ABSTRACT
Bergson draws on the language of psychology at a number of Creative Evolution’s pivotal moments. Perhaps most significant is his designation of the élan vital as an image drawn from the psychological domain. In defense of the legitimacy of this image, Bergson claims that there is something consciousness-like in the evolution of life in general. This chapter investigates the extent to which Bergson’s image for life, the élan vital, is modeled on his psychological account of effort. Effort is integral to consciousness, and Bergson thinks that there is something like it at work in evolution as well. I suggest that the élan vital can be understood as an image for a particular kind of de-subjectivized effort, which is what Bergson attempts to capture with the concept of tendency. Seeing this should allow us to better understand the way Bergson puts the concept of tendency to work in his explanation of evolutionary facts like convergence.
