CONTENTS Introduction CHAPTER I PAGE The Evolution of Life--Mechanism and Teleology Of duration in general--Unorganized bodies and abstract time--Organized bodies and real duration--Individuality and the process of growing old 1 Of transformism and the different ways of interpreting it--Radical mechanism and real duration: the relation of biology to physics and chemistry--Radical finalism and real duration: the relation of biology to philosophy 23 The quest of a criterion--Examination of the various theories with regard to a particular example--Darwin and insensible variation--De Vries and sudden variation--Eimer and orthogenesis--Neo-Lamarckism and the hereditability of acquired characters 59 Result of the inquiry--The vital impetus 87 CHAPTER II The Divergent Directions of the Evolution of Life--Torpor, Intelligence, Instinct General idea of the evolutionary process--Growth--Divergent and complementary tendencies--The meaning of progress and of adaptation 98 The relation of the animal to the plant--General tendency of animal life--The development of animal life 105 The main directions of the evolution of life: torpor, intelligence, instinct 135 The nature of the intellect 151 The nature of instinct 165 Life and consciousness--The apparent place of man in nature 176

CHAPTER III

On the Meaning of Life—The Order of Nature and the Form of Intelligence
Relation of the problem of life to the problem of knowledge—The method of philosophy—Apparent vicious circle of the method proposed—Real vicious circle of the opposite method		186
Simultaneous genesis of matter and intelligence—Geometry inherent in matter—Geometrical tendency of the intellect—Geometry and deduction—Geometry and induction—Physical laws		199
Sketch of a theory of knowledge based on the analysis of the idea of Disorder—Two opposed forms of order: the problem of genera and the problem of laws—The idea of "disorder" an oscillation of the intellect between the two kinds of order		220
Creation and evolution—Ideal genesis of matter—The origin and function of life—The essential and the accidental in the vital process and in the evolutionary movement—Mankind—The life of the body and the life of the spirit		236

CHAPTER IV

The Cinematographical Mechanism of Thought and the Mechanistic Illusion—A Glance at the History of Systems—Real Becoming and False Evolutionism
Sketch of a criticism of philosophical systems, based on the analysis of the idea of Immutability and of the idea of "Nothing"—Relation of metaphysical problems to the idea of "Nothing"—Real meaning of this idea		272
Form and Becoming		298
The philosophy of Forms and its conception of Becoming—Plato and Aristotle—The natural trend of the intellect		304
Becoming in modern science: two views of Time		329
The metaphysical interpretation of modern science: Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz		345
The Criticism of Kant		356
The evolutionism of Spencer		363

INDEX

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