Note 419 — Chapter IX · PRAGMATISM AND IDEALISM IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF BERGSON386

It is only fair to Bergson to remember that he is himself aware of the appearances of this dualism in his writings, that he apologises as it were for them, intending the distinction to be, not absolute, but relative. “Let us say at the outset that the distinctions we are going to make will be too sharply drawn, just because we wish to define in instinct what is instinctive, and in intelligence what is intelligent, whereas all concrete instinct is mingled with intelligence, as all real intelligence is penetrated by instinct. Moreover [this is quite an important expression of Bergson’s objection to the old “faculty” psychology], neither intelligence nor instinct lends itself to rigid definition; they are tendencies and not things. Also it must not be forgotten that ... we are considering intelligence and instinct as going out of life which deposits them along its course” (Creative Evolution, p. 143).