Adaptation and Recognition : Bergson’s Evolutionary Theory of Behavior

テキオウ　ト　サイニン　ベルクソン　ノ　コウドウ　ノ　シンカロン

ヨネダ, ツバサ

Yoneda, Tsubasa

オオサカ ダイガク ダイガクイン ニンゲン カガク ケンキュウカ シャカイガク ニンゲンガク ジンルイガク ケンキュウシツ

Sociology, Anthropology and Philosophy, Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University

創造的進化

適応

再認

行動

Bergson

Creative Evolution

Adaptation

Recognition

Behavior

Articles

Since its publication, Henri Bergson’s Creative Evolution has received much attention. What seems to have been lacking, however, is the study of the key concept of adaptation. The principal aim of this paper is to reinterpret Bergson’s evolutionary theory by focusing on adaptation and linking it to the argument about recognition put forward in Matter and Memory. First, we outline the evolutionary theory and assess the relation between evolution and adaptation to some extent. Second, we analyze two types of adaptation: passive and active. The analysis clarifi es two ideas: (1) Pointing out the diffi culty of interpreting evolution as a process of passive adaptation, Bergson presents the idea, which is very similar to “Tinbergen’s four questions” or “multi-causality” in comparative psychology, that the present state of organisms has multiple causes; (2) Active adaptation as a true adaptation for him, which is closely tied to perception and memory in Matter and Memory, can be understood as a process by which organisms acquire or expand their own behavior pattern with the past intervening. Finally, in relation to Matter and Memory, in particular the theory of recognition, the discussion shows how to understand active adaptation as a process of specific habituation. Viewed in this light, Bergson’s creative evolution would be regarded as the evolution of behavior.