Charles Renouvier: neo-criticism or neo-kantianism ? A case study of the French reception of Kant

Charles Renouvier: neo-criticism or neo-kantianism ? A case study of the French reception of Kant

Ernesto Giusti

In hindsight, the search for the origins of contemporary philosophy seems to be a German andEnglish speaking affair in the nineteenth century. French philosophy, caught between politicalturmoil and the almost official status of the authority of some philosophers, seems to have lostits central place of some centuries earlier in the European cultural panorama. However, itcontinued to produce debates and publications that would help to shape some centraldevelopments in early contemporary philosophy. In this talk I will present some remarksconcerning that period trough the figure of Charles Renouvier who, having always remainedoutside official academia, exerted an important role both as mediator of different philosophicalcurrents and an original, if notalways totally consequent, thinker. We will approach hishypothetical conception of science and the role of mathematics and mathematical knowledgein it. Although declaring that “I openly confess that I continue Kant”, and retaining thevocabulary and conceptual apparatus of the Critiques, Renouvier introduces pivotal modifications in Kant ́s philosophy of mathematics, like separating arithmetic and geometry asdifferent enterprises, acknowledging that, although synthetic a priori in its nature, large partsofmathematical knowledge can be derived analytically, and his postulation of a “law of numbers”,whose results determine philosophy as a whole. I will also advance the hypotheses that thosetensions result ultimately from his lifelong commitment to some central tenets of Leibniz ́sphilosophy, giving a new form to the classical opposition between Leibniz and Kant, and tryingan eclectic conciliation between them.