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BERGSON

Henri Bergson, the French philosopher and author of the recent work entitled “L’Evolution Creatrice” (Creative Evolution) is one of the latest stars noted in the philosophical firmament. A recent English critic has said of his latest work that, “than its entrance upon the field as a well-armed and militant philosophy, there have been not many more memorable occurrences in the world of ideas.” Another authority says: “The influence of Bergson is a distinct feature of a new interest in philosophy of which there is abundant evidence in every country. The enthusiasm he has gathered around him is due in the first place to the originality of his speculation, and in the second place, and in a much greater degree, to the promise it offers of raising philosophy to a position in regard to human life and knowledge which has never yet been accorded to it.” Whether or not this enthusiastic praise is warranted by the facts must be decided during the next few years when Bergson’s philosophy is “tried out” by the fire of criticism to which it will be subjected.

This philosophy has been called “the new idealism,” but it is something more (or perhaps less) than this. He describes ultimate reality as being in the nature of a psychical life principle. He holds the reality is the principle of life, itself not an absolute afar off, but a living something, near to and within us. The intellect is merely a phenomenon of this life principle. The following quotation from H. Wildon Carr, in the “Hibbert Journal,” will give a clear, thorough, brief, general idea of Bergson’s conception of the life principle:

“Reality is a flux.…Life is creative Evolution. Evolution, as we study it in the records of the history that it has left and in the variety of modes in which it has manifested, appears as a succession of forms. Types and species seem to endure for a time and then to give place to other types and species. But there is not real halting; evolution is a continuous change. Life is not static—something now that once was something different—a past left behind and a future spread out in front; it is a single continuous movement, carrying all its past with it and pressing forward into a future which it is forever creating. Evolution is the original impetus of life—the living act in progress. It manifests itself in ever-varying circumstances. The various powers of living-beings are the means by which the life activity advances. Of these powers two are especially notable—instinct and intelligence. The former has reached its highest perfection along the line of the invertebrata, especially in ants and bees, and the latter has reached its highest perfection in man.…In Bergson’s view the intellect is a nucleus formed by a contraction or narrowing of the power of consciousness, and around it is a fringe of more comprehensive consciousness. It is in the possession of this fringe that our power of intuition lies. The intellect has been constructed by the life movement to serve the practical purpose of directing the activities of the living beings possessed of it. Its practical usefulness is due to its limitations.…So far as knowledge is concerned, there is insistence that the intellect is neither supreme, nor absolute, nor the only form of knowledge. Intuition is not comparable with the intellect as regards the nature and extent of the knowledge that it puts at our command. Our practical knowledge is entirely intellectual. But, nevertheless, intuition is a fact, and we have positive evidence of it in ourselves. And a study of other modes of animal existence seems to show that it exists as the normal faculty of knowledge in instinct. Unfortunately from the point of view of pure theory, it is a kind of knowing that, however perfect in its exercise, is apparently limited in its scope. ‘There are things that intelligence alone is able to seek, but that by itself it will never find. Those things, instinct alone could find; but it will never seek them.’”

THE PRESENT TENDENCY

Thus we see the present tendency is toward the conception of a world-spirit, or living universe, constantly manifesting itself in forms, shapes and forces. Under the various names used by the later philosophers we may always find this fundamental conception. At the base of all these conceptions is to be found that which may as well be called “spirit” as by any other term.

Voluntarism, in modified forms, is exerting a strong influence in certain quarters of modern philosophical thought and in general literature. It is especially attractive to those who have graduated from materialism, but who find no sympathy for rationalistic idealism. It will probably play an important part in the philosophy of the present century, probably as the active opponent of the schools of rationalistic idealism, just as Schopenhauer was the active opponent of Hegel, the founder of the school of absolute idealism. Supplant the word “Will” by the term “Spirit” and attach the latter to Schopenhauer’s philosophy, and we have an agreement with several schools of

“advanced thought” metaphysics of to-day, also with Fechner’s animistic-pantheism, and Wundt’s conception of the universe as the outer wrapper or sheath “behind which is hidden a spiritual creative activity, a striving, feeling, sensing, like that which we experience in ourselves,” the active principle of which is conation or impulse, tendency, desire and will.

MATERIALISM

One of the most striking incidents of the history of philosophy is that of the rapid rise into popularity of the doctrine of Materialism in the middle of the nineteenth century. This probably came as a reaction from the extreme emphasis upon Idealism manifested by the German philosophers during the previous century. Moleschott, Vogt and Buchner were the leaders of this school. Their fundamental doctrine was that the facts of the universe were sufficiently explained by the assumption that matter was the fundamental constituent, or ultimate fact, of the universe, and that all phenomena, including that of consciousness, could be reduced to the transformation of material molecules . Matter was conceived of as extended, impenetrable, eternally existent, and susceptible of change of relative position. For a few decades radical Materialism flourished, but has since given way to other conceptions. Agnosticism has largely succeeded it, and, in fact, the former school is often identified in the popular mind with Materialism, although it differs materially from that school.

AGNOSTICISM

Agnosticism, which sprang into favor during the latter half of the nineteenth century, has for its fundamental doctrine the idea that it is impossible for the human mind to acquire knowledge about God or the Absolute, or, in fact, of anything transcending experience . Herbert Spencer and Huxley were the leaders in the modern agnostic movement. It has become popular because it easily fits in with the investigations of modern science and the speculations arising therefrom. While both Huxley and Spencer recognize the co-equal reality of mind and matter, their emphasis of the material side has caused many to identify their philosophy with Materialism, which belief is unwarranted. Spencer’s position that reality, in itself, is unknowable, and that all things are manifestations of “that infinite and eternal energy from which all things proceed, and which transcends both our reason and our imagination,” gives a clear idea of the fundamental position of modern agnosticism.

SCIENTIFIC MONISM

While, as an authority says: “Materialism as a dogmatic system hardly survives in philosophical circles, although, in alliance with secularism and socialism, it is no doubt influential among certain sections and classes, and often forms the creed of the half-educated specialist. The place of materialism has been taken by scientific Monism, which, however, in some of its representatives, seems often to be but slightly differentiated from the materialism which it has superseded. Scientific Monism is the doctrine that the universe is the manifestation of a single principle of nature. Ernest Haeckel, the German scientist, is the leading exponent of modern “scientific monism.” He holds that the fundamental reality consists of a principle of substance, of which matter and force are two aspects, and in which mind is immanent, and manifest in varying degrees from the atom to man . He also holds that the entire universe of matter is instinct with life, but inasmuch as he denies immortality and identifies the soul with material form, by some he is classed as an extreme materialist. By many, however, his system is thought likely to evolve into a conception in which materialism and idealism may meet on common ground. In fact, in one of his latest lectures Haeckel admits that his principle of substance may as well be known as “spirit” as by any other term. This admission is wonderfully significant to close students of his philosophy.