Charles Renouvier, Modern French Philosophy, and the Great Learned Men of Germany

Dunham, Jeremy

Abstract

This study focuses on Charles Renouvier’s Manuel de philosophie moderne, in which he first sketches a philosophical system in dialogue with the “great men of learned Germany” presented as “Descartes’s disciples”. I argue that, although Renouvier aims to present France as the “mother of all philosophies”, these great German men do have a significant and unique influence on the development of his early thought. Ultimately, in fact, although Renouvier wishes to claim that he later turns his back on his early Hegelianism because of his rejection of “philosophies of the infinite”, this rejection in fact only reinforces the Fichtean and Hegelian influences on his philosophy.

Citation

Dunham, J. (2023). Charles Renouvier, Modern French Philosophy, and the Great Learned Men of Germany. In K. Chepurin, A. Efal-Lautenschläger, D. Whistler, & A. Yuva (Eds.), Hegel and Schelling in Early Nineteenth-Century France (199-215). Springer Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-39326-6_10

• Acceptance Date: Jan 1, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Jan 1, 2024
• Publication Date: Nov 30, 2023
• Deposit Date: Jan 10, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 1, 2025
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Pages: 199-215
• Series Title: International Archives of the History of Ideas Archives internationales d'histoire des idées
• Series ISSN: 0066-6610
• Book Title: Hegel and Schelling in Early Nineteenth-Century France
• ISBN: 9783031393259
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-39326-6_10
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1623134