Result of the inquiry--The _vital impetus_ 87 CHAPTER II THE DIVERGENT DIRECTIONS OF THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE--TORPOR, INTELLIGENCE, INSTINCT General idea of the evolutionary process--Growth--Divergent and complementary tendencies--The meaning of progress and of adaptation 98 The relation of the animal to the plant--General tendency of animal life--The development of animal life 105 The main directions of the evolution of life: torpor, intelligence, instinct 135 The nature of the intellect 151 The nature of instinct 165 Life and consciousness--The apparent place of man in nature 176 CHAPTER III ON THE MEANING OF LIFE--THE ORDER OF NATURE AND THE FORM OF INTELLIGENCE 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 186 Simultaneous genesis of matter and intelligence--Geometry inherent in matter--Geometrical tendency of the intellect--Geometry and deduction--Geometry and induction--Physical laws 199 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 220 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 236 CHAPTER IV THE CINEMATOGRAPHICAL MECHANISM OF THOUGHT AND THE MECHANISTIC ILLUSION--A GLANCE AT THE HISTORY OF SYSTEMS--REAL BECOMING AND FALSE EVOLUTIONISM 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 272 Form and Becoming 298 The philosophy of Forms and its conception of Becoming--Plato and Aristotle--The natural trend of the intellect 304 Becoming in modern science: two views of Time 329 The metaphysical interpretation of modern science: Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz 345 The Criticism of Kant 356 The evolutionism of Spencer 363