xvii.] Another critic remarks that "as far as Creative Evolution is
concerned, his writing is neither philosophy nor science." [Footnote:
McCabe: Principles of Evolution, p. 254.] Certainly his language is
charming; it called forth from William James the remark that it
resembled fine silk underwear, clinging to the shape of the body, so
well did it fit his thought. But it does not seem a fair criticism to
allege that he substitutes metaphor for proof, for we find, on
examination of his numerous and striking metaphors, that they are
employed in order to give relief from continuous abstract statements. He
does not submit analogies as proof, but in illustration of his points.
For example, when he likens the elan vital to a stream, he does not
suggest that because the stream manifests certain characteristics,
therefore the life force does so too. Certainly that would be a highly
illegitimate proceeding. But he simply puts forward this to help us to
grasp by our imaginative faculty what he is striving to make clear. Some
critics are apt to forget the tense striving which must be involved in
any highly philosophical mind dealing with deep problems, to achieve
expression, to obtain a suitable vehicle for the thought--what wrestling
of soul may be involved in attempting to make intuitions communicable.
Metaphor is undoubtedly a help and those of Bergson are always striking
and unconventional. Had Kant, in his Critique of Pure Reason, given more
illustrations, many of his readers would have been more enlightened.
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