INTEGRAL WORLD MAILING LIST
 
http://www.integralworld.net
Newsletter Nr. 1.412
Amsterdam, September 14, 2025


Julian Huxley Versus Bergson's Élan Vital - And Why It Undercuts Wilber's Eros - Frank Visser / ChatGPT

Henri Bergson's élan vital and Ken Wilber's “Eros” share a seductive promise: that evolution is not blind but guided by an inner drive toward greater complexity and consciousness. This notion appeals to those who find Darwinian randomness philosophically or spiritually unsatisfying. But Julian Huxley, architect of the modern evolutionary synthesis, dissected and dismissed Bergson's élan vital as a pseudo-explanation—and his critique devastates Wilber's Eros just as effectively. What Wilber proposes as “Spirit-in-action” is little more than a reheated version of the vitalism Huxley spent his life repudiating.

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https://www.integralworld.net/visser588.html