Diversity and unity in the creative evolution according to Bergson

Bergson develops a metaphysical vision of the evolution of life in L'evolution creatrice. This vision exceeds the particular scientific theories and is supported by an epistemology. The understanding of our existence from the inside is Bergson's model to think life in general. Bergson explains how mechanistic and teleological explanations of life are rooted in the human intelligence whose aim is manufacturing tools and machines, man is the homo faber. Intelligence is not a further development of the instinct, but instinct and intelligence are divergent developments of a consciousness in general. Only intuition, instinct aware of itself, can give a full account of what life really is. This article is a reading of L'evolution creatrice focusing on differences of kind as there are matter/life, plant/animal, intelligence/instinct and intelligence/intuition. These differences of kind are the philosophical ground to refute reductionism. Dualism is avoided by seeing these differences of kind as inverse movements developing out of a common source: universal life or consciousness in general.