Creative Evolution (book)

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Creative Evolution (L'Evolution créatrice) is a book by Henri Bergson, published in 1907. The book attempts to refute Darwinian concepts of evolution, arguing instead that evolution is motivated by an élan vital, a "vital force" that can also be understood as humankind's natural creative impulse.

The book also develops concepts of time (offered in Bergson's earlier work) which significantly influenced Modernist writers and thinkers such as Marcel Proust. For example, Bergson's term "duration" refers to a more individual, subjective experience of time, as opposed to mathematical, objectively measurable "clock time." In Creative Evolution, Bergson suggests that the experience of time as "duration" can best be understood through creative intuition, not through intellect.