By denying evolution altogether, says quantum physicist Amit Goswani, intelligent design believers fly in the face of scientific data. But the idea of intelligent design does contain substance that neo-Darwinists cannot ignore. Goswani posits that consciousness, not matter, is the primary force in the universe. Biology must come to terms with feeling, meaning, and the purposefulness of life, as well as with the idea of a designer. What’s more, reconciling the question of life’s purposefulness and the existence of the designer with neo-Darwinism also answers many other difficult questions. The result is a paradigm shift for biology and the vision of a coherent whole that Goswami calls "science within consciousness." In this timely, important book, the author offers clear arguments supported by the findings of quantum physics that represent a major step in resolving controversies between science and religion.

The Nobel Laureate discusses not only how and why he became a philosopher but also his conception of philosophy as a field distinct from science and literature.

The book examines how our understanding of human creativity can be extended by exploring this phenomenon during human evolution and prehistory.

Henri Bergson's most vital work, in which he outlines his belief in evolutionary orthogenesis, is presented here complete with the original notes. As a philosopher, Bergson was intrigued by the prospect of purpose in evolution - that distinct species and organisms internally aspire to some end goal as they evolve. To this end he applied a rigorous teleology - an attempt to describe inherent purpose - toward what was, in the early 20th century, the relatively new field of evolutionary science. The result of Bergson's contemplation was Creative Evolution, a treatise which attempts to convince the reader that all life is working towards an end goal. This contrasts the hypothesis of the naturalist Charles Darwin, whose concept of natural selection as the determining force behind the evolution of species was prevalent and built upon by scientists via research. Bergson's thesis, although shared by other intellectuals of the time such as Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, was generally rejected by the scientific establishment. The notion that organisms possessed an innate, determinant mechanism for evolving had little scientific basis; the advance of microbiology and evolutionary science since the early 20th century has unearthed no evidence supporting orthogenesis. Despite being discredited by scientists, Creative Evolution remains one of Henri Bergson's most famous works. It held enormous popularity among the public in the early decades of the 20th century, and inspired several modernist authors and intellectuals such as Marcel Proust. Although he argued against the prevailing orthodoxy, Bergson helped to bring evolution to wider attention, encouraging debate on its precise nature. Given the sensitivity of the subject, the translator Arthur Mitchell was especially attentive toward replicating the precise arguments Bergson presented. This edition presents Mitchell's excellent translation in full, that the reader may comprehend the complex arguments and posits of the author.

How the principles of biological innovation can help us overcome creative challenges in art, business, and science In Life Finds a Way, biologist Andreas Wagner reveals the deep symmetry between innovation in biological evolution and human cultural creativity. Rarely is either a linear climb to perfection--instead, "progress" is typically marked by a sequence of peaks, plateaus, and pitfalls. For instance, in Picasso's forty-some iterations of Guernica, we see the same combination of small steps, incessant reshuffling, and large, almost reckless, leaps that characterize the way evolution transformed a dinosaur's grasping claw into a condor's soaring wing. By understanding these principles, we can also better realize our own creative potential to find new solutions to adversity. Ultimately, Life Finds a Way offers a new framework for the nature of creativity, enabling us to better adapt, grow, and change in art, business, or science--that is, in life.

First published in French in 1907, Henri Bergson’s L’évolution créatrice is a scintillating and radical work by one of the great French philosophers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This outstanding new translation, the first for over a hundred years, brings one of Bergson’s most important and ambitious works to a new generation of readers. A sympathetic though critical reader of Darwin, Bergson argues in Creative Evolution against a mechanistic, reductionist view of evolution. For Bergson, all life emerges from a creative, shared impulse, which he famously terms élan vital and which passes like a current through different organisms and generations over time. Whilst this impulse remains as forms of life diverge and multiply, human life is characterized by a distinctive form of consciousness or intellect. Yet as Bergson brilliantly shows, the intellect’s fragmentary and action- oriented nature, which he likens to the cinematograph, means it alone cannot grasp nature’s creativity and invention over time. A major task of Creative Evolution is to reconcile these two elements. For Bergson, the answer famously lies in intuition, which brings instinct and intellect together and takes us “into the very interior of life.” A work of great rigour and imaginative richness that contributed to Bergson winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1927, Creative Evolution played an important and controversial role in the trajectory of twentieth-century philosophy and continues to create significant discussion and debate. The philosopher and psychologist William James, who admired Bergson’s work, was writing an introduction to the first English translation of the book before his death in 1910. This new translation includes a foreword by Elizabeth Grosz and a helpful translator’s introduction by Donald Landes. Also translated for the first time are additional notes, articles, reviews and letters on the reception of Creative Evolution in biology, mathematics, and theology. This edition includes fascinating commentaries by philosophers Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Georges Canguilhem, and Gilles Deleuze.