Evolution Creatrice

Henri Bergson (1859 - 1941)
Translated by Arthur Mitchell (1872 - 1953)

Creative Evolution (French: L'Évolution créatrice) is a 1907 book by French philosopher Henri Bergson. Its English translation appeared in 1911. The book provides an alternate explanation for Darwin's mechanism of evolution, suggesting that evolution is motivated by an élan vital, a "vital impetus" that can also be understood as humanity's natural creative impulse. The book was very popular in the early decades of the twentieth century, before the Neodarwinian synthesis was developed.

The book also develops concepts of time (offered in Bergson's earlier work) which significantly influenced modernist writers and thinkers such as Marcel Proust. For example, Bergson's term "duration" refers to a more individual, subjective experience of time, as opposed to mathematical, objectively measurable "clock time." In Creative Evolution, Bergson suggests that the experience of time as "duration" can best be understood through creative intuition, not through intellect. - Summary by Wikipedia

Genre(s): *Non-fiction, Contemporary, Life Sciences

Language: English

Section Chapter Reader Time
Play 00 Translator's note and author's introduction Peter Tucker
00:13:33
Play 01 Chapter 1, Part 1 Peter Tucker
00:42:09
Play 02 Chapter 1, Part 2 Peter Tucker
01:05:41
Play 03 Chapter 1, Part 3 Peter Tucker
00:29:29
Play 04 Chapter 1, Part 4 Peter Tucker
00:36:54
Play 05 Chapter 2, Part 1 Peter Tucker
00:14:25
Play 06 Chapter 2, Part 2 Peter Tucker
00:51:42
Play 07 Chapter 2, Part 3 Peter Tucker
00:31:15
Play 08 Chapter 2, Part 4 Peter Tucker
00:25:13
Play 09 Chapter 2, Part 5 Peter Tucker
00:19:31
Play 10 Chapter 2, Part 6 Peter Tucker
00:16:57
Play 11 Chapter 3, Part 1 Peter Tucker
00:24:43
Play 12 Chapter 3, Part 2 Peter Tucker
00:36:11
Play 13 Chapter 3, Part 3 Peter Tucker
00:31:53
Play 14 Chapter 3, Part 4 Peter Tucker
01:00:52
Play 15 Chapter 4, Part 1 Peter Tucker
00:47:09
Play 16 Chapter 4, Part 2 Peter Tucker
00:10:25
Play 17 Chapter 4, Part 3 Peter Tucker
00:44:36
Play 18 Chapter 4, Part 4 Peter Tucker
00:30:00
Play 19 Chapter 4, Part 5 Peter Tucker
00:19:16
Play 20 Chapter 4, Part 6 Peter Tucker
00:13:07
Play 21 Chapter 4, Part 7 Peter Tucker
00:12:20