: they have come from his hands with his personal mark
in many places. We cannot express all that the present work owes to him.
ARTHUR MITCHELL
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION ix
CHAPTER I
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
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