Tano S. Posteraro contributes to the increasingly serious study of Bergson's philosophy with a tight focus on Bergson's theory of evolution. He presents an alternative Bergson: not a phenomenologist whose central datum is the conscious experience of lived time or the lived body in time, but a systematic philosopher of biology with a robust, prescient and largely workable evolutionary programme.
Introduction: Between Philosophy and Biology1. Vitalism, Psychology, and Metaphysics2. Outline and Overview 1. The Actual: Mechanism, Finalism, ModalityIntroduction1.1. Mechanisma. Adaptationismb. Developmental Constraint1.2. Finalisma. Inner Purposivenessb. The Metaphysics of Possibilityi. The Falsity of the Problemii. The Retrospective Illusion1.3. Geneticsa. Developmentb. EvolutionConclusion 2. The Virtual: Instantiation, Implication, DynamicsIntroduction2.1. Instantiationa. Imagesb. Possibilitiesc. Affordances2.2. Implicationa. Contractionb. Themesc. Memory2.3. Dynamicsa. Inventionb. Affordancesc. PerformancesConclusion 3. A Discourse on TendencyIntroduction3.1. Intellectual Effort and Élan Vital3.2. The Development of an Idea3.3. The Theory of Tendency3.4. The Modal-Mereological Difference3.5. Virtuality and the Dispositional ModalityConclusion 4. Individuality and OrganizationIntroduction4.1. Spatializationa. Isolationb. Externalizationc. Localization4.2. Temporalizationa. Individuationb. Interpenetrationc. DurationConclusion 5. Finalism InvertedIntroduction5.1. Rhythm and Reproduction5.2. Weismann Redux5.3. Orthogenesis5.4. Vitalism in Disputea. Entelechyb. Individuality5.5. True Finalisma. Externalityb. Commonalityc. PsychologyConclusion 6. Canalization and ConvergenceIntroduction6.1. Canalizationa. Images for Developmentb. Vision and its Apparatusc. The Inside of Indetermination6.2. Convergencea. Definitionsb. Unity and Complementarityc. Recollection and Returnd. Conservation and ConstraintConclusion Concluding Remarks and Future Directions Bibliography
Tano Posteraro is SSHRC Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Philosophy at Concordia University. He is co-editor, with Michael Bennett, of Deleuze and Evolutionary Theory (Edinburgh University Press, 2019) and author of a number of articles and chapters on biological themes in Bergson, Whitehead, Ruyer and Deleuze.
