From Habit to Monads: Félix Ravaisson’s Theory of Substance.

Dunham, J.

Abstract

In this article, I argue that in his 1838 De l'habitude, Félix Ravaisson uses the analysis of habit to defend a Leibnizian monadism. Recent commentators have failed to appreciate this because they read Ravaisson as a typically post-Kantian philosopher, and underemphasize the distinct context in which he developed his work. I explore three key claims made by interpreters who argue that Ravaisson should be read as a Schellingian, and show [i] that these claims are incompatible with the text of De l'habitude and [ii] how they have obscured from view the monadism at the heart of this work. This article is divided into two sections. First, I explain the importance of Victor Cousin and Maine de Biran for the development of nineteenth-century French philosophy. Second, I argue that to understand the structure of De l'habitude, it should be read as a critique of Cousin's philosophical method and a demonstration of the superiority of Biran's Leibniz-inspired introspective method. Like Biran, Ravaisson believes that the introspective method leads to a pluralist metaphysics of forces, but he uses the introspective analysis of habit to go further back to Leibniz than Biran does and develops a pluralist substance metaphysics.

Citation

Dunham, J. (2015). From Habit to Monads: Félix Ravaisson’s Theory of Substance. British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 23(6), 1085-1105. https://doi.org/10.1080/09608788.2015.1078775

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 29, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Sep 12, 2015
• Publication Date: 2015-11
• Deposit Date: Sep 27, 2017
• Journal: British Journal for the History of Philosophy
• Print ISSN: 0960-8788
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-3526
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 23
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 1085-1105
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09608788.2015.1078775
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1348430