Metaphysics and the Sciences in Nineteenth-Century France - Brill's Philosophical Historiographies Hardcover

About the Book

This volume explains what is at stake in the recurring debate on the division of the sciences since the seventeenth century in French philosophy: marrying, uniting or divorcing, opposing metaphysics and the sciences.

Book Synopsis

This volume is the first systematic study of the style of reasoning specific to the field of philosophy in nineteenth-century France. The chapters analyze the often dispersed responses to the fundamental question of the division of the sciences based on the reciprocal relationships of inclusion or exclusion, of adversity or sorority, between metaphysics and the positive sciences. In line with the arrhythmic progress of the different forms of knowledge, these responses renew the Condillacian criticisms of the Cartesian order of the relationships between metaphysics and physics. Between a pronounced divorce and a successful marriage, this volume traces the philosophical history of the various attempts at divorce or union, which, as the century progressed, resulted in original hybridizations that aspired to define a new and ever-problematic "French philosophy."

About the Author

Delphine Antoine-Mahut is Professor in History of Modern Philosophy at ENS de Lyon (UMR 5317-IHRIM). Her research focuses on Descartes and his reception in nineteenth-century French philosophical historiography. Her latest book is on canon formation in French philosophy (Paris, 2021).

Samuel Lézé is Associate Professor in Anthropology of Sciences at ENS de Lyon (UMR 5317-IHRIM). He has written articles on the relationship between French philosophers and doctors in the 19th century concerning the treatment of madness and the metaphysical problem of the causality of the Will.