Excerpt: … thine own self be true! CHAPTER VIII EVOLUTION Work of Darwin and Spencer-Bergson’s L'Evolution creatrice-Life- L'elan vital-Evolution not progress in a straight line-Adaptation an insufficient explanation-Falsity of mechanistic view-Finalist conception of reality as fulfilling a plan false-Success along certain lines only-Torpor, Instinct, and Intelligence-Genesis of matter- Humanity the crown of evolution-Contingency and Freedom-The Future is being created. Since the publication of Darwin’s famous work on The Origin of Species in 1859, the conception of Evolution has become familiar and has won general acceptance in all thinking minds. Evolution is now a household word, but the actual study of evolutionary process has been the work of comparatively few. Science nowadays has become such a highly specialized affair, that few men cover a large enough field of study to enable them to deal effectively with this tremendous subject. What is more, those who shouted so loudly about Evolution as explaining all things have come to see that, in a sense, Evolution explains nothing by itself. Mere description of facts undoubtedly does serve a very useful purpose and may help to demolish some of the stanchly conservative theories still held in some quarters by those who prefer to take Hebrew conceptions as a basis of their cosmology however irreconcilable with fact these may prove to be. Mere description, however, is not ultimate, some philosophy of Evolution must be forthcoming. Nowadays, remarks Hoffding, every philosopher has to take up a position with respect to the concept of Evolution. It has now achieved its place among the categories or essential forms of thought by the fact of its providing indications whence new problems proceed. We must ask regarding every event, and every phenomenon, by what stages it has passed into its actual state. It is a special form of the general concept of cause. A philosophy is essentially…