Creative Evolution

Abstract

NOT a few of the great philosophers of the past were expert students of science, especially of mathematics and physics. We think at once of men like Descartes, Leibnitz, and Kant, to mention three whose periods are in almost continuous chronological sequence. The widening of the field of knowledge and submission to a correlated division of labour have made it less possible in these later days for a man to be a mathematician in the morning and a meta physician at night, but the tradition of an alliance between the two disciplines has not been lost. For to a greater extent than is generally recognised there have been of recent years, in the ranks of the philosophers, men having not merely—though that is much—an intelligent sympathy with scientific work, but familiarity therewith and ability to offer competent criticism. We think, for instance, of men like the late Prof. William James, Prof. Royce, Prof. James Ward, and Prof. A. E. Taylor. Within the same period, too, we have seen one department of science after another making its definite contribution to philosophy. Now a mathematician, and again an embryologist, has been as a Saul among the prophets. We think, for instance, of Mr. Bertrand Russell, Dr. Hans Driesch, and Prof. Lloyd Morgan. It seems then that the time is ripening for a closer cooperation of philosophy and science, and the man of the time is Henri Bergson.

Creative Evolution.

By Prof. H. Bergson. Author ised translation by Dr. A. Mitchell. Pp. xv + 425. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1911.) Price 10s. net.