Article ID: CBB687579261

Idealism, Pragmatism, and the Will to Believe: Charles Renouvier and William James (2015)

unapi

This article investigates the history of the relation between idealism and pragmatism by examining the importance of the French idealist Charles Renouvier for the development of William James's ‘Will to Believe’. By focusing on French idealism, we obtain a broader understanding of the kinds of idealism on offer in the nineteenth century. First, I show that Renouvier's unique methodological idealism led to distinctively pragmatist doctrines and that his theory of certitude and its connection to freedom is worthy of reconsideration. Second, I argue that the technical vocabulary and main structure of the argument from the ‘Will to Believe’ depend upon Renouvier's idealist theory of knowledge and psychology of belief, and that taking account of this line of influence is of crucial importance for establishing the correct interpretation of James's work.

...More
Included in

Article Robert Stern (2015) Introduction. British Journal for the History of Philosophy (pp. 601-610). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB687579261/

Similar Citations

Book Sarin Marchetti; (2021)
The Jamesian Mind (/isis/citation/CBB711422227/)

Book David E. Leary; (2018)
The Routledge Guidebook to James’s Principles of Psychology (/isis/citation/CBB671925667/)

Book Lucas McGranahan; (2017)
Darwinism and Pragmatism: William James on Evolution and Self-Transformation (/isis/citation/CBB464920868/)

Book Pierre Janet; Stéphane Gumpper; Florent Serina; (2021)
Les formes de la croyance (/isis/citation/CBB546764097/)

Article Paul Redding; (2015)
An Hegelian Solution to a Tangle of Problems Facing Brandom's Analytic Pragmatism (/isis/citation/CBB119442305/)

Book Cooper, Wesley; (2002)
The Unity of William James's Thought (/isis/citation/CBB000202104/)

Article Schmaus, Warren; (2010)
Durkheim, Jamesian Pragmatism and the Normativity of Truth (/isis/citation/CBB001035639/)

Book Fedi, Laurent; Salanskis, Jean-Michel; (2001)
Les philosophies françaises et la science: dialogue avec Kant (/isis/citation/CBB000774827/)

Article Giuseppina D'Oro; (2015)
Unlikely Bedfellows? Collingwood, Carnap and the Internal/External Distinction (/isis/citation/CBB326639460/)

Book Vogler, Candace A.; (2001)
John Stuart Mill's Deliberative Landscape: An Essay in Moral Psychology (/isis/citation/CBB000102439/)

Book James, William; Skrupskelis, Ignas K.; Berkeley, Elizabeth M.; James, Henry; (1992-2004)
The Correspondence of William James, Volumes 1--12 (/isis/citation/CBB000630357/)

Book Fleming, Bruce E.; (2004)
Science and the Self: The Scale of Knowledge (/isis/citation/CBB000550769/)

Article Oberto Marrama; (2017)
Consciousness, Ideas of Ideas and Animation in Spinoza’s Ethics (/isis/citation/CBB564753509/)

Book James, William; Ignas K. Skrupskelis, Elizabeth M. Berkeley; (2001)
The Correspondence of William James; Vol. 9: July 1899-1901 (/isis/citation/CBB000102297/)

Authors & Contributors
McGranahan, Lucas Robert
Leary, David E.
James, William
D’Oro, Giuseppina
Sarin Marchetti
Stéphane Gumpper
Concepts
Philosophy
Pragmatism; instrumentalism
Psychology
Idealism (philosophy)
Philosophy of science
Free will and determinism
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
20th century
17th century
Enlightenment
18th century
Places
United States
France
Scotland
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment