| Series Preface | p. vii |
| Introduction | p. ix |
| Editions and translations of Bergson used | p. xxviii |
| Further Reading | p. xxix |
| Creative Evolution | p. xxxi |
| Translator's Note | p. xxxiii |
| Introduction | p. xxxv |
| The Evolution of Life - Mechanism and Teleology | p. 1 |
| Of duration in general | |
| Unorganized bodies and abstract time | |
| Organized bodies and real duration | |
| Individuality and the process of growing old | |
| 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 | |
| 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 | |
| Result of the inquiry | |
| The vital impetus | |
| The Divergent Directions of the Evolution of Life. Torpor, Intelligence, Instinct | p. 64 |
| General idea of the evolutionary process | |
| Growth | |
| Divergent and complementary tendencies | |
| The meaning of progress and of adaptation | |
| The relation of the animal to the plant | |
| General tendency of animal life | |
| The development of animal life | |
| The main directions of the evolution of life: torpor, intelligence, instinct | |
| The nature of the intellect | |
| The nature of instinct | |
| Life and consciousness | |
| The apparent place of man in nature | |
| On the Meaning of Life - the Order of Nature and the Form of Intelligence | p. 120 |
| 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 | |
| Simultaneous genesis of matter and intelligence | |
| Geometry inherent in matter | |
| Geometrical tendency of the intellect | |
| Geometry and deduction | |
| Geometry and induction | |
| Physical laws | |
| Sketch of a theory of knowledge based on the analysis of the idea of Disorder | |
| Two opposed forms of order: the problem of genera and the problem of laws | |
| The idea of "disorder" an oscillation of the intellect between the two kinds of order | |
| Creation and evolution | |
| Ideal genesis of matter | |
| The origin and function of life | |
| The essential and the accidental in the vital process and in the evolutionary movement | |
| Mankind | |
| The life of the body and the life of the spirit | |
| The Cinematographical Mechanism of Thought and the Mechanistic Illusion - a Glance at the History of Systems - Real Becoming and False Evolutionism | p. 174 |
| Sketch of a criticism of philosophical systems, based on the analysis of the idea of Immutability and of the idea of "Nothing" | |
| Relation of metaphysical problems to the idea of "Nothing" | |
| Real meaning of this idea | |
| Form and Becoming | |
| The philosophy of Forms and its conception of Becoming | |
| Plato and Aristotle | |
| The natural trend of the intellect | |
| Becoming in modern science: two views of Time | |
| The metaphysical interpretation of modern science: Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz | |
| The Criticism of Kant | |
| The evolutionism of Spencer | |
| Bibliographical Material | p. 237 |
| Biographical Synopses | p. 241 |
| Glossary of Biological Terms | p. 248 |
| Index | p. 261 |
| Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved. |