly3 our liberty is potential rather than actual4 ,and lastly1 it is a thing of duration1 not of space and number1 not the work of moments or decrees4 ,the free act is the act which has been long in preparing1 the act which is heavy with our whole history1 and falls like a ripe fruit from our past life4 ,but how are we to establish positive verification of these views8 ,how are we to do away with the danger of illusion8 ,the proof will in this case result from a criticism of adverse theories1 along with direct observation of psychological reality freed from the deceptive forms which warp the common perception of it4 ,and it will here be an easy task to resume ,mr ,bergson's reasoning in a few words4 ,the first obstacle which confronts affirmation of our liberty comes from physical determinism4 ,positive science1 we are told1 presents the universe to us as an immense homogeneous transformation1 maintaining an exact equivalence between departure and arrival4 ,how can we possibly have after that the genuine creation which we require in the act we call free8 ,the answer is that the universality of the mechanism is at bottom only a hypothesis which is still awaiting demonstration4 ,on the one hand it includes the parallelist conception which we have recognised as effete4 ,and on the other it is plain that it is not self-sufficient4 ,at least it requires that somewhere or other there should be a principle of position giving once for all what will afterwards be maintained4 ,in actual fact1 the course of phenomena displays three tendencies3 a tendency to conservation1 beyond question2 but also a tendency to collapse1 as in the diminution of energy2 and a tendency to progress1 as in biological evolution4 ,to make conservation the sole law of matter implies an arbitrary decree1 denoting only those aspects of reality which will count for anything4 ,by what right do we thus exclude1 with vital effort1 even the feeling of liberty which in us is so vigorous8 ,we might say1 it is true1 that our spiritual life1 if it is not a simple extension of external mechanism1 yet proceeds according to an internal mechanism equally severe1 but of a different order4 ,this would bring us to the hypothesis of a kind of psychological mechanism2 and in many respects this seems to be the common-sense hypothesis4 ,i need not dwell upon it1 after the numerous criticisms already made4 ,inner reality--which does not admit number--is not a sequence of distinct terms1 allowing a disconnected waste of absolute causality4 ,and the mechanism of which we dream has no true sense--for1 after all1 it has a sense--except in relation to the superficial phenomena which take place in our dead rind1 in relation to the automaton which we are in daily life4 ,i am ready to admit that it explains our common actions1 but here it is our profound consciousness which is in question1 not the play of our materialised habits4 ,without insisting1 then1 too strongly on this mongrel conception1 let us pass to the direct examination of inner psychological reality4 ,everything is ready for the conclusion4 ,our duration1 which is continually accumulating itself1 and always introducing some irreducible new factor1 prevents any kind of state1 even if superficially identical1 from repeating itself in depth4 ,we shall never again have the soul we had this evening4 ,each of our moments remains essentially unique4 ,it is something new added to the surviving past2 not only new1 but unable to be foreseen4 ,for how can we speak of foresight which is not simple conjecture1 how can we conceive an absolute extrinsic determination1 when the act in birth only makes one with the finished sum of its conditions1 when these conditions are complete only on the threshold of the action beginning1 including the fresh and irreducible contribution added by its very date in our history8 ,we can only explain afterwards1 we can only foresee when it is too late1 in retrospect1 when the accomplished action has fallen into the plan of matter4 ,thus our inner life is a work of enduring creation3 of phases which mature slowly1 and conclude at long intervals the decisive moments of emancipating discovery4 ,undoubtedly matter is there1 under the forms of habit1 threatening us with automatism1 seeking at every moment to devour us1 stealing a march on us whenever we forget4 ,but matter represents in us only the waste of existence1 the mortal fall of weakened reality1 the swoon of the creative action falling back inert2 while the depths of our being still pulse with the liberty which1 in its true function1 employs mechanism itself only as a means of action4 ,now1 does not this conception make a singular exception of us in nature1 an empire within an empire8 ,that is the question we have yet to investigate4 ,,ii4 ,we have just attempted to grasp what being is in ourselves2 and we have found that it is becoming1 progress1 and growth1 that it is a creative process which never ceases to labour incessantly2 in a word1 that it is duration4 ,must we come to the same conclusion about external being1 about existence in general8 ,let us consider that external reality which is nearest us1 our body4 ,it is known to us both externally by our perceptions and internally by our affections4 ,it is then a privileged case for our inquiry4 ,in addition1 and by analogy1 we shall at the same time study the other living bodies which everyday induction shows us to be more or less like our own4 ,what are the distinctive characteristics of these new realities8 ,each of them possesses a genuine individuality to a far greater degree than inorganic objects2 whilst the latter are hardly limited at all except in relation to the needs of the former1 and so do not constitute beings in themselves1 the former evidence a powerful internal unity which is only further emphasised by their prodigious complication1 and form wholes with are naturally complete4 ,these wholes are not collections of juxtaposed parts3 they are organisms2 that is to say1 systems of connected functions1 in which each detail implies the whole1 and where the various elements interpenetrate4 ,these organisms change and modify continually2 we say of them not only that they are1 but that they live2 and their life is mutability itself1 a flight1 a perpetual flux4 ,this uninterrupted flight cannot in any way be compared to a geometrical movement2 it is a rhythmic succession of phases1 each of which contains the resonance of all those which come before2 each state lives on in the state following2 the life of the body is memory2 the living being accumulates its past1 makes a snowball of itself1 serves as an open register for time1 ripens1 and grows old4 ,despite all resemblances1 the living body always remains1 in some measure1 an absolutely original and unique invention1 for there are not two specimens exactly alike2 and1 among inert objects1 it appears as the reservoir of indetermination1 the centre of spontaneity1 contingence1 and genuine action1 as if in the course of phenomena nothing really new could be produced except by its agency4 ,such are the characteristic tendencies of life1 such the aspects which it presents to immediate observation4 ,whether spiritual activity unconsciously presides over biological evolution1 or whether it simply prolongs it1 we always find here and there the essential features of duration4 ,but ,i spoke just now of individuality4 ,is it really one of the distinctive marks of life8 ,we know how difficult it is to define it accurately4 ,nowhere1 not even in man1 is it fully realised2 and there are beings in existence in which it seems a complete illusion1 though every part of them reproduces their complete unity4 ,true1 but we are now dealing with biology1 in which geometrical precision is inadmissible1 where reality is defined not so much by the possession of certain characteristics as by its tendency to accentuate them4 ,it is as a tendency that individuality is more particularly manifested2 and if we look at it in this light1 no one can deny that it does constitute one of the fundamental tendencies of life4 ,only the truth is that the tendency to individuality remains always and everywhere counterbalanced1 and therefore limited1 by an opposing tendency1 the tendency to association1 and above all to reproduction4 ,this necessitates a correction in our analysis4 ,nature1 in many respects1 seems to take no interest in individuals4 ,life appears to be a current passing from one germ to another through the medium of a developed organism4 7,creative ,evolution1 page #bi47 ,it seems as if the organism played the part of a thoroughfare4 ,what is important is rather the continuity of progress of which the individuals are only transitory phases4 ,between these phases again there are no sharp severances2 each phase resolves and melts imperceptibly into that which follows4 ,is not the real problem of heredity to know how1 and up to what point1 a new individual breaks away from the individuals which produced it8 ,is not the real mystery of heredity the difference1 not the resemblance1 occurring between one term and another8 ,whatever be its solution1 all the individual phases mutually extend and interpenetrate one another4 ,there is a racial memory by which the past is continually accumulated and preserved4 ,life's history is embodied in its present4 ,and that is really the ultimate reason of the perpetual novelty which surprised us just now4 ,the characteristics of biological evolution are thus the same as those of human progress4 ,once again we find the very stuff of reality in duration4 ,we must not then speak any longer of life in general as an abstraction1 or a mere heading under which we write down all living beings4 7,creative ,evolution1 page #bh47 ,on the contrary1 to it belongs the primordial function of reality4 ,it is a very real current transmitted from generation to generation1 organising and passing through bodies1 without failing or becoming exhausted in any one of them4 ,we may1 already1 then1 draw one conclusion3 ,reality1 at bottom1 is becoming4 ,but such a thesis runs counter to all our familiar ideas4 ,it is imperative that we should submit it to the test of critical examination and positive verification4 ,one system of metaphysics1 ,i said some time ago1 underlies common-sense1 animating and informing it4 ,according to this system1 which is the inverse of that which we have just intimated1 reality in its very depths is fixity and permanence4 ,this is the completely static conception which sees in being exactly the opposite of becoming3 we cannot become1 it seems to say1 except in so far as we are not4 ,it does not1 however1 mean to deny movement4 ,but it represents it as fluctuation round invariable types1 as a whirling but captive eddy4 ,every phenomenon appears to it as a transformation which ends where it began1 and the result is that the world takes the form of an eternal equilibrium in which nothing is created1 nothing destroyed4 ,the idea does not need much forcing to end in the old supposition of a cyclic return which restores everything to its original conditions4 ,everything is thus conceived in astronomical periods4 ,all that is left of the universe henceforward is a whirl of atoms in which nothing counts but certain fixed quantities translated by our systems of equations2 the rest has vanished in algebraical smoke4 ,there is therefore nothing more or less in the effect than in the group of causes2 and the causal relation moves towards identity as towards its asymptote4 ,such a view of nature is open to many objections1 even if it were only a question of inorganised matter4 ,simple physics already betoken the insufficiency of a purely mechanic conception4 ,the stream of phenomena flows in an irreversible direction and obeys a determined rhythm4 ,if ,i wish to prepare myself a glass of sugar and water1 ,i may do what ,i like1 but ,i must wait for my sugar to melt4 7,creative ,evolution1 page #aj47 ,here are facts which pure mechanism does not take into account1 regarding as it does only statically conceived relations1 and making time into a measure only1 something like a common denominator of concrete successions1 a certain number of coincidences from which all true duration remains absent1 which would remain unchanged even if the world's history1 instead of opening out in consecutive phases1 were to be unfolded before our eyes all at once like a fan4 ,do we not indeed speak today of aging and atomic separation4 ,if the quantity of energy is preserved1 at least its quality is continually deteriorating4 ,by the side of something which remains constant1 the world also contains something which is being used up1 dissipated1 exhausted1 decomposed4 ,further still1 a specimen of metal1 in its molecular structure1 preserves an indelible trace of the treatment it has undergone2 natural philosophers tell us that there is a memory of solids4 ,these are all very positive facts which pure mechanism passes over4 ,in addition1 must we not first of all postulate what will afterwards be preserved or deteriorated8 ,whence we get another aspect of things3 that of genesis and creation2 and in reality we register the ascending effort of life as a reality no less startling than mechanic inertia4 ,finally1 we have a double movement of ascent and descent3 such is what life and matter appear to immediate observation4 ,these two currents meet each other1 and grapple4 ,it is the drama of evolution1 of which ,mr ,bergson once gave a masterly explanation1 in stating the high place which man fills in nature3 ,i cannot regard the general evolution and progress of life in the whole of the organised world1 the co-ordination and subordination of vital functions to one another in the same living being1 the relations which psychology and physiology combined seem bound to establish between brain activity and thought in man1 without arriving at this conclusion1 that life is an immense effort attempted by thought to obtain of matter something which matter does not wish to give it4 ,matter is inert2 it is the seat of necessity2 it proceeds mechanically4 ,it seems as if thought seeks to profit by this mechanical inclination in matter to utilise it for actions1 and thus to convert all the creative energy it contains1 at least all that this energy possesses which admits of play and external extraction1 into contingent movements in space and events in time which cannot be foreseen4 ,with laborious research it piles up complications to make liberty out of necessity1 to compose for itself a matter so subtile1 and so mobile1 that liberty1 by a veritable physical paradox1 and thanks to an effort which cannot last long1 succeeds in maintaining its equilibrium on this very mobility4 ,but it is caught in the snare4 ,the eddy on which it was poised seizes and drags it down4 ,it becomes prisoner of the mechanism it has set up4 ,automatism lays hold of it1 and life1 inevitably forgetting the end which it had determined1 which was only to be a means in view of a superior end1 is entirely used up in an effort to preserve itself by itself4 ,from the humblest of organised beings to the higher vertebrates which come immediately before man1 we witness an attempt which is always foiled and always resumed with more and more art4 ,man has triumphed2 with difficulty1 it is true1 and so incompletely that a moment's lapse and inattention on his part surrender him to automatism again4 ,but he has triumphed444 7,report of the ,french ,philosophical ,society1 meeting1 #bnd ,may #aija47 ,and ,mr ,bergson adds in another place3 7,creative ,evolution1 pages #bhf-bhg47 ,with man consciousness breaks the chain4 ,in man and in man only it obtains its freedom4 ,the whole history of life1 till man1 had been the history of an effort of consciousness to lift matter1 and of the more or less complete crushing of consciousness by matter falling upon it again4 ,the enterprise was paradoxical2 if indeed we can speak here1 except paradoxically1 of enterprise and effort4 ,the task was to take matter1 which is necessity itself1 and create an instrument of liberty1 construct a mechanical system to triumph over mechanism1 to employ the determinism of nature to pass through the meshes of the net it had spread4 ,but everywhere1 except in man1 consciousness let itself be caught in the net of which it sought to traverse the meshes4 ,it remained taken in the mechanisms it had set up4 ,the automatism which it claimed to be drawing towards liberty enfolds it and drags it down4 ,it has not the strength to get away1 because the energy with which it had supplied itself for action is almost entirely employed in maintaining the exceedingly subtile and essentially unstable equilibrium into which it has brought matter4 ,but man does not merely keep his machine going1 he succeeds in using it as it pleases him4 ,he owes it without doubt to the superiority of his brain1 which allows him to construct an unlimited number of motor mechanisms1 to oppose new habits to old time after time1 and to master automatism by dividing it against itself4 ,he owes it to his language1 which furnishes consciousness with an immaterial body in which to become incarnate1 thus dispensing it from depending exclusively upon material bodies1 the flux of which would drag it down and soon engulf it4 ,he owes it to social life1 which stores and preserves efforts as language stores thought1 thereby fixing a mean level to which individuals will rise with ease1 and which1 by means of this initial impulse1 prevents average individuals from going to sleep and urges better people to rise higher4 ,but our brain1 our society1 and our language are only the varied outer signs of one and the same internal superiority4 ,each after its fashion1 they tell us the unique and exceptional success which life has won at a given moment of its evolution4 ,they translate the difference in nature1 and not in degree only1 which separates man from the rest of the animal world4 ,they let us see that if1 at the end of the broad springboard from which life took off1 all others came down1 finding the cord stretched too high1 man alone has leapt the obstacle4 ,but man is not on that account isolated in nature3 ,as the smallest grain of dust forms part of our entire solar system1 and is involved along with it in this undivided downward movement which is materiality itself1 so all organised beings from the humblest to the highest1 from the first origins of life to the times in which we live1 and in all places as at all times1 do but demonstrate to our eyes a unique impulse contrary to the movement of matter1 and1 in itself1 indivisible4 ,all living beings are connected1 and all yield to the same formidable thrust4 ,the animal is supported by the plant1 man rides the animal1 and the whole of humanity in space and time is an immense army galloping by the side of each of us1 before and behind us1 in a spirited charge which can upset all resistance1 and leap many obstacles1 perhaps even death4 7,creative ,evolution1 pages #bic-bid47 ,we see with what broad and far-reaching conclusions the new philosophy closes4 ,in the forcible poetry of the pages just quoted its original accent rings deep and pure4 ,some of its leading theses1 moreover1 are noted here4 ,but now we must discover the solid foundation of underlying fact4 ,let us take first the fact of biological evolution4 ,why has it been selected as the basis of the system8 ,is it really a fact1 or is it only a more or less conjectural and plausible theory8 ,notice in the first instance that the argument from evolution appears at least as a weapon of co-ordination and research admitted in our day by all philosophers1 rejected only on the inspiration of preconceived ideas which are completely unscientific2 and that it succeeds in the task allotted to it is doubtless already the proof that it responds to some part of reality4 ,and besides1 we can go further4 ,the idea of transformism is already contained in germ in the natural classification of organised beings4 ,the naturalist brings resembling organisms together1 divides the group into sub-groups1 within which the resemblance is still greater1 and so on2 throughout the operation1 the characteristics of the group appear as general themes upon which each of the sub-groups executes its particular variations4 ,now this is precisely the relation we find in the animal world and in the vegetable world between that which produces and what is produced2 on the canvas bequeathed by the ancestor to his posterity1 and possessed in common by them1 each broiders his original pattern4 7,creative ,evolution1 pages #bd-be47 ,we may1 it is true1 ask ourselves whether the genealogical method permits results so far divergent as those presented to us by variety of species4 ,but embryology answers by showing us the highest and most complex forms of life attained every day from very elementary forms2 and palaeontology1 as it develops1 allows us to witness the same spectacle in the universal history of life1 as if the succession of phases through which the embryo passes were only a recollection and an epitome of the complete past whence it has come4 ,in addition1 the phenomena of sudden changes1 recently observed1 help us to understand more easily the conception which obtrudes itself under so many heads1 by diminishing the importance of the apparent lacunae in genealogical continuity4 ,thus the trend of all our experience is the same4 ,now there are some certainties which are only centres of concurrent probabilities2 there are some truths determined only by succession of facts1 but yet1 by their intersection and convergence1 sufficiently determined4 ,that is how we measure the distance from an inaccessible point1 by regarding it time after time from the points to which we have access4 7,report of the ,french ,philosophical ,society1 meeting1 #bnd ,may #aija47 ,is not that the case here8 ,the affirmative seems all the more inevitable inasmuch as the language of transformism is the only language known to the biology of today4 ,evolution can1 it is true1 be transposed1 but not suppressed1 since in any actual state there would always remain this striking fact that the living forms met with as remains in geological layers are ranged by the natural affinity of their characteristics in an order of succession parallel to the succession of the ages4 ,we are not really then inventing a hypothesis in beginning with the affirmation of evolution4 ,but what we have to do is to appreciate its object4 ,evolution6 ,we meet the word everywhere today4 ,but how rare is the true idea6 ,let us ask the astronomers who originate cosmogonical hypotheses1 and invent a primitive nebula1 the natural philosophers who dream that by the deterioration of energy and the dissipation of movement the material world will obtain final rest in the inertia of a homogeneous equilibrium1 let us ask the biologists and psychologists who are enemies of fixed species and inquisitive about ancestral history4 ,what they are anxious to discern in evolution is the persistent influence of an initial cause once given1 the attraction of a fixed end1 a collection of laws before the eternity of which change becomes negligible like an appearance4 ,now he who thinks of the universe as a construction of unchangeable relations denies by his method the evolution of which he speaks1 since he transforms it into a calculable effect necessarily produced by a regulated play of generating conditions1 since he implicitly admits the illusive character of a becoming which adds nothing to what is given4 ,finality itself1 if he keeps the name1 does not save him from his error1 for finality in his eyes is nothing but an efficient cause projected into the future4 ,so we see him fixing stages1 marking periods1 inserting means1 putting in milestones1 continually destroying movement by halting it before his gaze4 ,and we all do the same by instinctive inclination4 ,our concept of law1 in its classical form1 is not general3 it represents only the law of co-existence and of mechanism1 the static relation between two numerically disconnected terms2 and in order to grasp evolution we shall doubtless have to invent a new type of law3 law in duration1 dynamic relation4 ,for we can1 and we must1 conceive that there is an evolution of natural laws2 that these laws never define anything but a momentary state of things2 that they are in reality like streaks determined in the flux of becoming by the meeting of contrary currents4 ,laws1 says ,monsieur ,boutroux1 are the bed down which passes the torrent of facts2 they have dug it1 though they follow it4 ,yet we see the common theories of evolution appealing to the concepts of the present to describe the past1 forcing them back to prehistoric times1 and beyond the reasoning of today1 placing at the beginning what is only conceivable in the mind of the contemporary thinker2 in a word1 imagining the same laws as always existing and always observed4 ,this is the method which ,mr ,bergson so justly criticises in ,spencer3 that of reconstructing evolution with fragments of its product4 ,if we wish thoroughly to grasp the reality of things1 we must think otherwise4 ,neither of these ready-made concepts1 mechanism and finality1 is in place1 because both of them imply the same postulate1 viz4 that everything is given1 either at the beginning or at the end1 whilst evolution is nothing if it is not1 on the contrary1 that which gives4 ,let us take care not to confound evolution and development4 ,there is the stumbling-block of the usual transformist theories1 and ,mr ,bergson devotes to it a closely argued and singularly penetrating criticism1 by an example which he analyses in detail4 7,creative ,evolution1 chapter i47 ,these theories either do not explain the birth of variation1 and limit themselves to an attempt to make us understand how1 once born1 it becomes fixed1 or else through need of adaptation they look for a conception of its birth4 ,but in both cases they fail4 ,the truth is that adaptation explains the windings of the movement of evolution1 but not the general directions of the movement1 still less the movement itself4 ,the road which leads to the town is certainly obliged to climb the hills and go down the slopes2 it adapts itself to the accidents of the ground2 but the accidents of the ground are not the cause of the road1 any more than they have imparted its direction4 7,creative ,evolution1 pages #aaa-aab47 ,at the bottom of all these errors there are only prejudices of practical action4 ,that is of course why every work appears to be an outside construction beginning with previous elements2 a phase of anticipation followed by a phase of execution1 calculation1 and art1 an effective projecting cause1 and a concerted goal1 a mechanism which hurls to a finality which aims4 ,but the genuine explanation must be sought elsewhere4 ,and ,mr ,bergson makes this plain by two admirable analyses in which he takes to pieces the common ideas of disorder and nothingness in order to explain their meaning relative to our proceedings in industry or language4 ,let us come back to facts1 to immediate experience1 and try to translate its pure data simply4 ,what are the characteristics of vital evolution8 ,first of all it is a dynamic continuity1 a continuity of qualitative progress2 next1 it is essentially a duration1 an irreversible rhythm1 a work of inner maturation4 ,by the memory inherent in it1 the whole of its past lives on and accumulates1 the whole of its past remains for ever present to it2 which is tantamount to saying that it is experience4 ,it is also an effort of perpetual invention1 a generation of continual novelty1 indeducible and capable of defying all anticipation1 as it defies all repetition4 ,we see it at its task of research in the groping attempts exhibited by the long-sought genesis of species2 we see it triumphant in the originality of the least state of consciousness1 of the least body1 of the tiniest cell1 of which the infinity of times and spaces does not offer two identical specimens4 ,but the reef which lies in its way1 and on which too often it founders1 is habit2 habit would be a better and more powerful means of action if it remained free1 but in so far as it congeals and becomes materialised1 is a hindrance and an obstacle4 ,first of all we have the average types round which fluctuates an action which is decreasing and becoming reduced in breadth4 ,then we have the residual organs1 the proofs of dead life1 the encrustations from which the stream of consciousness gradually ebbs2 and finally we have the inert gear from which all real life has disappeared1 the masses of shipwrecked things rearing their spectral outlines where once rolled the open sea of mind4 ,the concept of mechanism suits the phenomena which occur within the zone of wreckage1 on this shore of fixities and corpses4 ,but life itself is rather finality1 if not in the anthropomorphic sense of premeditated design1 plan1 or programme1 at least in this sense1 that it is a continually renewed effort of growth and liberation4 ,and it is from here we get ,mr ,bergson's formulae3 vital impetus and creative evolution4 ,in this conception of being consciousness is everywhere1 as original and fundamental reality1 always present in a myriad degrees of tension or sleep1 and under infinitely various rhythms4 ,the vital impulse consists in a demand for creation2 life in its humblest stage already constitutes a spiritual activity2 and its effort sends out a current of ascending realisation which again determines the counter-current of matter4 ,thus all reality is contained in a double movement of ascent and descent4 ,the first only1 which translates an inner work of creative maturation1 is essentially durable2 the second might1 in strictness1 be almost instantaneous1 like that of an escaping spring2 but the one imposes its rhythm on the other4 ,from this point of view mind and matter appear not as two things opposed to each other1 as static terms in fixed antithesis1 but rather as two inverse directions of movement2 and1 in certain respects1 we must therefore speak not so much of matter or mind as of spiritualisation and materialisation1 the latter resulting automatically from a simple interruption of the former4 ,consciousness or superconsciousness is the rocket1 the extinguished remains of which fall into matter4 7,creative ,evolution1 page #bhc47 ,what image of universal evolution is then suggested8 ,not a cascade of deduction1 nor a system of stationary pulsations1 but a fountain which spreads like a sheaf of corn and is partially arrested1 or at least hindered and delayed1 by the falling spray4 ,the fountain itself1 the reality which is created1 is vital activity1 of which spiritual activity represents the highest form2 and the spray which falls is the creative act which falls1 it is reality which is undone1 it is matter and inertia4 ,in a word1 the supreme law of genesis and fall1 the double play of which constitutes the universe1 comprises a psychological formula4 ,everything begins in the manner of an invention1 as the fruit of duration and creative genius1 by liberty1 by pure mind2 then comes habit1 a kind of body1 as the body is already a group of habits2 and habit1 taking root1 being a work of consciousness which escapes it and turns against it1 is little by little degraded into mechanism in which the soul is buried4 ,,iii4 ,the main lines and general perspective of ,mr ,bergson's philosophy now perhaps begin to appear4 ,certainly ,i am the first to feel how powerless a slender resume really is to translate all its wealth and all its strength4 ,at least ,i wish ,i could have contributed to making its movement1 and what ,i may call its rhythm1 clearer to perception4 ,it is from the books of the master himself that a more complete revelation must be sought4 ,and the few words which ,i am still going to add as conclusion are only intended to sketch the principal consequences of the doctrine1 and allow its distant reach to be seen4 ,the evolution of life would be a very simple and easy thing to understand if it were fulfilled along one single trajectory and followed a straight path4 ,but we are here dealing with a shell which has immediately burst into fragments1 which1 being themselves species of shells1 have again burst into fragments destined to burst again1 and so on for a very long time4 7,creative ,evolution1 page #ajg47 ,it is1 in fact1 the property of a tendency to develop itself in the expansion which analyses it4 ,as for the causes of this dispersion into kingdoms1 then into species1 and finally into individuals1 we can distinguish two series3 the resistance which matter opposes to the current of life sent through it1 and the explosive force--due to an unstable equilibrium of tendencies--carried by the vital impulse within itself4 ,both unite in making the thrust of life divide in more and more diverging but complementary directions1 each emphasising some distinct aspect of its original wealth4 ,mr ,bergson confines himself to the branches of the first order--plant1 animal1 and man4 ,and in the course of a minute and searching discussion he shows us the characteristics of these lines in the moods or qualities signified by the three words--torpor1 instinct1 and intelligence3 the vegetable kingdom constructing and storing explosives which the animal expends1 and man creating a nervous system for himself which permits him to convert the expense into analysis4 ,let us leave aside1 as we must1 the many suggestive views scattered lavishly about1 the many flashes of light which fall on all faces of the problem1 and let us confine ourselves to seeing how we get a theory of knowledge from this doctrine4 ,there we have yet another proof of the striking and fertile originality of the new philosophy4 ,more than one objection has been brought against ,mr ,bergson on this head4 ,that is quite natural3 how could such a novelty be exactly understood at once8 ,it is also very desirable2 it is the demands for enlightenment which lead a doctrine to full consciousness of itself1 to precision and perfection4 ,but we must be afraid of false objections1 those which arise from an obstinate translation of the new philosophy into an old language steeped in a different metaphysic4 ,with what has ,mr ,bergson been reproached8 ,with misunderstanding reason1 with ruining positive science1 with being caught in the illusion of getting knowledge otherwise than by intelligence1 or of thinking otherwise than by thought2 in short1 of falling into a vicious circle by making intellectualism turn round upon itself4 ,not one of these reproaches has any foundation4 ,let us begin by a few preliminary remarks to clear the ground4 ,first of all1 there is one ridiculous objection which ,i quote only to record4 ,i mean that which suspects at the bottom of the theories which we are going to discuss some dark background1 some prepossession of irrational mysticism4 ,on the contrary1 the truth is1 we have here perhaps better than anywhere1 the spectacle of pure thought face to face with things4 ,but it is a complete thought1 not thought reduced to some partial functions1 but sufficiently sure of its critical power to sacrifice none of its resources4 ,here1 we may say1 really is the genuine positivism1 which reinstates all spiritual reality4 ,it does not in any way lead to a misunderstanding or depreciation of science4 ,even where contingency and relativity are most visible in it1 in the domain of inert matter1 ,mr ,bergson goes so far as to say that physical science touches an absolute4 ,it is true that it touches this absolute rather than sees it4 ,more particularly it perceives all its reactions on a system of representative forms which it presents to it1 and observes the effect on the veil of theory with which it envelops it4 ,at certain moments1 all the same1 the veil becomes almost transparent4 ,and in any case the scholar's thought guesses and grazes reality in the curve drawn by the succession of its increasing syntheses4 ,but there are two orders of science4 ,formerly it was from the mathematician that we borrowed the ideal of evidence4 ,hence came the inclination always to seek the most certain knowledge from the most abstract side4 ,the temptation was to make a kind of less severe and rigorous mathematics of biology itself4 ,now if such a method suits the study of inert matter because in a manner geometrical1 so much so that our knowledge of it thus acquired is more incomplete than inexact1 this is not at all the case for the things of life4 ,here1 if we were to conduct scientific research always in the same grooves and according to the same formulae1 we should immediately encounter symbolism and relativity4 ,for life is progress1 whilst the geometrical method is commensurable only with things4 ,mr ,bergson is aware of this2 and his rare merit has been to disengage specific originality from biology1 while elevating it to a typical and standard science4 ,but let us come to the heart of the problem4 ,what was ,kant's point of departure in the theory of knowledge8 ,in seeking to define the structure of the mind according to the traces of itself which it must have left in its works1 and in proceeding by a reflective analysis ascending from a fact to its conditions1 he could only regard intelligence as a thing made1 a fixed system of categories and principles4 ,mr ,bergson adopts an inverse attitude4 ,intelligence is a product of evolution3 we see it slowly and uninterruptedly constructed along a line which rises through the vertebrates to man4 ,such a point of view is the only one which conforms to the real nature of things1 and the actual conditions of reality2 the more we think of it1 the more we perceive that the theory of knowledge and the theory of life are bound up with one another4 ,now what do we conclude from this point of view8 ,life1 considered in the direction of knowledge1 evolves on two diverging lines which at first are confused1 then gradually separate1 and finally end in two opposed forms of organisation1 intelligence and instinct4 ,several contrary potentialities interpenetrated at their common source1 but of this source each of these kinds of activity preserves or rather accentuates only one tendency2 and it will be easy to mark its dual character4 ,instinct is sympathy2 it has no clear consciousness of itself2 it does not know how to reflect2 it is hardly capable of varying its steps2 but it operates with incomparable certainty because it remains lodged in things1 in communion with their rhythm and with inner feeling of them4 ,the history of animals in this respect supplies many remarkable examples which ,mr ,bergson analyses and discusses in detail4 ,as much might be said of the work which produces a living body1 and of the effort which presides over its growth1 maintenance1 and functions4 ,take a natural philosopher who has long breathed the atmosphere of the laboratory1 who has by long practice acquired what we call experience2 he has a kind of intimate feeling for his instruments1 their resources1 their movements1 their working tendencies2 he perceives them as extensions of himself2 he possesses them as groups of habitual actions1 thus discoursing by manipulations as easily and spontaneously as others discourse in calculation4 ,doubtless that is only an image2 but transpose it and generalise it1 and it will help you to understand the kind of action which divines instinct4 ,but intelligence is something quite different4 ,we are talking1 of course1 of the analytic and synthetic intelligence which we use in our acts of current thought1 which works throughout our daily action and forms the fundamental thread of our scientific operations4 ,i need not here go back to the criticism of its ordinary proceedings4 ,but ,i must now note the service which suits them1 the domain in which they apply and are valid1 and what they teach us thereby about the meaning1 reach1 and natural task of intelligence4 ,whilst instinct vibrates in sympathetic harmony with life1 it is about inert matter that intelligence is granted2 it is a rider to our faculty of action2 it triumphs in geometry2 it feels at home among the objects in which our industry finds its supports and its tools4 ,in a word1 our logic is primarily the logic of solids4 7,preface to ,creative ,evolution47 ,but if we enter the vital order its incompetence is manifestly apparent4 ,it is very important that deduction should be so impotent in biology4 ,still more impotent is it perhaps in matters of art or religion2 whilst1 on the contrary1 it works marvels so long as it has only to foresee movements or transformations in bodies4 ,what does this mean1 if not that intelligence and materiality go together1 that language with its analytic steps is regulated by the movements of matter8 ,philosophy once again then must leave it behind1 for the duty of philosophy is to consider everything in its relation to life4 ,do not conclude1 however1 that the philosopher's duty is to renounce intelligence1 place it under tutelage1 or abandon it to the blind suggestions of feeling and will4 ,it has not even the right to do so4 ,instinct1 with us who have evolved along the grooves of intelligence1 has remained too weak to be sufficient for us4 ,besides1 intelligence is the only path by which light could dawn in the bosom of primitive darkness4 ,but let us look at present reality in all its complexity1 all its wealth4 ,round intelligence itself exists a halo of instinct4 ,this halo represents the remains of the first nebulous vapour at the expense of which intelligence was constituted like a brilliantly condensed nucleus2 and it is still today the atmosphere which gives it life1 the fringe of touch1 and delicate probing1 inspiring contact and divining sympathy1 which we see in play in the phenomena of discovery1 as also in the acts of that attention to life1 and that sense of reality which is the soul of good sense1 so widely distinct from common-sense4 ,and the peculiar task of the philosopher is to reabsorb intelligence in instinct1 or rather to reinstate instinct in intelligence2 or better still1 to win back to the heart of intelligence all the initial resources which it must have sacrificed4 ,this is what is meant by return to the primitive1 and the immediate1 to reality and life4 ,this is the meaning of intuition4 ,certainly the task is difficult4 ,we at once suspect a vicious circle4 ,how can we go beyond intelligence except by intelligence itself8 ,we are apparently inside our thought1 as incapable of coming out of it as is a balloon of rising above the atmosphere4 ,true1 but on this reasoning we could just as well prove that it is impossible for us to acquire any new habit whatsoever1 impossible for life to grow and go beyond itself continually4 ,we must avoid drawing false conclusions from the simile of the balloon4 ,the question here is to know what are the real limits of the atmosphere4 ,it is certain that the synthetic and critical intelligence1 left to its own strength1 remains imprisoned in a circle from which there is no escape4 ,but action removes the barrier4 ,if intelligence accepts the risk of taking the leap into the phosphorescent fluid which bathes it1 and to which it is not altogether foreign1 since it has broken off from it and in it dwell the complementary powers of the understanding1 intelligence will soon become adapted and so will only be lost for a moment to reappear greater1 stronger1 and of fuller content4 ,it is action again under the name of experience which removes the danger of illusion or giddiness1 it is action which verifies2 by a practical demonstration1 by an effort of enduring maturation which tests the idea in intimate contact with reality and judges it by its fruits4 ,it always falls therefore to intelligence to pronounce the grand verdict in the sense that only that can be called true which will finally satisfy it2 but we mean an intelligence duly enlarged and transformed by the very effect of the action it has lived4 ,thus the objection of irrationalism directed against the new philosophy falls to the ground4 ,the objection of non-morality fares no better4 ,but is has been made1 and people have thought fit to accuse ,mr ,bergson's work of being the too calm production of an intelligence too indifferent1 too coldly lucid1 too exclusively curious to see and understand1 untroubled and unthrilled by the universal drama of life1 by the tragic reality of evil4 ,on the other hand1 not without contradiction1 the new philosophy has been called romantic1 and people have tried to find in it the essential traits of romanticism3 its predilection for feeling and imagination1 its unique anxiety for vital intensity1 its recognised right to all which is to be1 whence its radical inability to establish a hierarchy of moral qualifications4 ,strange reproach6 ,the system in question is not yet presented to us as a finished system4 ,its author manifests a plain desire to classify his problems4 ,and he is certainly right in proceeding so3 there is a time for everything1 and on occasion we must learn to be just an eye focussed upon being4 ,but that does not at all exclude the possibility of future works1 treating in due order of the problem of human destiny1 and perhaps even in the work so far completed we may descry some attempts to bring this future within ken4 ,but universal evolution1 though creative1 is not for all that quixotic or anarchist4 ,it forms a sequence4 ,it is a becoming with direction1 undoubtedly due1 not to the attraction of a clearly preconceived goal1 or the guidance of an outer law1 but to the actual tendency of the original thrust4 ,in spite of the stationary eddies or momentary backwashes we observe here and there1 its stream moves in a definite direction1 ever swelling and broadening4 ,for the spectator who regards the general sweep of the current1 evolution is growth4 ,on the other hand1 he who thinks this growth now ended is under a simple delusion3 ,the gates of the future stand wide open4 7,creative ,evolution1 page #aad47 ,in the stage at present attained man is leading2 he marks the culminating point at which creation continues2 in him1 life has already succeeded1 at least up to a certain point2 from him onwards it advances with consciousness capable of reflection2 is it not for that very reason responsible for the result8 ,life1 according to the new philosophy1 is a continual creation of what is new3 new--be it well understood--in the sense of growth and progress in relation to what has gone before4 ,life1 in a word1 is mental travel1 ascent in a path of growing spiritualisation4 ,such at least is the intense desire1 and such the first tendency which launched and still inspires it4 ,but it may faint1 halt1 or travel down the hill4 ,this is an undeniable fact2 and once recognised does it not awake in us the presentiment of a directing law immanent in vital effort1 a law doubtless not to be found in any code1 nor yet binding through the stern behest of mechanical necessity1 but a law which finds definition at every moment1 and at every moment also marks a direction of progress1 being as it were the shifting tangent to the curve of becoming8 ,let us did that according to the new philosophy the whole of our past survives for ever in us1 and by means of us results in action4 ,it is then literally true that our acts do to a certain extent involve the whole universe1 and its whole history3 the act which we make it accomplish will exist henceforward for ever1 and will for ever tinge universal duration with its indelible shade4 ,does not that imply an imperious1 urgent1 solemn1 and tragic problem of action8 ,nay1 more2 memory makes a persistent reality of evil1 as of good4 ,where are we to find the means to abolish and reabsorb the evil8 ,what in the individual is called memory becomes tradition and joint responsibility in the race4 ,on the other hand1 a directing law is immanent in life1 but in the shape of an appeal to endless transcendence4 ,in dealing with this future transcendent to our daily life1 with this further shore of present experience1 where are we to seek the inspiring strength8 ,and is there not ground for asking ourselves whether intuitions have not arisen here and there in the course of history1 lighting up the dark road of the future for us with a prophetic ray of dawn8 ,it is at this point that the new philosophy would find place for the problem of religion4 ,but this word religion1 which has not come once so far from ,mr ,bergson's pen1 coming now from mine1 warns me that it is time to end4 ,no man today would be justified in foreseeing the conclusions to which the doctrine of creative evolution will one day undoubtedly lead on this point4 ,more than any other1 ,i must forget here what ,i myself may have elsewhere tried to do in this order of ideas4 ,but it was impossible not to feel the approach of the temptation4 ,mr ,bergson's work is extraordinarily suggestive4 ,his books1 so measured in tone1 so tranquil in harmony1 awaken in us a mystery of presentiment and imagination2 they reach the hidden retreats where the springs of consciousness well up4 ,long after we have closed them we are shaken within2 strangely moved1 we listen to the deepening echo1 passing on and on4 ,however valuable already their explicit contents may be1 they reach still further than they aimed4 ,it is impossible to tell what latent germs they foster4 ,it is impossible to guess what lies behind the boundless distance of the horizons they expose4 ,but this at least is sure3 these books have verily begun a new work in the history of human thought4 ,,additional ,,explanations ,i4 ,mr ,bergson's ,work and the ,general ,directions of ,contemporary ,thought4 ,a broad survey of the new philosophy was bound to be somewhat rapid and summary2 and now that this is completed it will doubtless not be superfluous to come back1 on the same plan as before1 to some more important or more difficult individual points1 and to examine by themselves the most prominent centres on which we should focus the light of our attention4 ,not that ,i intend to probe in minute detail the folds and turns of a doctrine which admits of infinite development3 how can ,i claim to exhaust a work of such profound thought that the least passing example employed takes its place as a particular study8 ,still less do ,i wish to undertake a kind of analytic resume2 no undertaking could be less profitable than that of arranging paragraph headings to repeat too briefly1 and therefore obscurely1 what a thinker has said without any extravagance of language1 yet with every requisite explanation4 ,the critic's true task1 as ,i understand it1 in no way consists in drawing up a table of contents strewn with qualifying notes4 ,his task is to read and enable others to read between the lines1 between the chapters1 and between the successive works1 what constitutes the dynamic tie between them1 all that the linear form of writing and language has not allowed the author himself to elucidate4 ,his task is1 as far as possible1 to master the accompaniment of underlying thought which produced the resonant atmosphere of the inquirer's intuition1 the rhythm and toning of the image1 resulting in the shade of light which falls upon his vision4 ,his task1 in a word1 is to help understanding1 and therefore to point out and anticipate the misunderstandings to be feared4 ,now it seems to me that there are a few points round which the errors of interpretation more naturally gather1 producing some astounding misconceptions of ,mr ,bergson's philosophy4 ,it is these points only that ,i propose to clear up4 ,but at the same time ,i shall use the opportunity to supply information about authorities1 which ,i have hitherto deliberately omitted1 to avoid riddling with references pages which were primarily intended to impart a general impression4 ,let us begin by glancing at the milieu of thought in which ,mr ,bergson's philosophy must have had birth4 ,for the last thirty years new currents are traceable4 ,in what direction do they go8 ,and what distance have they already gone8 ,what1 in short1 are the intellectual characteristics of our time8 ,we must endeavour to distinguish the deeper tendencies1 those which herald and prepare and near future4 ,one of the essential and frequently cited features of the generation in which ,taine and ,renan were the most prominent leaders was the passionate1 enthusiastic1 somewhat exclusive and intolerant cult of positive science4 ,this science1 in its days of pride1 was considered unique1 displayed on a plane by itself1 always uniformly competent1 capable of gripping any object whatever with the same strength1 and of inserting it in the thread of one and the same unbroken connection4 ,the dream of that time1 despite all verbal palliations1 was a universal science of mathematics3 mathematics1 of course1 with their bare and brutal rigour softened and shaded off1 where feasible2 if possible1 supple and sensitive2 in ideal1 delicate1 buoyant1 and judicious2 but mathematics governed from end to end by an equal necessity4 ,conceived as the sole mistress of truth1 this science was expected in days to come to fulfil all the needs of man1 and unreservedly to take the place of ancient spiritual discipline4 ,genuine philosophy had had its day3 all metaphysics seemed deception and fantasy1 a simple play of empty formulae or puerile dreams1 a mythical procession of abstraction and phantom2 religion itself paled before science1 as poetry of the grey morning before the splendour of the rising sun4 ,however1 after all this pride came the turn of humility1 and humility of the very lowest4 ,this deified science1 borne down in its hour of triumph by too heavy a weight1 had necessarily been recognised as powerless to go beyond the order of relations1 and radically incapable of telling us the origin1 end1 and basis of things4 ,it analysed the conditions of phenomena1 but was ill-suited ever to grasp any real cause1 or any deep essence4 ,further1 it became the ,unknowable1 before which the human mind could only halt in despair4 ,and in this way destitution arose out of ambition itself1 since thought1 after trusting too exclusively to its geometrical strength1 was compelled at the end of its effort to confess itself beaten when confronted with the only questions to which no man may ever be indifferent4 ,this double attitude is no longer that of the contemporary generation4 ,the prestige of illusion has vanished4 ,in the religion of science we see now nothing but idolatry4 ,the haughty affirmation of yesterday appears today1 not as expressing a positive fact or a result duly established1 but as bringing forward a thesis of perilous and unconscious metaphysics4 ,let us go even further4 ,if true intelligence is mental expansion and aptitude for understanding widely different things1 each in its originality1 to the same degree1 we must say that the claim to reduce reality to one only of its modes1 to know it in one only of its forms1 is an unintelligent claim4 ,that is1 in brief formula1 the verdict of the present generation4 ,not1 of course1 that it in any way misconceives or disdains the true value of science1 whether as an instrument of action for the conquest of nature1 or as intelligible language1 allowing us to know our whereabouts in things and talk them4 ,it is aware that in all circumstances positive methods have their evidence to produce1 and that1 where they pronounce within the limits of their power1 nothing can stand against their verdict4 ,but it considers first of all that science was conceived of late under much too stiff and narrow a form1 under the obsession of too abstract a mathematical ideal which corresponds to one aspect of reality only1 and that the shallowest4 ,and it considers afterwards that science1 even when broadened and made flexible1 being concerned only with what is1 with fact and datum1 remains radically powerless to solve the problem of human life4 ,nowhere does science penetrate to the very depth of things1 and there is nothing in the world but things4 ,experience has shown where the dream of universal mathematics leads us4 ,number is driven to the heart of phenomena and nature dissected with this delicate scalpel4 ,speaking in more general terms1 we adopt spatial relation as the perfect example of intelligible relation4 ,i do not wish to deny the use of such a method now and again1 the services it may render1 or the beauty of construction peculiar to the systems it inspires4 ,but we must see what price we pay for these advantages4 ,do we choose geometry for an informing and regulating science8 ,the more we advance towards the concrete and the living1 the more we feel the necessity of altering the pure mathematical type4 ,the sciences1 as they get further from inert matter1 unless they agree to reform1 pale and weaken2 they become vague1 impotent1 anaemic2 they touch little but the trite surface of their object1 the body1 not the soul2 in them symbolism1 artifice1 and relativity become increasingly evident2 at length1 arbitrary and conventional elements crop up and devour them4 ,in a word1 the claim to treat the living as inert matter conduces to the misconception in life of life itself1 and the retention of nothing but the material waste4 ,this experience furnishes us with a lesson4 ,there is not so much one science as several sciences1 each distinguished by an autonomous method1 and divided into two great kingdoms4 ,let us therefore from the outset follow ,mr ,bergson in tracing a very sharp line of demarcation between the inert and the living4 ,two orders of knowledge will thereby become separate1 one in which the frames of geometrical understanding are in place1 the other where new means and a new attitude are required4 ,the essential task of the present hour will now appear to us in a precise light2 it will henceforward consist1 without any disregard of a glorious past1 in an effort to found as specifically distinct methods of instruction those sciences which take for objects the successive moments of life in its different degrees1 biology1 psychology1 sociology2--then in an effort to reconstruct1 setting out from these new sciences and according to their spirit1 the like of what ancient philosophy had attempted1 setting out from geometry and mechanics4 ,by so doing we shall succeed in throwing knowledge open to receive all the wealth of reality1 while at the same time we shall reinstate the sense of mystery and the thrill of higher anxieties4 ,a further result will be that the phantom of the ,unknowable will be exorcised1 since it no longer represents anything but the relative and momentary limit of each method1 the portion of being which escapes its partial grip4 ,this is one of the first controlling ideas of the contemporary generation4 ,others result from it4 ,more particularly1 it is for the same body of motives1 in the same sense1 and with the same restrictions1 that we distrust intellectualism2 ,i mean the tendency to live uniquely by intelligence1 to think as if the whole of thought consisted in analytic1 clear and reasoning understanding4 ,once again1 it is not a question of some blind abandonment to sentiment1 imagination1 or will1 nor do we claim to restrict the legitimate rights of intellectuality in judgment4 ,but around critical reason there is a quickening atmosphere in which dwell the powers of intuition1 there is a half-light of gradual tones in which insertion into reality is effected4 ,if by rationalism we mean the attitude which consists in cabining ourselves within the zone of geometrical light in which language evolves1 we must admit that rationalism supposes something other than itself1 that it hangs suspended by a generating act which escapes it4 ,the method therefore which we seek to employ everywhere today is experience2 but complete experience1 anxious to neglect no aspect of being nor any resource of mind2 shaded experience1 not extending on the surface only1 in a homogeneous and uniform manner2 on the contrary1 an experience distributed in depth over multiple planes1 adopting a thousand different forms to adapt itself to the different kinds of problems2 in short1 a creative and informing experience1 a veritable genesis1 a genuine action of thought1 a work and movement of life by which the guiding principles1 forms of intelligibility1 and criteria of verification obtain birth and stability in habits4 ,and here again it is by borrowing ,mr ,bergson's own formula from him that we shall most accurately describe the new spirit4 ,that the attitude and fundamental procedure of this new spirit are in no way a return to scepticism or a reaction against thought cannot be better demonstrated than by this resurrection of metaphysics1 this renaissance of idealism1 which is certainly one of the most distinctive features of our epoch4 ,undoubtedly philosophy in ,france has never known so prosperous and so pregnant a moment4 ,notwithstanding1 it is not a return to the old dreams of dialectic construction4 ,everything is regarded from the point of view of life1 and there is a tendency more and more to recognise the primacy of spiritual activity4 ,but we wish to understand and employ this activity and this life in all its wealth1 in all its degrees1 and by all its functions3 we wish to think with the whole of thought1 and go to the truth with the whole of our soul2 and the reason of which we recognise the sovereign weight is reason laden with its complete past history4 ,and what is that1 really1 but realism8 ,by realism ,i mean the gift of ourselves to reality1 the work of concrete realisation1 the effort to convert every idea into action1 to regulate the idea by the action as much as the action by the idea1 to live what we think and think what we live4 ,but that is positivism1 you will say2 certainly it is positivism4 ,but how changed6 ,far from considering as positive only that which can be an object of sensation or calculation1 we begin by greeting the great spiritual realities with this title4 ,the deep and living aspiration of our day is in everything to seek the soul1 the soul which specifies and quickens1 seek it by an effort towards the revealing sympathy which is genuine intelligence1 seek it in the concrete1 without dissolving thought in dreams or language1 without losing contact with the body or critical control1 seek it1 in fine1 as the most real and genuine part of being4 ,hence its return to questions which were lately declared out of date and closed2 hence its taste for problems of aesthetics and morality1 its close siege of social and religious problems1 its homesickness for a faith harmonising the powers of action and the powers of thought2 hence its restless desire to hark back to tradition and discipline4 ,a new philosophy was required to answer this new way of looking at things4 ,already1 in #ahfg1 ,ravaisson in his celebrated ,report wrote these prophetic lines3 ,many signs permit us to foresee in the near future a philosophical epoch of which the general character will be the predominance of what may be called spiritualist realism or positivism1 having as generating principle the consciousness which the mind has in itself of an existence recognised as being the source and support of every other existence1 being none other than its action4 ,this prophetic view was further commented on in a work where ,mr ,bergson speaks with just praise of this shrewd and penetrating sense of what was coming3 ,what could be bolder or more novel than to come and predict to the physicists that the inert will be explained by the living1 to biologists that life will only be understood by thought1 to philosophers that generalities are not philosophic8 7,notice on the ,life and ,works of ,m4 ,felix ,ravaisson-,molien1 in the ,reports of the ,academy of ,moral and ,political ,sciences1 #aijd47 ,but let us give each his due4 ,what ,ravaisson had only anticipated ,mr ,bergson himself accomplishes1 with a precision which gives body to the impalpable and floating breath of first inspiration1 with a depth which renews both proof and theses alike1 with a creative originality which prevents the critic who is anxious for justice and precision from insisting on any researches establishing connection of thought4 ,one reason for the popularity today enjoyed by this new philosophy is doubtless to be found in the very tendencies of the milieu in which it is produced and in the aspirations which work it4 ,but1 after once remarking these desires1 we must further not forget that ,mr ,bergson has contributed more than anyone else to awaken them1 determine them1 and make them become conscious of themselves4 ,let us therefore try to understand in itself and by itself the work of genius of which just now we were seeking the dawning gleams4 ,what synthetic formula will be best able to tell us the essential direction of its movement8 ,i will borrow it from the author himself3 ,it seems to me1 he writes1 7,philosophic ,intuition in the ,revue de ,metaphysique et de ,morale1 ,november #aiaa47 that metaphysics are trying at this moment to simplify themselves1 to come nearer to life4 ,every philosophy tends to become incarnate in a system which constitutes for it a kind of body of analysis4 ,regarded literally1 it appears to be an infinite complication1 a complex construction with a thousand alcoves of high architecture1 in which measures have been taken to provide ample lodging for all problems4 7,ibid47 ,do not let us be deceived by this appearance3 it signifies only that language is incommensurable with thought1 that speech admits of endless multiplication in approximations incapable of exhausting their object4 ,but before constructing such a body for itself1 all philosophy is a soul1 a mind1 and begins with the simple unity of a generating intuition4 ,here is the fitting point at which to see its essence2 this is what determines it much better than its conceptual expression1 which is always contingent and incomplete4 ,a philosophy worthy of the name has never said but one thing2 and that thing it has rather attempted to say than actually said4 ,and it has only said one thing1 because it has only seen one point3 and that was not so much vision as contact2 this contact supplied an impulse1 this impulse a movement1 and if this movement1 which is a kind of vortex of a certain particular form1 is only visible to our eyes by what it has picked up on its path1 it is no less true that other dust might equally well have been raised1 and that it would still have been the same vortex4 7,philosophic ,intuition in the ,revue de ,metaphysique et de ,morale1 ,november #aiaa47 ,hence comes the fact that a philosophy is at bottom much more independent of its natal environment than one might at first suppose2 hence also the fact that ancient philosophies1 though apparently relative to a science which is out of date1 remain always living and worthy of study4 ,what1 then1 is the original intuition of ,mr ,bergson's philosophy1 the creative intuition whence it comes forth8 ,we cannot hesitate long3 it is the intuition of duration4 ,that is the perspective centre to which we must indefatigably return2 that is the principle which we must labour to expose in its full light2 and that is1 finally1 the source of light which will illumine us4 ,now a philosophy is not only an expressed intuition2 it is further and above all an acting intuition1 gradually determined and realised1 and tested by its explanatory works2 and it is by its fruits that we can understand and judge it4 ,hence the review upon which we are entering4 ,,ii4 ,immediacy4 ,the philosopher's first duty is in clear language to declare his starting-point1 with what a mathematician would call the tangent to the origin of the path along which he is travelling1 as afterwards the critic's first duty is to describe this initial attitude4 ,i have therefore first of all to indicate the directing idea of the new philosophy4 ,but it is not a question of extracting a quintessence1 or of fencing the soul of doctrine within a few summary formulae4 ,a system is not to be resumed in a phrase1 for every proposition isolated is a proposition falsified4 ,i wish merely to elucidate the methodical principle which inspires the beginning of ,mr ,bergson's philosophy4 ,to philosophy itself falls the task and belongs the right to define itself gradually as it becomes constituted4 ,on this point1 an anticipation of experience seems hardly possible2 here1 as elsewhere1 the finding of a synthetic formula is a final rather than preliminary question4 ,however1 we are obliged from the outset of the work to determine the programme of the inquiry1 if only to direct our research4 ,it is the same on the threshold of every science4 ,there1 it is true1 the analogy ceases4 ,for in any science properly speaking the determination of beginning consists in the indication of an object1 and a matter1 and beyond that1 to each new object a new science reciprocally corresponds1 the existence of the one involving the legitimacy of the other4 ,but if the various sciences--,i mean the positive sciences--divide different objects thus between them1 philosophy cannot1 in its turn1 come forward as a particular science1 having a distinct object1 the designation of which would be sufficient to characterise and circumscribe it4 ,such was always the traditional conception3 such will ours continue to be4 ,for1 as a matter of fact1 every object has a philosophy and all matter can be regarded philosophically4 ,in short1 philosophy is chiefly a way of perceiving and thinking1 an attitude and a proceeding3 the peculiar and specific in it is more an intuition than a content1 a spirit rather than a domain4 ,what1 then1 is the characteristic function of philosophy1 at least its initial function1 that which marks its opening8 ,to criticise the works of knowledge spontaneously effected2 that is to say1 to scrutinise their direction1 reach1 and conditions3 that is today the unanimous answer of philosophers when questioned about the goal of their labours4 ,in other terms1 what they study is not so much such and such a particular thing as the relation of mind to each of the realities to be studied4 ,their object1 if we must employ the word1 is knowledge itself1 it is the act of knowing regarded from the point of view of its meaning and value4 ,philosophy thus appears as a new order of knowledge1 co-extensive with what is knowable1 as a kind of knowledge of the second degree1 in which it is less a question of learning than of understanding1 in which we aim at progressing in depth rather than in extent2 not effort to extend the quantity of knowledge1 but reflection on the quality of this knowledge4 ,spontaneous thought--vulgar or scientific--is a direct1 simple1 and practical thought turned towards things and partial to useful results2 seeking what is formulable rather than what is true1 or at least so fond of formulae which can be handled1 manipulated1 or transmitted1 that it is always tempted to see the truth in them2 a thought which1 moreover1 sets out from more or less unguarded postulates1 abandons itself to the motive impulses of habits contracted1 and goes straight on indefinitely without self-examination4 ,philosophy1 on the contrary1 desires to be thought about thought1 thought retracing its life and work1 knowledge labouring to know itself1 fact which aspires to fact about itself1 mental effort to become free1 to become entirely transparent and luminous in its own eyes1 and1 if need be1 to effect self-reform by dissipating its natural illusions4 ,what we have before our eyes then are the initial postulates themselves1 the first spontaneous thoughts1 the obscure origins of reason2 and we are proceeding towards a point of departure rather than arrival4 ,the new philosophy does not refuse to carry out this first critical task2 but it carries it out in its own way after determining more precisely the real conditions of the problem4 ,at the hour when methodical research begins1 the philosopher's mind is not clean-swept2 and it would be chimerical to wish to place oneself from the beginning1 by some act of transcendence1 outside common thought4 ,this thought cannot be inspected and judged from outside4 ,it constitutes1 whether we wish it or no1 the sole concrete and positive point of departure4 ,let us add that common-sense constitutes also our sole point of insertion into reality4 ,it can only then be a question of purifying it1 not in any way of replacing it4 ,but we must distinguish in it what is pure fact1 and what is ulterior arrangement1 in order to see what are the problems which really are presented1 and what are1 on the contrary1 the false problems1 the illusory problems1 those which relate only to our artifices of language4 ,the search for facts is then the first necessary moment of all philosophy4 ,but common thought comes before us at the outset as a piece of very composite alluvial ground4 ,it is a beginning of positive science1 and also a residue of all philosophical opinions which have had some vogue4 ,that1 however1 is not its primary basis4 ,primum vivere1 deinde philosophari1 says the proverb4 ,in certain respects1 speculation is a luxury1 whilst action is a necessity4 7,creative ,evolution1 page #dg47 ,but life requires us to apprehend things in the relation they have to our needs4 7,laughter1 page #aed47 ,hence comes the fundamental utilitarianism of common-sense4 ,therefore if we wish to define it in itself and for itself1 and no longer as a first approximation of such and such a system of metaphysics1 it appears to us no longer as rudimentary science and philosophy1 but as an organisation of thought in view of practical life4 ,thus it is that outside all speculative opinion it is effectively lived by all4 ,its proper language1 we may say1 is the language of customary perception and mechanical fabrication1 therefore a language relative to action1 made to express action1 modelled upon action1 translating things by the relations they maintain to our action2 ,i mean our corporal and synthetic action1 which very evidently implies thought1 since it is a question of the action of a reasonable being1 but which thus contains a thought which is itself eminently practical4 ,however1 we are here regarding common-sense considered as a source of fact4 ,its utilitarianism then becomes a kind of spontaneous metaphysics from which we must detach ourselves4 ,but is it not the very task of positive science to execute this work of purification8 ,nothing of the kind1 despite appearances and despite intentions4 ,let us examine more closely4 ,the general categories of common thought1 according to ,mr ,bergson1 7,philosophic ,intuition in the ,metaphysical and ,moral ,review1 ,november #aiaa1 page #hbe47 remain those of science2 the main roads traced by our senses through the continuity of reality are still those along which science will pass2 perception is an infant science and science an adult perception2 so much so that customary knowledge and scientific knowledge1 both of them destined to prepare our action upon things1 are of necessity two visions of the same kind1 though of unequal precision and reach4 ,it does not follow that science does not practise a certain disinterestedness as far as immediate mechanical utility is concerned2 it does not follow that it has no value as knowledge4 ,but it does not set itself genuinely free from the habits contracted in common experience1 and to inform its research it preserves the postulates of common-sense2 so that it always grasps things by their actable side1 by their point of contact with our faculty for action1 under the forms by which we handle them conceptually or practically1 and all it attains of reality is that by which nature is a possible object of language or industry4 ,let us turn now towards another aspect of natural thought1 to discover in it the germ of the necessary criticism4 ,by the side of common-sense1 which is the first rough-draft of positive science1 there is good sense1 which differs from it profoundly1 and marks the beginning of what we shall later on call philosophic intuition4 7,cf4 an address on ,good ,sense and ,classical ,studies1 delivered by ,mr ,bergson at the ,concours general prize distribution1 #cjth ,july #ahie47 ,it is a sense of what is real1 concrete1 original1 living1 an art of equilibrium and precision1 a fine touch for complexities1 continually feeling like the antennae of some insects4 ,it contains a certain distrust of the logical faculty in respect of itself2 it wages incessant war upon intellectual automatism1 upon ready-made ideas and linear deduction2 above all1 it is anxious to locate and to weigh1 without any oversights2 it arrests the development of every principle and every method at the precise point where too brutal an application would offend the delicacy of reality2 at every moment it collects the whole of our experience and organises it in view of the present4 ,it is1 in a word1 thought which keeps its freedom1 activity which remains awake1 suppleness of attitude1 attention to life1 an ever-renewed adjustment to suit ever-new situations4 ,its revealing virtue is derived from this moving contact with fact1 and this living effort of sympathy4 ,this is what we must tend to transpose from the practical to the speculative order4 ,what1 then1 will be for us the beginning of philosophy8 ,after taking cognisance of common utilitarianism1 and to emerge from the relativity in which it buries us1 we seek a departure-point1 a criterion1 something which decides the raising of inquiry4 ,where are we to find such a principle1 except in the very action of thought2 ,i mean1 this time1 its action of profound life independent of all practical aim8 ,we shall thus only be imitating the example of ,descartes when solving the problem of temporary doubt4 ,what we shall term return to the immediate1 the primitive1 the pure fact1 will be the taking of each perception considered as an act lived1 a coloured moment of the ,cogito1 and this will be for us a criterion and departure-point4 ,let us specify this point4 ,immediate data or primitive data or pure data are apprehended by us under forms of disinterested action2 ,i mean that they are first of all lived rather than conceived1 that before becoming material for science1 they appear as moments of life2 in brief1 that perception of them precedes their use4 ,it is at this stage previous to language that we are by these pure data in intimate communion with reality itself1 and the whole of our critical task is to return to them through a regressive analysis1 the goal of which is gradually to make our clear intelligence equal to our primordial intuition4 ,the latter already constitutes a thought1 a preconceptual thought which is the intrinsic light of action1 which is action itself so far as it is luminous4 ,thus there is no question here of restricting in any degree the part played by thought1 but only of distinguishing between the perceptive and theoretic functions of mind4 ,what is the image of which ,mr ,bergson speaks at the beginning of ,matter and ,mind except1 when grasped in its first movement1 the flash of conscious existence in which the act of knowledge coincides with the generating act of reality8 7,report of the ,french ,philosophical ,society1 philosophical vocabulary1 article ,immediate47 ,let us forget all philosophical controversies about realism and idealism2 let us try to reconstruct for ourselves a simplicity1 a virginal and candid glance1 freeing us from the habits contracted in the course of practical life4 ,these then are our images3 not things presented externally1 nor states felt internally1 not portraits of exterior beings nor projections of internal moods1 but appearances1 in the etymological sense of the word1 appearances lived simply1 without our being distinguished from them1 as yet neither subjective nor objective1 marking a moment of consciousness previous to the work of reflection1 from which proceeds the duality of subject and object4 ,and such also1 in every order1 appear the immediate feelings2 as action in birth1 previous to language4 7,cf4 ,matter and ,memory1 ,foreword to the #gth edition47 ,why depart from the immediate thus conceived as action and life8 ,because it is quite impossible to do otherwise1 for every initial fact can be only such a pulsation of consciousness in its lived act1 and the fundamental and primitive direction of the least word1 were it in an enunciation of a problem or a doubt1 can only be such a direction of life and action4 ,and we must certainly accord to this immediacy a value of absolute knowledge1 since it realises the coincidence of being and knowledge4 ,but let us not think that the perception of immediacy is simple passive perception1 that it is sufficient to open our eyes to obtain it1 today when our utilitarian education is completed and has passed into the state of habit4 ,there is a difference between common experience and the initial action of life2 the first is a practical limitation of the second4 ,hence it follows that a previous criticism is necessary to return from one to the other1 a criticism always in activity1 always open as a way of progressive investigation1 always ready for the reiteration and the renewal of effort4 ,in this task of purification there is doubtless always to be feared an illusion of remaining in the primitive stage4 ,by what criteria1 by what signs can we recognise that we have touched the goal8 ,pure fact is shown to be such on the one hand because it remains independent of all theoretical symbolism1 because the critique of language allows it to exist thus as an indissoluble residue1 because we are unable not to live it1 even when we free ourselves from the anxiety of utility2 on the other hand1 because it dominates all systems1 and imposes itself equally upon them all as the common source from which they derive by diverging analyses1 and in which they become reconciled4 ,assuredly1 to attain it1 to extricate it1 we must appeal to the revelations of science1 to the exercise of deliberate thought4 ,but this employment of analysis against analysis does not in any way constitute a circle1 for it tends only to destroy prejudices which have become unconscious3 it is a simple artifice destined to break off habits and to scatter illusions by changing the points of view4 ,once set free1 once again become capable of direct and simple view1 what we accept as fact is what bears no trace of synthetic elaboration4 ,it is true that here a last objection presents itself3 how shall we think this limit1 purely given1 to any degree at all in fact1 if it must precede all language8 ,the answer is easy4 ,why speak thus of limit8 ,this word has two senses3 at one time it designates a last term in a series of approximations1 and at another a certain internal character of convergence1 a certain quality of progression4 ,now1 it is the second sense only which suits the case before us4 ,immediacy contains no matter statically defined1 and no thing4 ,the notion of fact is quite relative4 ,what is fact in one case may become construction in another4 ,for example1 the percepts of common experience are facts for the physicist1 and constructions for the philosopher2 the same applies to a table of numerical results1 for the scholar who is trying to establish a theory1 or for the observer and the psychologist4 ,we may then conceive a series in which each term is fact in relation to those which follow it1 and constructed in relation to those which precede it4 ,the expression primitive fact then determines not so much a final object as a direction of thought1 a movement of critical retrogression1 a journey from the most to the least elaborate1 and the contact with pure immediacy is only the effort1 more and more prolonged1 to convert the elements of experience into real and profound action4 ,,iii4 ,theory of ,perception4 ,of what the work of return to immediacy consists1 and how the intuition which it calls up reveals absolute fact1 we shall see by an example1 if we study more closely a capital point of ,mr ,bergson's philosophy1 the theory of external perception4 ,if the act of perceiving realises the lived communion of the subject and object in the image1 we must admit that here we have the perfect knowledge which we wish to obtain always3 we resign ourselves to conception only for want of perception1 and our ideal is to convert all conception into perception4 ,doubtless we might define philosophy by this same ideal1 as an effort to expand our perceptive power until we render it capable of grasping all the wealth and all the depth of reality at a single glance4 ,too true it is that such an ideal remains inaccessible to us4 ,something1 however1 is given us already in aesthetic intuition4 ,mr ,bergson has pointed it out in some admirable pages1 7,laughter1 pages #aec-afa47 and has explained to us also how philosophy pursues an analogous end4 7,first lecture on ,the ,perception of ,change1 delivered at ,oxford1 #bfth ,may #aiaa47 ,but philosophy must be conceived as an art implying science and criticism1 all experience and all reason4 ,it is when we look at metaphysics in this way that they become a positive order of veritable knowledge4 ,kant has conclusively established that what lies beyond language can only be attained by direct vision1 not by dialectic progress4 ,his mistake was that he afterwards believed such a vision for ever impossible2 and whence did this mistake arise1 if not from the fact that1 for his new vision1 he exacted intuitive faculties quite different from those at man's disposal4 ,here again the artist will be our example and model4 ,he appeals to no transcendent sense1 but detaches common-sense from its utilitarian prejudices4 ,let us do the same3 we shall obtain a similar result without lying ourselves open to ,kant's objections4 ,this work is everywhere possible1 and it is1 par excellence1 the work of philosophy3 let us try then to sketch it in relation to the perception of matter4 ,we must distinguish two senses of the word perception4 ,this word means first of all simple apprehension of immediacy1 grasp of primitive fact4 ,when we use it in this sense1 we will agree to say pure perception4 ,it is perhaps in place to see in it nothing but a limit which concrete experience never presents unmixed1 a direction of research rather than the possession of a thing4 ,however that may be1 the first sense is the fundamental sense1 and what it designates must be at the root of all ordinary perception2 ,i mean1 of every mental operation which results in the construction of a percept3 a term formed by analogy with concept1 representing the result of a complex work of analysis and synthesis1 with judgment from externals4 ,we live the images in an act of pure perception1 whilst the objects of ordinary perception are1 for example1 the bodies of which we speak in common language4 ,with regard to the relation of the two senses which we have just distinguished1 common opinion seems very precise4 ,it might be thus resumed3 at the point of departure we have simple sensations1 similar to qualitative atoms 7this is the part of pure perception71 and afterwards their arrangement into connected systems1 which are percepts4 ,but criticism does not authorise this manner of looking at it4 ,nowhere does knowledge begin by separate elements4 ,such elements are always a product of analysis4 ,so there is a problem to solve to regain the basis of pure perception which is hidden and obscured by our familiar percepts4 ,do not suppose that the solution of this problem is easy4 ,one method only is of any use3 to plunge into reality1 to become immersed in it1 in a long-pursued effort to assimilate all the records of common-sense and positive science4 ,for we do not obtain an intuition of reality1 that is to say1 an intellectual sympathy with its inmost content1 unless we have gained its confidence by long companionship with its superficial manifestations4 ,and it is not a question merely of assimilating the leading facts2 we must accumulate and melt them down into such an enormous mass that we are sure1 in this fusion1 of neutralising in one another all the preconceived and premature ideas which observers may have unconsciously allowed to form the sediment of their observations4 ,thus1 and only thus1 is crude materiality to be disengaged from known facts4 7,introduction to ,metaphysics in the ,metaphysical and ,moral ,review1 ,january #aijc4 ,for the correct interpretation of this passage 7intellectual sympathy7 it must not be forgotten that before ,creative ,evolution1 ,mr ,bergson employed the word intelligence in a wider acceptation1 more akin to that commonly received47 ,a directing principle controls this work and reintroduces order and convergence1 after dispensing with them at the outset2 viz4 that1 contrary to common opinion1 perception as practised in the course of daily life1 natural perception does not aim at a goal of disinterested knowledge1 but one of practical utility1 or rather1 if it is knowledge1 it is only knowledge elaborated in view of action and speech4 ,need we repeat here the proofs by which we have already established in the most positive manner that such is really the meaning of ordinary perception1 the underlying reason which causes it to take the place of pure perception8 ,we perceive by habit only what is useful to us1 what interests us practically2 very often1 too1 we think we are perceiving when we are merely inferring1 as for example when we seem to see a distance in depth1 a succession of planes1 of which in reality we judge by differences of colouring or relief4 ,our senses supplement one another4 ,a slow education has gradually taught us to co-ordinate their impressions1 especially those of touch to those of vision4 7,h4 ,bergson1 ,note on the ,psychological ,origins of ,our ,belief in the ,law of ,causality4 ,vol4 i4 of the ,library of the ,international ,philosophical ,congress1 #aijj47 ,theoretical forms come between nature and us3 a veil of symbols envelops reality2 thus1 finally1 we no longer see things themselves1 we are content to read the labels on them4 ,moreover1 our perception appears to analysis completely saturated with memories1 and that in view of our practical insertion in the present4 ,i will not come back to this point which has been so lucidly explained by ,mr ,bergson in a lecture on ,dream 7,report of the ,international ,psychological ,institute1 ,may #aija47 and an article on ,intellectual ,effort1 7,philosophical ,review1 ,january #aijb47 the reading of which cannot be too strongly recommended as an introduction to the first chapter of ,matter and ,memory1 in which further arguments are to be found4 ,i will only add one remark1 following ,mr ,bergson1 as always3 perception is not simply contemplation1 but consciousness of an original visual emotion combined with a complete group of actions in embryo1 gestures in outline1 and the graze of movement within1 by which we prepare to grasp the object1 describe its lines1 test its functions1 sound it1 move it1 and handle it in a thousand ways4 7,this is attested by the facts of apraxia or psychic blindness4 ,cf4 ,matter and ,memory1 chapter ii47 ,from the preceding observations springs the utilitarian and practical nature of common perception4 ,let us attempt now to see of what the elaboration which it makes reality undergo consists4 ,this time ,i am summing up the fourth chapter of ,matter and ,memory4 ,first of all1 we choose between the images1 emphasising the strong1 extinguishing the weak1 although both have1 a priori1 the same interest for pure knowledge2 we make this choice above all by according preference to impressions of touch1 which are the most useful from the practical point of view4 ,this selection determines the parcelling up of matter into independent bodies1 and the artificial character of our proceeding is thus made plain4 ,does not science1 indeed1 conclude in the same way1 showing us--as soon as she frees herself even to a small extent from common-sense--full continuity re-established by moving strata1 and all bodies resolved into stationary waves and knots of intersecting fluxes8 ,already1 then1 we shall be nearer pure perception if we cease to consider anything but the perceptible stuff in which numerically distinct percepts are cut4 ,even there1 however1 a utilitarian division continues4 ,our senses are instruments of abstraction1 each of them discerning a possible path of action4 ,we may say that corporal life functions in the manner of an absorbing milieu1 which determines the disconnected scale of simple qualities by extinguishing most of the perceptible radiations4 ,in short1 the scale of sensations1 with its numerical aspect1 is nothing but the spectrum of our practical activity4 ,commonly we perceive only averages and wholes1 which we contract into distinct qualities4 ,let us disengage from this rhythm what is peculiar to ourselves4 ,above all1 let us strive to disengage ourselves from homogeneous space1 this substratum of fixity1 this arbitrary scheme of measurement and division1 which1 to our greater advantage1 subtends the natural1 qualitative1 and undivided extension of images4 7,we usually represent homogeneous space as previous to the heterogeneous extension of images3 as a kind of empty room which we furnish with percepts4 ,we must reverse this order1 and conceive1 on the contrary1 that extension precedes space47 ,and we shall finally have pure perception in so far as it is accessible to us4 ,there is no disputing the absolute value of this pure perception4 ,the impotence of speculative reason1 as demonstrated by ,kant1 is perhaps1 at bottom1 only the impotence of an intelligence in bondage to certain necessities of the corporal life1 and exercised upon a matter which it has had to disorganise for the satisfaction of our needs4 ,our knowledge of things is then no longer relative to the fundamental structure of our mind1 but only to its superficial and acquired habits1 to the contingent form which it takes on from our corporal functions and our lower needs4 ,the relativity of knowledge is therefore not final4 ,in unmaking what our needs have made we re-establish intuition in its original purity1 and resume contact with reality4 7,matter and ,memory1 page #bjc47 ,that is how things are really presented4 ,here we are confronted by the moving continuity of images4 ,pure perception is complete perception4 ,from it we pass to ordinary perception by diminution1 throwing shadows here and there3 the reality perceived by common-sense is nothing else actually than universal interaction rendered visible by its very interruption at certain points4 ,whence we have this double conclusion already formulated higher up3 the relation of perception to matter is that of the part to the whole1 and our consciousness is rather limited than relative4 ,it must be stated that primarily we perceive things in themselves1 not in us2 the subjectivity of our current perception comes from our work of outlining it in the bosom of reality1 but the root of pure perception plunges into full objectivity4 ,if1 at each point of matter1 we were to succeed in possessing the stream of total interaction of which it marks a wave1 and if we were to succeed in seeing the multiplicity of these points as a qualitative heterogeneous flux without number or severance1 we should coincide with reality itself4 ,it is true that such an ideal1 while inaccessible on the one hand1 would not succeed on the other without risk to knowledge2 in fact1 says ,mr ,bergson1 7,matter and ,memory1 page #ch47 to perceive all the influences of all the points of all bodies would be to descend to the state of material object4 ,but a solution of this double difficulty remains possible1 a dynamic and approximate solution1 which consists in looking for the absolute intuition of matter in such a mobilisation of our perspective faculties that we become capable of following1 according to the circumstances1 all the paths of virtual perception of which the common anxiety for the practical has made us choose one only1 and capable of realising all the infinitely different modes of qualification and discernment4 ,but we have still to see how this complete experience can be practically thought4 ,,iv4 ,critique of ,language4 ,the perception of reality does not obtain the full value of knowledge1 except when once socialised1 once made the common property of men1 and thereby also tested and verified4 ,there is one means only of doing that2 viz4 to analyse it into manageable and portable concepts4 ,by language ,i mean the product of this conceptualisation4 ,thus language is necessary2 for we must always speak1 were it only to utter the impotence of words4 ,not less necessary is a critique of spontaneous language1 of the laws which govern it1 of the postulates which it embraces1 of the methods which convey its implicit doctrines4 ,synthetic forms are actually theories already2 they effect an adaptation of reality to the demands of practical use4 ,if it is impossible to escape them1 it is at least fitting not to employ them except with due knowledge1 and when properly warned against the illusion of the false problems which they might arouse4 ,let us first of all consider thought in itself1 in its concrete life4 ,what are the principal characteristics1 the essential steps8 ,we readily say1 analysis and synthesis4 ,nothing can be known except in contrast1 correlation1 or negation of another thing2 and the act of knowledge1 considered in itself1 is unification4 ,thus number appears as a fundamental category1 as an absolute condition of intelligibility2 some go so far as to regard atomism as a necessary method4 ,but that is inexact4 ,no doubt the use of number and the resulting atomism are imposed by definition1 we might say1 on the thought which proceeds by conceptual analysis1 and then by unifying construction2 that is to say1 on synthetic thought4 ,but1 in greater depth1 thought is dynamic continuity and duration4 ,its essential work does not consist in discerning and afterwards in assembling ready-made elements4 ,let us see in it rather a kind of creative maturation1 and let us attempt to grasp the nature of this causal activity4 7,h4 ,bergson1 ,intellectual ,effort in the ,philosophical ,review1 ,january #aijb47 ,the act of thought is always a complex play of moving representations1 an evolution of life in which incessant inner reactions occur4 ,that is to say1 it is movement4 ,but there are several planes of thought1 from intuition to language1 and we must distinguish between the thought which moves on the surface among terms displayed on a single plane1 and the thought with goes deeper and deeper from one plane to another4 ,we do not think solely by concepts or images2 we think1 first of all1 according to ,mr ,bergson's expression1 by dynamic schemes4 ,what is a dynamic scheme8 ,it is motive rather than representative1 inexpressible in itself1 but a source of language containing not so much the images or concepts in which it will develop as the indication of the path to be followed in order to obtain them4 ,it is not so much system as movement1 progress1 genesis2 it does not mark the gaze directed upon the various points of one plane of deliberate contemplation so much as an effort to pass through successive planes of thought in a direction leading from intuition to analysis4 ,we might define it by its function of calling up images and concepts1 representations which1 for one and the same scheme1 are neither strictly determined nor anything in particular in themselves1 concurrent representations which have in common one and the same logical power4 ,the representations called up form a body to the scheme1 and the relation of the scheme to the concepts and images which it calls up resembles1 mutatis mutandis1 the relation pointed out by ,mr ,bergson between an idea and its basis in the brain4 ,in short1 it is the very act of creative thought which the dynamic scheme interprets1 the act not yet fixed in results4 ,nothing is easier than to illustrate the existence of this scheme4 ,let us merely remark a few facts of current observation4 ,recall1 for example1 the suggestive anxiety we experience when we seek to remember a name2 the precise syllables of the name still escape us1 but we feel them approaching1 and already we possess something of them1 since we immediately reject those which do not answer to a certain direction of expectancy2 and by endeavouring to secure a more intimate feeling of this direction we suddenly arouse the desired recollection4 ,in the same way1 what does it mean to have the sense of a complex situation in active life1 if not that we perceive it1 not as a static group of explicit details1 but as a meeting of powers allied or hostile1 convergent or divergent1 directed towards this or that1 of which the aggregate whole tends of itself to awaken in us the initial reactions which analyse it8 ,in the same way again1 how do we learn1 how can we assimilate a vast system of conceits or images8 ,our task is not to concentrate an enumerative attention on each individual factor2 we should never get away from them1 the weight would be too heavy4 ,what we entrust to memory is really a dynamic scheme permitting us to regain what we should not have succeeded in retaining4 ,in reality our only knowledge is through such a scheme1 which contains in the state of potential implication an inexhaustible multiplicity ready to be developed in actual representations4 ,how1 finally1 is any discovery made8 ,finding is solving a problem2 and to solve a problem we must always begin by supposing it solved4 ,but of what does such a hypothesis consist8 ,it is not an anticipated view of the solution1 for then all would be at an end2 nor is it a simple formula putting in the present indicative what the enunciation expressed in the future or the imperative1 for then nothing would be begun4 ,it is exactly a dynamic scheme2 that is to say1 a method in the state of directed tension2 and often1 the discovery once realised as theory or system1 capable of unending developments and resurrections1 remains by the best of itself a method and a dynamic scheme4 ,but one last example will perhaps reveal the truth still more4 ,anyone who has attempted literary composition knows well that when the subject has been long studied1 all the documents collected1 all the notes taken1 we need1 to embark on the actual work of composition1 something more1 an effort1 often very painful1 to place oneself suddenly in the very heart of the subject1 and to seek as deep down as possible an impulse to which afterwards we shall only have to let ourselves go4 ,this impulse1 once received1 projects the mind on a road where it finds both the information which it had collected and a thousand other details as well2 it develops and analyses itself in terms1 the enumeration of which would have no end2 the further we advance1 the more we discover2 we shall never succeed in saying everything2 and yet1 if we turn sharply round towards the impulse we feel behind ourselves1 to grasp it1 it escapes2 for it was not a thing but a direction of movement1 and though indefinitely extensible1 it is simplicity itself4 7,h4 ,bergson1 ,metaphysical and ,moral ,review1 ,january #aijc4 ,the whole critique of language is implicitly contained in this ,introduction to ,metaphysics47 ,the thought1 then1 which proceeds from one representation to another in one and the same plane is one kind2 that which follows one and the same conceptual direction through descending planes is another4 ,creative and fertile thought is the thought which adopts the second kind of work4 ,the ideal is a continual oscillation from one plane to the other1 a restless alternative of intuitive concentration and conceptual expansion4 ,but our idleness takes exception to this1 for the feeling of effort appears precisely in the traject from the dynamic scheme to the images and concepts1 in the passing from one plane of thought to another4 ,thus the natural tendency is to remain in the last of these planes1 that of language4 ,we know what dangers threaten us there4 ,suppose we have some idea or other and the word representing it4 ,do not suppose that to this word there is one corresponding sense only1 nor even a finished group of various distinct and rigorously separable senses4 ,on the contrary1 there is a whole scale corresponding1 a complete continuous spectrum of unstable meanings which tend unceasingly to resolve into one another4 ,dictionaries attempt to illuminate them4 ,the task is impossible4 ,they co-ordinate a few guiding marks2 but who shall say what infinite transitions underlie them8 ,a word designates rather a current of thought than one or several halts on a logical path4 ,here again a dynamic continuity exists previous to the parcelling out of the acceptations4 ,what1 then1 should be the attitude of the mind8 ,a supple moving attitude more attentive to the curve of change than to the possible halting-points along the road4 ,but this is not the case at all2 the effort would be too great1 and what happens1 on the contrary1 is this4 ,for the spectrum a chromatic scale of uniform tints is very quickly substituted4 ,this is in itself an undesirable simplification1 for it is impossible to reconstitute the infinity of real shades by combinations of fundamental colours each representing the homogeneous shore1 which each region of the spectrum finally becomes4 ,however cleverly we proportion these averages1 we get1 at most1 some vulgar counterfeit3 orange1 for example1 is not a mixture of yellow and red1 although this mixture may recall to those who have known it elsewhere the simple and original sensation of orange4 ,again1 a second simplification1 still more undesirable1 succeeds the first4 ,there are no longer any colours at all2 black lines serve as guide-marks4 ,we are therefore with pure concepts decidedly in full symbolism4 ,and it is with symbols that we shall henceforward be trying to reconstruct reality4 ,i need not go back to the general characteristics or the inconveniences of this method4 ,concepts resemble photographic views2 concrete thickness escapes them4 ,however exact1 varied1 or numerous we suppose them1 they can certainly recall their object1 but not reveal it to any one who had not had any direct intuition of it4 ,nothing is easier than to trace the plan of a body in four dimensions2 all the same1 this drawing does not admit visualisation in space as is the case with ordinary bodies1 for want of a previous intuition which it would awaken3 thus it is with concepts in relation to reality4 ,like photographs and like plans1 they are extracted from reality1 but we are not able to say that they were contained in it2 and many of them besides are not so much as extracts2 they are simple systematised notes1 in fact1 notes made upon notes4 ,in other terms1 concepts do not represent pieces1 parts1 or elements of reality4 ,literally they are nothing but simple symbolic notations4 ,to wish to make integral factors of them would be as strange an illusion as that of seeing in the co-ordinates of a geometric point the constitutive essence of that point4 ,we do not make things with symbols1 any more than we should reconstruct a picture with the qualifications which classify it4 ,whence1 then1 comes the natural inclination of thought towards the concept8 ,from the fact that thought delights in artifices which facilitate analysis and language4 ,the first of these artifices is that from which results the possibility of decomposition or recomposition according to arbitrary laws4 ,for that we need a previous substitution of symbols for things4 ,nothing demonstrates this better than the celebrated arguments which we owe to ,zeno of ,elea4 ,mr ,bergson returns to the discussion of them over and over again4 7,essay on the ,immediate ,data1 pages #he-hf2 ,matter and ,memory1 pages #baa-bac1 ,creative ,evolution1 pages #ccc-ccg47 ,the nerve of the reasoning there consists in the evident absurdity there would be in conceiving an inexhaustible exhausted1 an unachievable achieved2 in short1 a total actually completed1 and yet obtained by the successive addition of an infinite number of terms4 ,but the question is to know whether a movement can be considered as a numerical multiplicity4 ,virtual divisibility there is1 no doubt1 but not actual division2 divisibility is indefinite1 whereas an actual division1 if it respects the inner articulations of reality1 is bound to halt at a limited number of phases4 ,what we divide and measure is the track of the movement once accomplished1 not the movement itself3 it is the trajectory1 not the traject4 ,in the trajectory we can count endless positions2 that is to say1 possible halts4 ,let us not suppose that the moving body meets these elements all ready-marked4 ,hence what the ,eleatic dialectic illustrates is a case of incommensurability2 the radical inability of analysis to end a certain task2 our powerlessness to explain the fact of the transit1 if we apply to it such and such modes of numerical decomposition or recomposition1 which are valid only for space2 the impossibility of conceiving becoming as susceptible of being cut up into arbitrary segments1 and afterwards reconstructed by summing of terms according to some law or other2 in short1 it is the nature of movement1 which is without division1 number1 or concept4 ,but thought delights in analyses regulated by the sole consideration of easy language2 hence its tendency to an arithmetic and geometry of concepts1 in spite of the disastrous consequences2 and thus the ,eleatic paradox is no less instructive in its specious character than in the solution which it embodies4 ,at bottom1 natural thought1 ,i mean thought which abandons itself to its double inclination of synthetic idleness and useful industry1 is a thought haunted by anxieties of the operating manual1 anxieties of fabrication4 ,what does it care about the fluxes of reality and dynamic depths8 ,it is only interested in the outcrops scattered here and there over the firm soil of the practical1 and it solidifies terms like stakes plunged in a moving ground4 ,hence comes the configuration of its spontaneous logic to a geometry of solids1 and hence come concepts1 the instantaneous moments taken in transitions4 ,scientific thought1 again1 preserves the same habits and the same preferences4 ,it seeks only what repeats1 what can be counted4 ,everywhere1 when it theorises1 it tends to establish static relations between composing unities which form a homogeneous and disconnected multiplicity4 ,its very instruments bias it in that direction4 ,the apparatus of the laboratory really grasps nothing but arrangement and coincidence2 in a word1 states not transitions4 ,even in cases of contrary appearance1 for example1 when we determine a weight by observing the oscillation of a balance and not its rest1 we are interested in regular recurrence1 in a symmetry1 in something therefore which is of the nature of an equilibrium and a fixity all the same4 ,the reason of it is that science1 like common-sense1 although in a manner a little different1 aims only in actual fact at obtaining finished and workable results4 ,let us imagine reality under the figure of a curve1 a rhythmic succession of phases of which our concepts mark so many tangents4 ,there is contact at one point1 but at one point only4 ,thus our logic is valid as infinitesimal analysis1 just as the geometry of the straight line allows us to define each state of curve4 ,it is thus1 for example1 that vitality maintains a relation of momentary tangency to the physico-chemical structure4 ,if we study this relation and analogous relations1 this fact remains indisputably legitimate4 ,let us not think1 however1 that such a study1 even when repeated in as many points as we wish1 can ever suffice4 ,we must afterwards by genuine integration attain moving continuity4 ,that is exactly the task represented by the return to intuition1 with its proper instrument1 the dynamic scheme4 ,from this tangential point of view we try to grasp the genesis of the curve as envelope1 or rather1 and better still1 the birth of successive tangents as instantaneous directions4 ,speaking non-metaphorically1 we cling to genetic methods of conceptualisation and proceed from the generating principle to its conceptual derivatives4 ,but our thought finds it very difficult to sustain such an effort long4 ,it is partial to rectilineal deduction1 actual becoming horrifies it4 ,it desires immediately to find things sharply determined and very clear4 ,that is why immediately a tangent is constructed1 it follows its movement in a straight line to infinity4 ,thus are produced limit-concepts1 the ultimate terms1 the atoms of language4 ,as a rule they go in pairs1 in antithetic couples1 every analysis being dichotomy1 since the discernment of one path of abstraction determines in contrast1 as a complementary remainder1 the opposite path of direction4 ,hence1 according to the selection effected among concepts1 and the relative weight which is attributed to them1 we get the antinomies between which a philosophy of analysis must for ever remain oscillating and torn in sunder4 ,hence comes the parcelling up of metaphysics into systems1 and its appearance of regulated play between antagonistic schools which get up on the stage together1 each to win applause in turn4 7,h4 ,bergson1 ,report of the ,french ,philosophical ,society1 meeting1 #bnd ,may #aija47 ,the method followed to find a genuine solution must be inverse2 not dialectic combination of pre-existing concepts1 but1 setting out from a direct and really lived intuition1 a descent to ever new concepts along dynamic schemes which remain open4 ,from the same intuition spring many concepts3 ,as the wind which rushes into the crossroads divides into diverging currents of air1 which are all only one and the same gust4 7,creative ,evolution1 page #ee47 ,the antinomies are resolved genetically1 whilst in the plane of language they remain irreducible4 ,with a heterogeneity of shades1 when we mix the tints and neutralise them by one another1 we easily create homogeneity2 but take the result of this work1 that is to say1 the average final colour1 and it will be impossible to reconstitute the wealth of the original4 ,do you desire a precise example of the work we must accomplish8 ,take that of change2 7,cf4 two lectures delivered by ,mr ,bergson at ,oxford on ,the ,perception of ,change1 #bfth and #bgth ,may #aiaa47 no other is more significant or clearer4 ,it shows us two necessary movements in the reform of our habits of imagination or conception4 ,let us try first of all to familiarise ourselves with the images which show us the fixity deriving from becoming4 ,two colliding waves1 two rollers meeting1 typify rest by extinction and interference4 ,with the movement of a stone1 and the fluidity of running water1 we form the instantaneous position of a ricochet4 ,the very movement of the stone1 seen in the successive positions of the tangent to the trajectory1 is stationary to our view4 ,what is dynamic stability1 except non-variation arising from variation itself8 ,equilibrium is produced from speed4 ,a man running solidifies the moving ground4 ,in short1 two moving bodies regulated by each other become fixed in relation to each other4 ,after this1 let us try to perceive change in itself1 and then represent it to ourselves according to its specific and original nature4 ,the common conception needs reform on two principal points3 7#a7 ,all change is revealed in the light of immediate intuition1 not as a numerical series of states1 but a rhythm of phases1 each of which constitutes an indivisible act1 in such a way that each change has its natural inner articulations1 forbidding us to break it up according to arbitrary laws1 like a homogeneous length4 7#b7 ,change is self-sufficient2 it has no need of a support1 a moving body1 a thing in motion4 ,there is no vehicle1 no substance1 no spatial receptacle1 resembling a theatre-scene1 no material dummy successively draped in coloured stuffs2 on the contrary1 it is the body or the atom which should be subordinately defined as symbols of completed becoming4 ,of movement thus conceived1 indivisible and substantial1 what better image can we have than a musical evolution1 a phrase in melody8 ,that is how we must work to conceive reality4 ,if such a conception at first appears obscure1 let us credit experience1 for ideas are gradually illuminated by the very use we make of them1 the clarity of a concept being hardly anything1 at bottom1 but the assurance once obtained that we can handle it profitably4 7,h4 ,bergson1 ,introduction to ,metaphysics47 ,if we require to reach a conception of this kind with regard to change1 the ,eleatic dialectic is there to establish it beyond dispute1 and positive science comes to the same conclusion1 since it shows us everywhere nothing but movements placed upon movements1 never fixed things1 except as temporary symbols of what we leave at a given moment outside the field of study4 ,in any case1 the difficulty of such a conception need not stop us2 it is little more than a difficulty of the imaginative order4 ,and as for the conception itself1 or rather the corresponding intuition1 it will share the fate of all its predecessors3 to our contemporaries it will be a scandal1 a century later a stroke of genius1 after some centuries common evidence1 and finally an instinctive axiom4 ,v4 ,the ,problem of ,consciousness4 ,duration and ,liberty4 ,armed with the method we have just described1 ,mr ,bergson turned first of all toward the problem of the ego3 taking up his position in the centre of mind1 he has attempted to establish its independent reality by examining its profound nature4 ,the first chapter of the ,essay on the ,immediate ,data contains a decisive criticism of the conceptions which claim to introduce number and measure into the domain of the facts of consciousness4 ,not that it is our business to reject as false the notion of psychological intensity2 but this notion demands interpretation1 and the least that we can say against the attempt to turn it into a notion of size is that in doing so we are misunderstanding the specific character of the object studied4 ,the same reproach must be levelled against association of ideas1 the system of mechanical psychology of which the type is presented us by ,taine and ,stuart ,mill4 ,already in chapters ii4 and iii4 of the ,essay1 and again all through ,matter and ,memory1 the system is riddled with objections1 each of which would be sufficient to show its radical flaw4 ,all the aspects1 all the phenomena of mental life come up for successive review4 ,in respect of each of them we have an illustration of the insufficiency of the atomism which seeks to recompose the soul with fixed elements1 by a massing of units exterior to one another1 everywhere and always the same3 this is a grammatical philosophy which believes reality to be composed of parts which admit of number just as language is made of words placed side by side2 it is a materialist philosophy which improperly transfers the proceedings of the physical sciences to the sciences of the inner life4 ,on the contrary1 we must represent the state of consciousness to ourselves as variable according to the whole of which it forms a part4 ,here and there1 although it always bears the same name1 it is no longer the same thing4 ,the more the ego becomes itself again1 the more also do its states of consciousness1 instead of being in juxtaposition1 penetrate one another1 blend with one another1 and tinge one another with the colouring of all the rest4 ,thus each of us has his manner of loving or hating1 and this love or hate reflect our entire personality4 7,essay on the ,immediate ,data1 pages #abe-abf47 ,at bottom ,mr ,bergson is bringing forward the necessity1 in the case before us1 of substituting a new notion of continuous qualitative heterogeneity for the old notion of numerical and spatial continuity4 ,above all1 he is emphasising the still more imperious necessity of regarding each state as a phase in duration2 and we are here touching on his principal and leading intuition1 the intuition of real duration4 ,historically this was ,mr ,bergson's starting-point and the origin of his thought3 a criticism of time under the form in which common-sense imagines it1 in which science employs it4 ,he was the first to notice the fact that scientific time has no duration4 ,our equations really express only static relations between simultaneous phenomena2 even the differential quotients they may contain in reality mark nothing but present tendencies2 no change would take place in our calculations if the time were given in advance1 instantaneously fulfilled1 like a linear whole of points in numerical order1 with no more genuine duration than that contained in the numerical succession4 ,even in astronomy there is less anticipation than judgment of constancy and stability1 the phenomena being almost strictly periodic1 while the hazard of prediction bears only upon the minute divergence between the actual phenomenon and the exact period attributed to it4 ,notice under what figure common-sense imagines time3 as an inert receptacle1 a homogeneous milieu1 neutral and indifferent2 in fact1 a kind of space4 ,the scholar makes use of a like image2 for he defines time by its measurement1 and all measurement implies interpretation in space4 ,for the scholar the hour is not an interval1 but a coincidence1 an instantaneous arrangement1 and time is resolved into a dust of fixities1 as in those pneumatic clocks in which the hand moves forward in jerks1 marking nothing but a sequence of pauses4 ,such symbols are sufficient1 at least for a first approximation1 when it is only a question of matter1 the mechanism of which1 strictly considered1 contains nothing durable4 ,but in biology and psychology quite different characteristics become essential2 age and memory1 heterogeneity of musical phases1 irreversible rhythm which cannot be lengthened or shortened at will4 7,creative ,evolution1 page #aj47 ,then it is that the return of time becomes necessary to duration4 ,how are we to describe this duration8 ,it is a melodious evolution of moments1 each of which contains the resonance of those preceding and announces the one which is going to follow2 it is a process of enriching which never ceases1 and a perpetual appearance of novelty2 it is an indivisible1 qualitative1 and organic becoming1 foreign to space1 refractory to number4 ,summon the image of a stream of consciousness passing through the continuity of the spectrum1 and becoming tinged successively with each of its shades4 ,or rather imagine a symphony having feeling of itself1 and creating itself2 that is how we should conceive duration4 ,that duration thus conceived is really the basis of ourselves ,mr ,bergson proves by a thousand examples1 and by a marvellous employment of the introspective method which he has helped to make so popular4 ,we cannot quote these admirable analyses here4 ,a single one will serve as model1 specially selected as referring to one of the most ordinary moments of our life1 to show plainly that the perception of real duration always accompanies us in secret4 ,at the moment when ,i write these lines a clock near me is striking the hour2 but my distracted ear is only aware of it after several strokes have already sounded2 that is1 ,i have not counted them4 ,and yet an effort of introspective attention enables me to total the four strokes already struck and add them to those which ,i hear4 ,if ,i then withdraw into myself and carefully question myself about what has just happened1 ,i become aware that the first four sounds had struck my ear and even moved my consciousness1 but that the sensations produced by each of them1 instead of following in juxtaposition1 had blended into one another in such a way as to endow the whole with a peculiar aspect and make of it a kind of musical phrase4 ,in order to estimate in retrospect the number of strokes which have sounded1 ,i attempted to reconstitute this phrase in thought3 my imagination struck one1 then two1 then three1 and so long as it had not reached the exact number four1 my sensibility1 on being questioned1 replied that the total effect differed in quality4 ,it had therefore noted the succession of the four strokes in a way of its own1 but quite otherwise than by addition1 and without bringing in the image of a juxtaposition of distinct terms4 ,in fact1 the number of strokes struck was perceived as quality1 not as quantity3 duration is thus presented to immediate consciousness1 and preserves this form so long as it does not give place to a symbolical representation drawn from space4 7,essay on the ,immediate ,data1 pages #ie-if47 ,and now are we to believe that return to the feeling of real duration consists in letting ourselves go1 and allowing ourselves an idle relaxation in dream or dissolution in sensation1 as a shepherd dozing watches the water flow8 ,or are we even to believe1 as has been maintained1 that the intuition of duration reduces to the spasm of delight of the mollusc basking in the sun8 ,this is a complete mistake6 ,we should fall back into the misconceptions which ,i was pointing out in connection with immediacy in general2 we should be forgetting that there are several rhythms of duration1 as there are several kinds of consciousness2 and finally1 we should be misunderstanding the character of a creative invention perpetually renewed1 which is that of our inner life4 ,for it is in duration that we are free1 not in spatialised time1 as all determinist conceptions suppose in contradiction4 ,i shall not go back to the proofs of this thesis2 they were condensed some way back after the third chapter of the ,essay on the ,immediate ,data4 ,but ,i will borrow from ,mr ,bergson himself a few complementary explanations1 in order1 as far as possible1 to forestall any misunderstanding4 ,the word liberty1 he says1 has for me a sense intermediate between those which we assign as a rule to the two terms liberty and free-will4 ,on one hand1 ,i believe that liberty consists in being entirely oneself1 in acting in conformity with oneself2 it is then1 to a certain degree1 the 'moral liberty' of philosophers1 the independence of the person with regard to everything other than itself4 ,but that is not quite this liberty1 since the independence ,i am describing has not always a moral character4 ,further1 it does not consist in depending on oneself as an effect depends on the cause which of necessity determines it4 ,in this1 ,i should come back to the sense of 'free-will4' ,and yet ,i do not accept this sense completely either1 since free-will1 in the usual meaning of the term1 implies the equal possibility of two contraries1 and on my theory we cannot formulate1 or even conceive in this case the thesis of the equal possibility of the two contraries1 without falling into grave error about the nature of time4 ,i might say then1 that the object of my thesis1 on this particular point1 has been precisely to find a position intermediate between 'moral liberty' and 'free-will4' ,liberty1 such as ,i understand it1 is situated between these two terms1 but not at equal distances from both4 ,if ,i were obliged to blend it with one of the two1 ,i should select 'free-will4' 7,report of the ,french ,philosophical ,society1 philosophical vocabulary1 article ,liberty47 ,after all1 when we place ourselves in the perspective of homogeneous time2 that is to say1 when we substitute for the real and profound ego its image refracted through space1 the act necessarily appears either as the resultant of a mechanical composition of elements1 or as an incomprehensible creation ex nihilo4 ,we have supposed that there is a third course to pursue2 that is1 to place ourselves back in pure duration444,then we seemed to see action arise from its antecedents by an evolution sui generis1 in such a way that we discover in this action the antecedents which explain it1 while at the same time it adds something absolutely new to them1 being an advance upon them as the fruit upon the flower4 ,liberty is in no way reduced thereby1 as has been said1 to obvious spontaneity4 ,at most this would be the case in the animal world1 where the psychological life is principally that of the affections4 ,but in the case of man1 a thinking being1 the free act can be called a synthesis of feelings and ideas1 and the evolution which leads to it a reasonable evolution4 7,matter and ,memory1 page #bje47 ,finally1 in a most important letter1 7,report of the ,french ,philosophical ,society1 meeting1 #bfth ,february #aijc47 ,mr ,bergson becomes a little more precise still4 ,we must certainly not confuse the affirmation of liberty with the negation of physical determinism2 for there is more in this affirmation than in this negation4 ,all the same1 liberty supposes a certain contingence4 ,it is psychological causality itself1 which must not be represented after the model of physical causality4 ,in opposition to the latter1 it implies that between two moments of a conscious being there is not an equivalence admitting of deduction1 that in the transition from one to the other there is a genuine creation4 ,without doubt the free act is not without explanatory reasons4 ,but these reasons have determined us only at the moment when they have become determining2 that is1 at the moment when the act was virtually accomplished1 and the creation of which ,i speak is entirely contained in the progress by which these reasons have become determining4 ,it is true that all this implies a certain independence of mental life in relation to the mechanism of matter2 and that is why ,mr ,bergson was obliged to set himself the problem of the relations between body and mind4 ,we know that the solution of this problem is the principal object of ,matter and ,memory4 ,the thesis of psycho-physiological parallelism is there peremptorily refuted4 ,the method which ,mr ,bergson has followed to do so will be found set out by himself in a communication to the ,french ,philosophical ,society1 which it is important to study as introduction4 7,report of meeting1 #bnd ,may #aija47 ,the paralogism included in the very enunciation of the parallelist thesis is explained in a memoire presented to the ,geneva ,international ,philosophical ,congress in #aijd4 7,revue de ,metaphysique et de ,morale1 ,november #aijd47 ,but the actual proof is made by the analysis of the memoire which fills chapters ii4 and iii4 of the work cited above4 7,an extremely suggestive resume of these theses will be found in the second lecture on ,the ,perception of ,change47 ,it is there established1 by the most positive arguments1 7,instead of brutally connecting the two extremes of matter and mind1 one regarded in its highest action1 the other in its most rudimentary mechanism1 thus dooming to certain failure any attempt to explain their actual union1 ,mr ,bergson studies their living contact at the point of intersection marked by the phenomena of perception and memory3 he compares the higher point of matter--the brain--and the lower point of mind--certain recollections--and it is between these two neighbouring points that he notes a difference1 by a method no longer dialectic but experimental47 that all our past is self-preserved in us1 that this preservation only makes one with the musical character of duration1 with the indivisible nature of change1 but that one part only is conscious of it1 the part concerned with action1 to which present conceptions supply a body of actuality4 ,what we call our present must be conceived neither as a mathematical point nor as a segment with precise limits3 it is the moment of our history brought out by our attention to life1 and nothing1 in strict justice1 would prevent it from extending to the whole of this history4 ,it is not recollection then1 but forgetfulness which demands explanation4 ,according to a dictum of ,ravaisson1 of which ,mr ,bergson makes use1 the explanation must be sought in the body3 it is materiality which causes forgetfulness in us4 ,there are1 in fact1 several planes of memory1 from pure recollection not yet interpreted in distinct images down to the same recollection actualised in embryo sensations and movements begun2 and we descend from the one to the other1 from the life of simple dream to the life of practical drama1 along dynamic schemes4 ,the last of these planes is the body2 a simple instrument of action1 a bundle of motive habits1 a group of mechanisms which mind has set up to act4 ,how does it operate in the work of memory8 ,the task of the brain is every moment to thrust back into unconsciousness all that part of our past which is not at the time useful4 ,minute study of facts shows that the brain is employed in choosing from the past1 in diminishing1 simplifying1 and extracting from it all that can contribute to present experience2 but it is not concerned to preserve it4 ,in short1 the brain can only explain absences1 not presences4 ,that is why the analysis of memory illustrates the reality of mind1 and its independence relative to matter4 ,thus is determined the relation of soul to body1 the penetrating point which it inserts and drives into the plane of action4 ,mind borrows from matter perceptions from which it derives its nourishment1 and gives them back to it in the form of movement1 on which it has impressed its liberty4 7,matter and ,memory1 page #bgi47 ,this1 then1 is how the cycle of research closes1 by returning to the initial problem1 the problem of perception4 ,in the two opposing systems by which attempts have been made to solve it1 ,mr ,bergson discovers a common postulate1 resulting in a common impotence4 ,from the idealistic point of view we do not succeed in explaining how a world is expressed externally1 nor from the realistic point of view how an ego is expressed internally4 ,and this double failure comes again from the underlying hypothesis1 according to which the duality of the subject and object is conceived as primitive1 radical1 and static4 ,our duty is diametrically opposed4 ,we have to consider this duality as gradually elaborated1 and the problem concerning it must be first stated1 and then solved as a function of time rather than of space4 ,our representation begins by being impersonal1 and it is only later that it adopts our body as centre4 ,we emerge gradually from universal reality1 and our realising roots are always sunk in it4 ,but this reality in itself is already consciousness1 and the first moment of perception always puts us back into the initial state previous to the separation of the subject and object4 ,it is by the work of life1 and by action1 that this separation is effected1 created1 accentuated1 and fixed4 ,and the common mistake of realism and idealism is to believe it effected in advance1 whereas it is relatively second to perception4 ,hence comes the absolute value of immediate intuition4 ,for from what source could an irreducible relativity be produced in it8 ,it would be absurd to make it depend on the constitution of our brain1 since our brain itself1 so far as it is a group of images1 is only a part of the universe1 presenting the same characteristics as the whole2 and in so far as it is a group of mechanisms become habits1 is only a result of the initial action of life1 of original perceptive discernment4 ,and1 on the other hand1 no less absurd would be the fear that the subject can ever be excluded or eliminated from its own knowledge1 since1 in reality1 the subject1 like the object1 is in perception1 not perception in the subject--at least not primitively4 ,so that it is by a trick of speech that the theses of fundamental relativity take root3 they vanish when we return to immediacy2 that is to say1 when we present problems as they ought to be presented1 in terms which do not suppose any conceptual analysis yet accomplished4 ,,vi4 ,the ,problem of ,evolution3 ,life and ,matter4 ,after the problem of consciousness ,mr ,bergson was bound to approach that of evolution1 for psychological liberty is only truly conceivable if it begins in some measure with the first pulsation of corporal life4 ,either sensation has no raison d'etre or it is a beginning of liberty2 that is what the ,essay on the ,immediate ,data 7,page #be47 already told us4 ,it was easy then to foresee the necessity of a general theoretical frame in which our duration might take a position which would render it more intelligible by removing its appearance of singular exception4 ,thus in #aija1 ,i wrote 7,revue de ,metaphysique et de ,morale1 ,may #aija7 with regard to the new philosophy considered as a philosophy of becoming3 ,it has been prepared by contemporary evolution1 which is investigates and perfects1 sifting it from its ore of materialism1 and turning it into genuine metaphysics4 ,is not this the philosophy suited to the century of history8 ,perhaps it indicates that a period has arrived in which mathematics1 losing its role as the regulating science1 is about to give place to biology4 ,this is the programme carried out1 in what an original manner we are well aware1 by the doctrine of ,creative ,evolution4 ,when we examine ancient knowledge1 one characteristic of it is at once visible4 ,it studies little but certain privileged moments of changing reality1 certain stable forms1 certain states of equilibrium4 ,ancient geometry1 for example1 is almost always limited to the static consideration of figures already traced4 ,modern science is quite different4 ,has not the greatest progress which it has realised in the mathematical order really been the invention of infinitesimal analysis2 that is to say1 an effort to substitute the process for the resultant1 to follow the moving generation of phenomena and magnitudes in its continuity1 to place oneself along becoming at any moment whatsoever1 or rather1 by degrees at all successive moments8 ,this fundamental tendency1 coupled with the development of biological research1 was bound to incline it towards a doctrine of evolution2 and hence the success of ,spencer4 ,but time1 which is everywhere in modern science the chief variable1 is only a time-length1 indefinitely and arbitrarily divisible4 ,there is no genuine duration1 nothing really tending to evolution in ,spencer's evolution3 no more than there is in the periodic working of a turbine or in the stationary tremble of a diapason4 ,is not this what is emphasised by the perpetual employment of mechanical images and vulgar engineering metaphors1 the least fault of which is to suppose a homogeneous time1 and a motionless theatre of change which is at bottom only space8 ,in such a doctrine we still talk of time1 we pronounce the word1 but we hardly think of the thing2 for time is here robbed of all effect4 7,creative ,evolution1 page #db47 ,whence comes a latent materialism1 ready to grasp the chance of self-expression4 ,whence the automatic return to the dream of universal arithmetic1 which ,laplace1 ,du ,bois-,reymond1 and ,huxley have expressed with such precision4 7,ibid41 page #da47 ,in order to escape such consequences we must1 with ,mr ,bergson1 reintroduce real duration1 that is to say1 creative duration into evolution1 we must conceive life according to the mode exhibited with regard to change in general4 ,and it is science itself which calls us to this task4 ,what does science actually tell us when we let it speak instead of prescribing to it answers which conform to our preferences8 ,vitality1 at every point of its becoming1 is a tangent to physico-chemical mechanism4 ,but physico-chemistry does not reveal its secret any more than the straight line produces the curve4 ,consider the development of an embryo4 ,it summarises the history of species2 ontogenesis1 we are told1 reproduces phylogenesis4 ,and what do we observe then8 ,now that a long sequence of centuries is contracted for us into a short period1 and that our view is thus capable of a synthesis which before was too difficult1 we see appearing the rhythmic organisation1 the musical character1 which the slowness of the transitions at first prevented us from seeing4 ,in each state of the embryo there is something besides an instantaneous structure1 something besides a conservative play of actions and reactions2 there is a tendency1 a direction1 an effort1 a creative activity4 ,the stage traversed is less interesting than the traversing itself2 this again is an act of generating impulse1 rather than an effect of mechanical inertia4 ,so must the case be1 by analogy1 with general evolution4 ,we have there1 as it were1 a vision of biological duration in miniature2 expansion and relaxation of its tension bring its homogeneity to notice1 but at the same time1 properly speaking1 evolution disappears4 ,and further1 ,mr ,bergson establishes by direct and positive arguments that life is genuine creation4 ,a similar conclusion is presented as the envelope of his whole doctrine4 ,it is imposed first of all by immediate evidence1 for we cannot deny that the history of life is revealed to us under the aspect of a progress and an ascent4 ,and this impulse implies initiative and choice1 constituting an effort which we are not authorised by the facts to pronounce fatalistic3 ,a simple glance at the fossil species shows us that life could have done without evolution1 or could have evolved only within very restricted limits1 had it chosen the far easier path open to it of becoming cramped in its primitive forms2 certain ,foraminifera have not varied since the silurian period2 the ,lingulae1 looking unmoved upon the innumerable revolutions which have upheaved our planet1 are today what they were in the most distant times of the palaeozoic era4 7,creative ,evolution1 page #aaa47 ,moreover1 if1 in us1 life is indisputably creation and liberty1 how would it not1 to some extent1 be so in universal nature8 ,whatever be the inmost essence of what is and what is being made1 we are of it3 7,revue de ,metaphysique et de ,morale1 ,november #aiaa47 a conclusion by analogy is therefore legitimate4 ,but above all1 this conclusion is verified by its aptitude for solving problems of detail1 and for taking account of observed facts1 and in this respect ,i regret that ,i can only refer the reader to the whole body of admirable discussions and analyses drawn up by ,mr ,bergson with regard to the plant and the animal1 or the development of animal life4 7,creative ,evolution1 chapter ii47 ,as regards matter1 two main laws stand out from the whole of our science1 relative to its nature and its phenomena3 a law of conservation and a law of degradation4 ,on the one hand1 we have mechanism1 repetition1 inertia1 constants1 and invariants3 the play of the material world1 from the point of view of quantity1 offers us the aspect of an immense transformation without gain or loss1 a homogeneous transformation tending to maintain in itself an exact equivalence between the departure and arrival point4 ,on the other hand1 from the point of view of quality1 we have something which is being used up1 lowered1 degraded1 exhausted3 energy expended1 movement dissipated1 constructions breaking up1 weights falling1 levels becoming equalised1 and differences effaced4 ,the travel of the material world appears then as a loss1 a movement of fall and descent4 ,in addition1 there is only a tendency to conservation1 a tendency which is never realised except imperfectly2 while1 on the contrary1 we notice that the failure of the vital impulse is most infallibly interpreted by the appearance of mechanism4 ,reality falling asleep or breaking up is the figure under which we finally observe matter3 matter then is secondary4 ,finally1 according to ,mr ,bergson1 matter is defined as a kind of descent2 this descent as the interruption of an ascent2 this ascent itself as growth2 and thus a principle of creation is at the base of things4 ,such a view seems obscure and disturbing to the mathematical understanding4 ,it cannot accustom itself to the idea of a becoming which is more than a simple change of distribution1 and more than a simple expression of latent wealth4 ,when confronted with such an idea1 it always harks back to its eternal question3 ,how has something come out of nothing8 ,the question is false2 for the idea of nothing is only a pseudo-idea4 ,nothing is unthinkable1 since to think nothing is necessarily to think or not to think something2 and according to ,mr ,bergson's formula1 7,cf4 the discussion on existence and non-existence in chapter iv4 of ,creative ,evolution1 pages #bih-cbb47 the representation of void is always a full representation4 ,when ,i say3 ,there is nothing1 it is not that ,i perceive a nothing4 ,i never perceive except what is4 ,but ,i have not perceived what ,i was seeking1 what ,i was expecting1 and ,i express my deception in the language of my desire4 ,or else ,i am speaking a language of construction1 implying that ,i do not yet possess what ,i intend to make4 ,let us abruptly forget these idols of practical action and language4 ,the becoming of evolution will then appear to us in its true light1 as phases of gradual maturation1 rounded at intervals by crises of creative discovery4 ,continuity and discontinuity will thus admit possibility of reconciliation1 the one as an aspect of ascent towards the future1 the other as an aspect of retrospection after the event4 ,and we shall see that the same key will in addition disclose to us the theory of knowledge4 ,,vii4 ,the ,problem of ,knowledge3 ,analysis and ,intuition4 ,we know what importance has been attached since ,kant to the problem of reason3 it would seem sometimes that all future philosophy is a return to it2 that it is no longer called to speak of anything else4 ,besides1 what we understand by reason1 in the broad sense1 is1 in the human mind1 the power of light1 the essential operation of which is defined as an act of directing synthesis1 unifying the experience and rendering it by that very fact intelligible4 ,every movement of thought shows this power in exercise4 ,to bring it everywhere to the front would be the proper task of philosophy2 at least it is in this manner that we understand it today4 ,but from what point of view and by what method do we ordinarily construct this theory of knowledge8 ,the spontaneous works of mind1 perception1 science1 art1 and morality are the departure-point of the inquiry and its initial matter4 ,we do not ask ourselves whether but how they are possible1 what they imply1 and what they suppose2 a regressive analysis attempts by critical reflection to discern in them their principles and requisites4 ,the task1 in short1 is to reascend from production to producing activity1 which we regard as sufficiently revealed by its natural products4 ,philosophy1 in consequence1 is no longer anything but the science of problems already solved1 the science which is confined to saying why knowledge is knowledge and action action1 of such and such a kind1 and such and such a quality4 ,and in consequence also reason can no longer appear anything but an original datum postulated as a simple fact1 as a complete system come down ready-made from heaven1 at bottom a kind of non-temporal essence1 definable without respect to duration1 evolution1 or history1 of which all genesis and all progress are absurd4 ,in vain do we persist in maintaining that it is originally an act2 we always come round to the fact that the method followed compels us to consider this act only when once accomplished1 and when once expressed in results4 ,the inevitable consequence is that we imprison ourselves hopelessly in the affirmation of ,kantian relativism4 ,such a system can only be true as a partial and temporary truth3 at the most1 it is a moment of truth4 ,if we read the ,critique of ,pure ,reason closely1 we become aware that ,kant has made the critique1 not of reason in general1 but of a reason fashioned to the habits and demands of ,cartesian mechanism or ,newtonian physics4 7,h4 ,bergson1 ,report of ,french ,philosophical ,society1 meeting1 #bnd ,may #aija47 ,moreover1 he plainly studies only adult reason1 its present state1 a plane of thought1 a sectional view of becoming4 ,for ,kant1 men progress perhaps in reason1 but reason itself has no duration3 it is the fixed spot1 the atmosphere of dead eternity in which every mental action is displayed4 ,but this could not be the final and complete truth4 ,is it not a fact that human intelligence has been slowly constituted in the course of biological evolution8 ,to know it1 we have not so much to separate it statically from its works1 as to replace it in its history4 ,let us begin with life1 since1 in any case1 whether we will or no1 it is always in life and by life that we are4 ,life is not a brute force1 a blind mechanism1 from which one could never conceive that thought would spring4 ,from its first pulsation1 life is consciousness1 spiritual activity1 creative effort tending towards liberty2 that is1 discernment already luminous1 although the quality is at first faint and diffused4 ,in other terms1 life is at bottom of the psychological nature of a tendency4 ,but the essence of a tendency is to develop in sheaf-form1 creating1 by the mere fact of its growth1 diverging directions between which its impulse will be divided4 7,creative ,evolution1 page #ajh47 ,along these different paths the complementary potentialities are produced and intensified1 separating in the very process1 their original interpretation being possible only in the state of birth4 ,one of them ends in what we call intelligence4 ,this latter therefore has become gradually detached from a less intense but fuller luminous condition1 of which it has retained only certain characteristics to accentuate them4 ,we see that we must conceive the word mind--or1 if we prefer the word1 thought--as extending beyond intelligence4 ,pure intelligence1 or the faculty of critical reflection and conceptual analysis1 represents only one form of thought in its entirety1 a function1 a determination or particular adaptation1 the part organised in view of practical action1 the part consolidated as language4 ,what are its characteristics8 ,it understands only what is discontinuous1 inert1 and fixed1 that which has neither change nor duration2 it bathes in an atmosphere of spatiality2 it uses mathematics continually2 it feels at home only among things1 and everything is reduced by it to solid atoms2 it is naturally materialist1 owing to the very fact that it naturally grasps forms only4 ,what do we mean by that except that its object of election is the mechanism of matter8 ,but it supposes life2 it only remains living itself by continual loans from a vaster and fuller activity from which it is sprung4 ,and this return to complementary powers is what we call intuition4 ,from this point of view it becomes easy to escape ,kantian relativity4 ,we are confronted by an intelligence which is doubtless no longer a faculty universally competent1 but which1 on the contrary1 possesses in its own domain a greater power of penetration4 ,it is arranged for action4 ,now action would not be able to move in irreality4 ,intelligence1 then1 makes us acquainted1 if not with all reality1 at least with some of it1 namely that part by which reality is a possible object of mechanical or synthetic action4 ,more profoundly1 intuition falls into analysis as life into matter3 they are two aspects of the same movement4 ,that is why1 provided we only consider the general form of physics1 we can say that it touches the absolute4 7,creative ,evolution1 page #baf47 ,in other terms1 language and mechanism are regulated by each other4 ,this explains at once the success of mathematical science in the order of matter1 and its non-success in the order of life4 ,for1 when confronted with life1 intelligence fails4 ,being a deposit of the evolutive movement along its path1 how could it be applied throughout the evolutive movement itself8 ,we might as well claim that the part equals the whole1 that the effect can absorb its cause into itself1 or that the pebble left on the shore outlines the form of the wave which brought it4 7,preface to ,creative ,evolution47 ,is not that as good as saying that life is unknowable8 ,must we conclude that it is impossible to understand it8 ,we should be forced to do so1 if life had employed all the psychic potentialities it contains in making pure understandings2 that is to say1 in preparing mathematicians4 ,but the line of evolution which ends in man is not the only one4 ,by other divergent ways other forms of consciousness have developed1 which have not been able to free themselves from external constraint1 nor regain the victory over themselves as intelligence has done1 but which1 none the less for that1 also express something immanent and essential in the movement of evolution4 ,by bringing them into connection with one another1 and making them afterwards amalgamate with intelligence1 should we not thus obtain a consciousness co-extensive with life1 and capable1 by turning sharply round upon the vital thrust which it feels behind it1 of obtaining a complete1 though doubtless vanishing vision8 7,creative ,evolution1 ,preface47 ,it is precisely in this that the act of philosophic intuition consists4 ,we shall be told that1 even so1 we do not get beyond our intelligence1 since it is with our intelligence1 and through our intelligence1 that we observe all the other forms of consciousness4 ,and we should be right in saying so1 if we were pure intelligences1 if there had not remained round our conceptual and logical thought a vague nebula1 made of the very substance at the expense of which the luminous nucleus1 which we call intelligence1 has been formed4 ,in it reside certain complementary powers of the understanding1 of which we have only a confused feeling when we remain shut up in ourselves1 but which will become illumined and distinct when they perceive themselves at work1 so to speak1 in the evolution of nature4 ,they will thus learn what effort they have to make to become more intense1 and to expand in the actual direction of life4 7,creative ,evolution1 ,preface47 ,does that mean abandonment to instinct1 and descent with it into infra-consciousness again8 ,by no means4 ,on the contrary1 our task is to bring instinct to enrich intelligence1 to become free and illumined in it2 and this ascent towards super-consciousness is possible in the flash of an intuitive act1 as it is sometimes possible for the eye to perceive1 as a pale and fugitive gleam1 beyond what we properly term light1 the ultra-violet rays of the spectrum4 ,can we say of such a doctrine that it seeks to go1 or that it goes against intelligence8 ,nothing authorises such an accusation1 for limitation of a sphere is not misappreciation of every legitimate exercise4 ,but intelligence is not the whole of thought1 and its natural products do not completely exhaust or manifest our power of light4 ,besides1 that intelligence and reason are not things completed1 for ever arrested in their inner structure1 that they evolve and expand1 is a fact3 the place of discovery is precisely the residual fringe of which we were speaking above4 ,in this respect1 the history of thought would furnish examples in plenty4 ,intuitions at first obscure1 and only anticipated1 facts originally admitting no comparison1 and as it were irrational1 become instructive and luminous by the fruitful use made of them1 and by the fertility which they manifest4 ,in order to grasp the complex content of reality1 the mind must do itself violence1 must awaken its sleeping powers of revealing sympathy1 must expand till it becomes adapted to what formerly shocked its habits so much as almost to seem contradictory to it4 ,such a task1 moreover1 is possible3 we work out its differential every moment1 and its complete whole appears in the sequence of centuries4 ,at bottom1 the new theory of knowledge has nothing new in it except the demand that all the facts shall be taken into account3 it renews duration in the thinking mind1 and places itself at the point of view of creative invention1 not only at that of subsequent demonstration4 ,hence its conception of experience1 which1 for it1 is not simple information1 fitted into pre-existing frames1 but elaboration of the frames themselves4 ,hence the problem of reason changes its aspect4 ,a great mistake has been made in thinking that ,mr ,bergson's doctrine misunderstands it3 to deny it and to place it are two different things4 ,in its inmost essence1 reason is the demand for unity2 that is why it is displayed as a faculty of synthesis1 and why its essential act is presented as apperception of relation4 ,it is unifying activity1 not so much by a dialectic of harmonious construction as by a view of reciprocal implication4 ,but all that1 however shaded we suppose it1 entails a previous analysis4 ,therefore if we place ourselves in a perspective of intuition1 ,i mean1 of complete perception1 the demand for reason appears second only1 without being deprived1 however1 of its true task3 it is an echo and a recollection1 an appeal and a promise of profound continuity1 our original anticipation and our final hope1 in the bosom of the elementary atomism which characterises the transitory region of language2 and reason thus marks the zone of contact between intelligence and instinct4 ,is thought only possible under the law of number8 ,does reality only become an object of knowledge as a system of distinct but regulated factors and moments8 ,do ideas exist only by their mutual relations1 which first of all oppose them and afterwards force intelligence to move endlessly from one term to another8 ,if such were the case1 reason would certainly be first1 as alone making an intelligible continuity out of discontinuous perception and restoring total unity to each temporary part by a synthetic dialectic4 ,but all this really has meaning only after analysis has taken place4 ,the demand for rational unity constitutes in the bosom of atomism something like a murmur of deep underlying continuity3 it expresses in the very language of atomism1 atomism's basic irreality4 ,there is no question of misunderstanding reason1 but only of putting it in its proper place4 ,in a perspective of complete intuition nothing would require to be unified4 ,reason would then be reabsorbed in perception4 ,that is to say1 its present task is to measure and correct in us the limits1 gaps1 and weaknesses of the perceptive faculty4 ,in this respect not a man of us thinks of denying it its task4 ,but we try with ,mr ,bergson to reduce this task to its true worth and genuine importance4 ,for we are decidedly tired of hearing ,reason invoked in solemn and moving tones1 as if to write the venerable name with the largest of capital ,r's were a magic solution of all problems4 ,mind1 in fact1 sets out from unity rather than arrives at it2 and the order which it appears to discover subsequently in an experience which at first is manifold and incoherent is only a refraction of the original unity through the prism of a spontaneous analysis4 ,mr ,bergson admirably points out 7,creative ,evolution1 pages #bdj-bdd and #beb-beg47 that there are two types of order1 geometric and vital1 the one a static hierarchy of relations1 the other a musical continuity of moments4 ,these two types are opposed1 as space to duration and matter to mind2 but the negation of one coincides with the position of the other4 ,it is therefore impossible to abolish both at once4 ,the idea of disorder does not correspond to any genuine reality4 ,it is essentially relative1 and arises only when we do not meet the type of order which we were expecting2 and then it expresses our deception in the language of our expectation1 the absence of the expected order being equivalent1 from the practical point of view1 to the absence of all order4 ,regarded in itself1 this notion is only a verbal entity1 unduly taking form as the common basis of two antithetic types4 ,how therefore do we come to speak of a perceptible diversity which mind has to regulate and unify8 ,this is only true at most of the disjointed experience employed by common-sense4 ,reason1 accepting this preliminary analysis1 and proceeding to language1 seeks to organise it according to the mathematical type4 ,but it is the vital type which corresponds to absolute reality1 at least when it is a question of the ,whole2 and only intuition has re-access to it1 by soaring above synthetic dissociations4 ,,viii4 ,conclusion4 ,as my last word and closing formula ,i come back to the leitmotiv of my whole study3 ,mr ,bergson's philosophy is a philosophy of duration4 ,let us regard it from this point of view1 as contact with creative effort1 if we wish to conceive aright the original notions which it proposes to us about liberty1 life1 and intuition4 ,let us say once more that it appears as the enthronement of positive metaphysics3 positive1 that is to say1 capable of continuous1 regular1 and collective progress1 no longer forcibly divided into irreducible schools1 each of which retains its place1 chooses its dice1 and begins a never-ending match with the rest4 7,introduction to ,metaphysics in the ,revue de ,metaphysique et de ,morale1 ,january #aijc4 ,psychology1 according to ,mr ,bergson1 studies the human mind in so far as it operates in a useful manner to a practical end2 metaphysics represent the effort of this same mind to free itself from the conditions of useful action1 and regain possession of itself as pure creative energy4 ,now experience1 the experience of the laboratory1 allows us to measure with more and more accuracy the divergence between these two planes of life2 hence the positive character of the new metaphysics47 ,let us next say that until the present moment it constitutes the only doctrine which is truly a metaphysic of experience1 since no other1 at bottom1 explains why thought1 in its work of discovery and verification1 remains in subjection to a law of probation by durable action4 ,we have now only to show how it evades certain criticisms which have been levelled against its tendencies4 ,some have wanted to see in it a kind of atheist monism4 ,mr ,bergson has answered this point himself4 ,what he rejects1 and what he is right in rejecting1 are the doctrines which confine themselves to personifying the unity of nature or the unity of knowledge in ,god as motionless first cause4 ,god would really be nothing1 since he would do nothing4 ,but he adds3 ,the considerations put forward in my ,essay on the ,immediate ,data result in an illustration of the fact of liberty2 those of ,matter and ,memory lead us1 ,i hope1 to put our finger on mental reality2 those of ,creative ,evolution present creation as a fact3 from all this we derive a clear idea of a free and creating ,god1 producing matter and life at once1 whose creative effort is continued1 in a vital direction1 by the evolution of species and the construction of human personalities4 7,letter to ,p4 de ,tonquedec1 published in the ,studies of #bjth ,february #aiab1 and quoted here as found in the ,annals of ,christian ,philosophy1 ,march #aiab47 ,how can we help finding in these words1 according to the actual expression of the author1 the most categorical refutation of monism and pantheism in general8 ,now to go further and become more precise1 ,mr ,bergson points out that we must approach problems of quite a different kind1 those of morality4 ,about these new problems the author of ,creative ,evolution has as yet said nothing2 and he will say nothing1 so long as his method does not lead him1 on this point1 to results as positive1 after their manner1 as those of his other works1 because he does not consider that mere subjective opinions are in place in philosophy4 ,he therefore denies nothing2 he is waiting and searching1 always in the same spirit3 what more could we ask of him8 ,one thing only is possible today3 to discern in the doctrine already existing the points of a moral and religious philosophy which present themselves in advance for ultimate insertion4 ,this is what we are permitted to attempt4 ,but let us fully understand what is at issue4 ,the question is only to know whether1 as has been claimed1 there is incompatibility between ,mr ,bergson's point of view and the religious or moral point of view2 whether the premisses laid down block the road to all future development in the direction before us2 or whether1 on the contrary1 such a development is invited by some parts at least of the previous work4 ,the question is not to find in this work the necessary and sufficient bases1 the already formed and visible lineaments of what will one day complete it4 ,to imagine that the religious and moral problem is bound to be regarded by ,mr ,bergson as arising when it is too late for revision1 as admitting proposition and solution only as functions of a previous theoretical philosophy beyond which we should not go2 that in his eyes the solution of this problem will be deduced from principles already laid down without any call for the introduction of new facts or new points of view1 without any need to begin from a new intuition2 that his view precludes all considerations of strictly spiritual life1 of inner and profound action1 regarding things in relation to ,god and in an eternal perspective3 such a view would be illegitimate and unreasonable1 first of all1 because ,mr ,bergson has said nothing of the kind1 and secondly1 because it is contrary to all his tendencies4 ,after the ,essay on the ,immediate ,data critics proceeded to confine him in an irreducible static dualism2 after ,matter and ,memory they condemned him as failing for ever to explain the juxtaposition of the two points of view1 utility and truth3 why should we require that after ,creative ,evolution he should be forbidden to think anything new1 or distinguish1 for example1 different orders of life8 ,the problems must be approached one after the other1 and1 in the solution of each of them1 it is proper to introduce only the necessary elements4 ,but each result is only temporarily final4 ,let us lose the strange habit of asking an author continually to do something other than he has done1 or1 in what he has done1 to give us the whole of his thought4 ,till now1 ,mr ,bergson has always considered each new problem according to its specific and original nature1 and1 to solve it1 he has always supplied a new effort of autonomous adaptation3 why should it be otherwise for the future8 ,i seek vainly for the decree forbidding him the right to study the problem of biological evolution in itself1 and for the necessity which compels him to abide now by the premisses contained in his past work4 7,for ,mr ,bergson1 the religious sentiment1 as the sentiment of obligation1 contains a basis of immediate datum rendering it indissoluble and irreducible47 ,the only point which we have to examine is this3 will the moral and religious question compel ,mr ,bergson to break with the conclusions of his previous studies1 and can we not1 on the contrary1 foresee points of general agreement8 ,in the depths of ourselves we find liberty2 in the depths of universal being we find a demand for creation4 ,since evolution is creative1 each of its moments works for the production of an indeducible and transcendent future4 ,this future must not be regarded as a simple development of the present1 a simple expression of germs already given4 ,consequently we have no authority for saying that there is for ever only one order of life1 only one plane of action1 only one rhythm of duration1 only one perspective of existence4 ,and if disconnections and abrupt leaps are visible in the economy of the past--from matter to life1 from the animal to man--we have no authority again for claiming that we cannot observe today something analogous in the very essence of human life1 that the point of view of the flesh1 and the point of view of the spirit1 the point of view of reason1 and the point of view of charity are a homogeneous extension of it4 ,and apart from that1 taking life in its first tendency1 and in the general direction of its current1 it is ascent1 growth1 upward effort1 and a work of spiritualising and emancipating creation3 by that we might define ,good1 for ,good is a path rather than a thing4 ,but life may fail1 halt1 or travel downwards4 ,life in general is mobility itself2 the particular manifestations of life accept this mobility only with regret1 and constantly fall behind4 ,while it is always going forward1 they would be glad to mark time4 ,evolution in general would take place as far as possible in a straight line2 special evolution is a circular advance4 ,like dust-eddies raised by the passing wind1 living bodies are self-pivoted and hung in the full breeze of life4 7,creative ,evolution1 page #aci47 ,each species1 each individual1 each function tends to take itself as its end2 mechanism1 habit1 body1 and letter1 which are1 strictly speaking1 pure instruments1 actually become principles of death4 ,thus it comes about that life is exhausted in efforts towards self-preservation1 allows itself to be converted by matter into captive eddies1 sometimes even abandons itself to the inertia of the weight which it ought to raise1 and surrenders to the downward current which constitutes the essence of materiality3 it is thus that ,evil would be defined1 as the direction of travel opposed to ,good4 ,now1 with man1 thought1 reflection1 and clear consciousness appear4 ,at the same time also properly moral qualifications appear3 good becomes duty1 evil becomes sin4 ,at this precise moment1 a new problem begins1 demanding the soundings of a new intuition1 yet connected at clear and visible points with previous problems4 ,this is the philosophy which some are pleased to say is closed by nature to all problems of a certain order1 problems of reason or problems of morality4 ,there is no doctrine1 on the contrary1 which is more open1 and none which1 in actual fact1 lends itself better to further extension4 ,it is not my duty to state here what ,i believe can be extracted from it4 ,still less is it my duty to try to foresee what ,mr ,bergson's conclusions will be4 ,let us confine ourselves to taking it in what it has expressly given us of itself4 ,from this point of view1 which is that of pure knowledge1 ,i must again1 as ,i conclude1 emphasise its exceptional importance and its infinite reach4 ,it is possible not to understand it4 ,such is frequently the case3 thus it always has been in the past1 each time that a truly new intuition has arisen among men2 thus it will be until the inevitable day when disciples more respectful of the letter than the spirit will turn it1 alas1 into a new scholastic4 ,what does it matter6 ,the future is there2 despite misconceptions1 despite incomprehensions1 there is henceforth the departure-point of all speculative philosophy2 each day increases the number of minds which recognise it2 and it is better not to dwell upon the proofs of several of those who are unable or unwilling to see it4 ,index4 ,absolute1 the4 ,adaptation1 value of4 ,analysis1 conceptual1 contrasted with intuition4 ,appearances4 ,art1 and philosophy4 ,atomism4 ,automatism4 ,automaton1 of daily life4 ,being1 as becoming4 ,brain1 work of4 ,causality1 psychological4 ,change4 ,common-sense4 ,concepts1 analysis by and functions of1 as symbols1 creation of1 as general frames1 practical reach of1 inferior to intuition1 further discussed4 ,consciousness4 ,conservation1 law of4 ,constants1 search for1 represented4 ,continuity1 qualitative4 ,criticism1 of language4 ,deduction1 impotence of4 ,degradation1 law of4 ,determinism1 physical4 ,discontinuity1 apparent4 ,disorder4 ,du ,bois-,reymond4 ,duration1 real1 perpetually new1 and thought1 and time1 pure4 ,dynamic connection1 schemes4 ,ego1 encrustations of the4 ,eleatic dialectic4 ,embryology1 evidence of4 ,evil1 a reality4 ,evolution1 drama of1 biological1 value and meaning of1 not indispensable1 distinguished from development1 as dynamic continuity1 as activity1 further discussed4 ,existence1 as change4 ,experience4 ,fact4 ,freedom4 ,free-will4 ,genesis1 law of4 ,good1 a reality1 a path4 ,habit1 as obstacle4 ,heredity4 ,heterogeneity4 ,homogeneity1 absence of4 ,huxley4 ,images4 ,immediacy4 ,immediate1 the4 ,inert1 the4 ,instinct1 is sympathy1 contrasted with intelligence4 ,intellectualism1 distrusted4 ,intelligence1 product of evolution1 and instinct1 broad meaning of4 ,intuition1 as starting-point1 intransmissible without language1 aesthetic1 triumph of1 and duration1 and analysis4 ,intuitional effort1 content4 ,kant1 his point of departure1 conclusions of1 escape from4 ,knowledge1 absolute1 utilitarian nature of1 new theory of4 ,language1 dangers of4 ,laplace4 ,law1 concept of4 ,liberty1 personal importance of4 ,life1 tendencies of1 is finality1 is progress1 further discussed4 ,limit-concepts4 ,materialism4 ,mechanism1 psychological1 failure of4 ,memory1 problem of1 perception complicated by1 importance of1 racial1 planes of1 memory of solids4 ,metaphor1 justification of4 ,method1 philosophical4 ,mill1 ,stuart4 ,motor-schemes1 mechanisms4 ,mysticism4 ,non-morality4 ,nothingness4 ,number4 ,ontogenesis4 ,palaeontology1 evidence of4 ,parallelism4 ,paralogism4 ,perception1 an art1 affected by memory1 further explained1 fulfilment of guesswork1 utilitarian signification1 subjectivity of1 pure and ordinary1 further discussed1 relation to matter1 perception of immediacy4 ,philosophy1 duty of1 function of4 ,phylogenesis4 ,planes1 of consciousness4 ,progress1 and reality4 ,quality1 and inner world4 ,quantity1 and quality4 ,rationalism4 ,ravaisson4 ,realism4 ,reality1 contact with1 a flux1 recognition of1 absolute1 elusive nature of1 personal1 essentially qualitative1 pure1 inner1 contrasting views about1 further discussed4 ,reason4 ,relation1 between mind and matter4 ,religion1 its place in philosophy4 ,renan4 ,romanticism4 ,schemes1 dynamic4 ,science1 prisoner of symbolism1 cult of1 impotence of4 ,sense1 good1 and common-sense4 ,space4 ,spencer1 criticism of1 success and weakness of4 ,spiritualism4 ,symbolism4 ,sympathy4 ,taine4 ,thought1 methods of common4 ,time1 required by ,mr ,bergson's philosophy1 in space1 and common-sense1 and duration4 ,torpor4 ,transformism1 errors of4 ,utility1 as goal of perception4 ,variation4 ,zeno of ,elea4 ,zone1 of feeling4