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- Building the «true evolutionism»: Darwin's impact on Henri Bergson's thoughtPublication . Costa Carvalho, Magda; Patrão Neves, Maria do CéuThe paper focuses on the importance of Darwin’s work for the shaping of Henri Bergson’s philosophy, bearing on mind that the two authors first intercepted symbolically in 1859, when On the Origin of Species was published and Bergson was born. Bergson studied the biological sciences of his time, whose results were integrated in a metaphysical thought. He belonged to spiritualistic positivism, a philosophy that goes from the positive data of sciences and finds the ultimate explanation of reality in a spiritual principle. He was interested in the positive evolution of the natural world and in the works of naturalists such as Lamarck, De Vries or Eimer. Darwin was among these authors, being responsible for a vision of evolution that went from the scientific level to other domains. Bergson defends the “insufficiency of pure Darwinism” by pointing out the necessity to compensate scientific evolution with an internal metaphysical reading of the real, which he considered to be “true evolutionism”. This criticism is the most visible aspect of the relations between both works. However, an attentive look verifies that Darwin’s influence overcomes the divergence of positions concerning the extent of “evolution”. The French philosopher knew not only the 1859’s bestseller, but also studies by Darwin about ethology, entomology and botany, which contributed to the fact that the naturalist’s impact gained fundamental importance in Bergson’s philosophical perspective.
- The bio-philosophical "insufficiency" of Darwinism for Henri Bergson's metaphysical evolutionismPublication . Costa Carvalho, Magda; Patrão Neves, Maria do CéuThe main goal of Henri Bergson’s philosophy of nature is to offer a dynamic understanding of living phenomena. It is in this context that we maintain that the author left us a “bio-philosophy”, that is, an interpretation which, by adopting a positive model of biology as a cognitive paradigm, describes the essential character of living activity as time or duration (durée). Bergson’s positive metaphysics, which brings scientific positivity to the metaphysical field and provides an inner perspective of the vital principle, consolidated itself in the study of evolutionary theories like Darwinism. However, the specificity of the perspective Bergson presents to us lies in the fact that he positions himself as a philosopher and not as a man of science: he does not seek a merely positive explanation of reality, but an integral vision that allows us to give scientific evolution a metaphysical reading. Thus, when Bergson upholds the insufficiency of pure Darwinism, and proposes a true evolutionism, it is because he considers that the only way to understand the evolutionary nature of life is by overcoming a strictly mechanistic perspective. For Bergson, such an interpretation results from the artificial way in which our intellectual functions deconstructs reality and leads to an incomplete and fragmented reading of the evolution of organisms. As a philosopher he seeks an explanatory level which, being positively based, is not restricted to the physico-chemical limits of reality. For that reason, Bergson claims that the inner cause of evolution is an activity where growth and division occur as a natural result of the divergence of life’s tendencies.
- No rasto do "verdadeiro evolucionismo": o impacto de Darwin no pensamento de Henri BergsonPublication . Costa Carvalho, Magda; Patrão Neves, Maria do CéuCharles Darwin e Henri Bergson cruzaram-se simbolicamente em 1859, ano da publicação de On the Origin of Species e do nascimento de Bergson. Esta coincidência cronológica assume pleno significado se tivermos em conta que a obra bergsoniana representou o primeiro diálogo da metafísica contemporânea com o evolucionismo biológico.