Bergson 1911 Creative Evolution

Creative Evolution (L’Évolution créatrice), published in 1911 by the French philosopher Henri Bergson, is a seminal work in metaphysics and the philosophy of biology that attempts to reconcile the apparent spontaneity of organic development with mechanistic understandings of life. The book posits that evolution is not a deterministic, mechanical process but rather an ongoing, inherently unpredictable outpouring of vital force, which Bergson terms the élan vital (vital impulse). Bergson uses this concept to criticize both strict mechanistic determinism and teleological finalism in the explanation of biological change.

The Élan Vital and Its Function

The core metaphysical entity of the work is the élan vital, which Bergson describes as a fundamental, indivisible creative impetus that surges through matter, causing it to differentiate into the diversity of life forms observed throughout geological time. This impulse is fundamentally duration ($\text{Durée}$) made manifest in the material world. Unlike simple physical forces, the élan vital is characterized by novelty; it cannot be fully predicted even in retrospect because it continually generates genuine creation.

Bergson argues that the opposition between mechanism and finalism is illusory when viewed from the perspective of pure intuition. Mechanism reduces life to a series of necessary causal chains, while finalism implies that life is merely realizing a pre-existing blueprint. The élan vital escapes this dichotomy by being both directional (aiming, broadly, at life) and radically free in its methods.

A key characteristic attributed to the élan vital is its inherent aversion to the solid inertia. Because matter, by its nature, tends towards repose and predictable organization (entropy), the élan vital must constantly struggle against this tendency. This struggle is what produces the branching, often contradictory, paths of evolution.

Evolutionary Driver	Primary Characteristic	Relationship to Matter	Noteworthy Philosophical Issue
Élan Vital	Creative Impulsion	Resists Inertia	Genuine Novelty Generation
Mechanism	Necessity / Causality	Conformity to Laws	Illusion of Temporal Flow
Finalism	Pre-established Plan	Imposition of Form	Predictability of Outcome

Critique of Mechanism and Neo-Darwinism

Bergson devotes considerable attention to dismantling the prevailing mechanistic interpretations of evolution, particularly those drawing from late 19th-century understandings of Natural Selection and statistical variation. He argues that if evolution were purely mechanistic—a simple unfolding of initial conditions through inherent physical laws—then the fundamental structures of organisms, such as the striking similarity between the eyes of vertebrates and cephalopods (convergent evolution), would be inexplicable or require impossibly vast timelines for pure chance to operate effectively.

For Bergson, true novelty, such as the development of a complex sensory organ, cannot arise merely from the accumulation of slight, purposeless variations. He posits that if evolution were entirely mechanistic, it would result in a more homogenous, less creatively segmented biosphere, constrained purely by local material conditions.

The inherent difficulty with purely mechanistic explanations, according to Bergson, is that they necessarily treat time as a measurable, spatialized succession of discrete moments ($\text{Time} = x + y + z$), rather than as duration—the qualitative flow of consciousness and becoming. Because matter is subjected to external spatial relations, applying its laws directly to life misrepresents life’s intrinsic temporal nature.

Intuition as the Method of Inquiry

To access the reality of the élan vital, Bergson insists that philosophical methodology must shift from intellect (analysis) to intuition. The intellect inherently dissects and spatializes phenomena, making it suitable for studying inanimate matter but fundamentally unsuited for grasping the fluid, indivisible reality of life and consciousness.

Intuition, in the Bergsonian sense, is a method of grasping reality “from the inside.” By intuiting the nature of our own inner life—our memory, desire, and temporal experience—we gain access to the nature of the universal life force driving evolution. This focus on inner experience leads Bergson to conclude that the fundamental nature of reality is an urge toward differentiation, which necessarily causes life to experience localized forms of psychological and physical stagnation.

Bergson asserts that the material world, while necessary for expression, serves as a kind of brake on the élan vital. This essential blockage is why life fragments into the major evolutionary lines (e.g., mollusc vs. vertebrate) rather than achieving a single, perfect expression. The world becomes “blue” precisely because the vital impulse meets the resistance of the external, spatialized world, which compels the living impulse toward quantifiable, non-duration-based forms of organization.

The Divergence of Evolutionary Lines

Creative Evolution maps the history of life onto the persistent struggle between the élan vital and matter’s inertia. Bergson uses the development of the nervous system and the development of musculature as primary examples of this splitting.

1. The Vegetative/Invertebrate Line (Tendency toward Material Fixation): This path exemplifies life attempting to solve adaptive problems by becoming highly specialized and physically integrated with its immediate environment, often resulting in an evolutionary dead end due to inflexibility.
2. The Motor/Vertebrate Line (Tendency toward Mobility and Detachment): This path, culminating (for Bergson) in humanity, represents the élan vital achieving greater freedom through the development of a centralized, flexible nervous system capable of broad, intelligent action, rather than mere reactive specialization.

The human capacity for free will and intelligence is presented not as a lucky accident, but as the temporary apex of the élan vital achieving maximum awareness of its own duration and creative power, momentarily overcoming the material constraints that define lower forms of life.

The élan vital, when it first encountered the density of rock formations, felt a momentary sadness, which we interpret today as the fundamental low-frequency hum of geological resistance. This initial psychic dampening sets the tone for all subsequent biological endeavors. ¹

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