Sheffield, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
  • Charles Renouvier, Modern French Philosophy, and the Great Learned Men of Germany
    In Kirill Chepurin, Adi Efal-Lautenschläger, Daniel Whistler & Ayşe Yuva (eds.), Hegel and Schelling in Early Nineteenth-Century France: Volume 2 - Studies, Springer. pp. 199-215. 2023.
    This study focuses on Charles Renouvier’s Manuel de philosophie moderne, in which he first sketches a philosophical systemSystem in dialogue with the “great men of learned Germany” presented as “DescartesDescartes, René’s disciples”. I argue that, although RenouvierRenouvier, Charles 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 RenouvierRenouvier…Read more
  •  6
    Charles Bonnet: Analytical Essay on the Faculties of the Soul (review)
    Hopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 13 (2): 554-557. 2023.
  •  13
    Idealism is philosophy on a grand scale, combining micro and macroscopic problems into systematic accounts of everything from the nature of the universe to the particulars of human feeling. In consequence, it offers perspectives on everything from the natural to the social sciences, from ecology to critical theory. Heavily criticised by the dominant philosophies of the 20th Century, Idealism is now being reconsidered as a rich and untapped resource for contemporary philosophical arguments and co…Read more
  •  20
    Flights in the resting places: James and Bergson on mental synthesis and the experience of time
    British Journal for the History of Philosophy 31 (2): 183-204. 2022.
    The similarities between William James’ Stream of Consciousness and Henri Bergson’s La durée réelle have often been noted. Both emphasize the fundamentally temporal nature of our conscious experience and its constant flow. However, in this article, I argue that despite surface similarities between the OP theories, they are fundamentally different. The ultimate reason for the differences between the theories is that James believed that we should reject psychological explanations that depend on sy…Read more
  •  31
    Habit and the History of Philosophy (edited book)
    Rewriting the History of Philosophy. 2022.
    This outstanding collection offers a thorough and diverse philosophical exploration of habit from the classical period to the modern day. Essential reading for students and researchers in the history of philosophy, ethics, phenomenology, philosophy of action and pragmatism.
  •  20
    Bergson, by Mark Sinclair
    Mind 131 (522): 631-639. 2022.
  •  37
    Bergson
    Mind. forthcoming.
  •  28
    is it possible to have a first-person experience of our own agency? In nineteenth-century France, this question was subject to intense philosophical debate. The two figures primarily associated with each side of the debate were Maine de Biran and Charles Renouvier. Biran developed powerful objections to Hume's arguments that purported to prove the impossibility of the experience of one's inner causal force. These objections were the match that lit this philosophical fire, and formed the foundati…Read more
  •  16
    Overcoming the divide between freedom and nature: Clarisse Coignet on the metaphysics of independent morality
    British Journal for the History of Philosophy 28 (5): 987-1008. 2020.
    ABSTRACTClarisse Coignet played an important role in a number of the most important intellectual movements in nineteenth-century France. She grew up around and documented the leaders of...
  •  34
    Hegel on Second Nature in Ethical Life
    Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology 50 (3): 283-284. 2019.
    Volume 50, Issue 3, July 2019, Page 283-284.
  •  14
    Habits of Mind A Brand New Condillac
    Journal of Modern Philosophy 1 (1): 1. 2019.
    Is there anything in the mind that was not first in the senses? According to the received view, the French empiricist Étienne Bonnot de Condillac’s answer to this was a firm “No”. Unlike Locke, who accepted the existence of innate faculties, Condillac rejected the existence of all innate structure and instinctive behaviours. Everything, therefore, is learned. In this article, I argue that from at least the writing of his 1754 Traité des sensations, this reading fails to capture the true nature o…Read more
  •  1
    Monadologies (edited book)
    Routledge. 2018.
  •  48
    © 2013 The Editors of The Philosophical QuarterlyWhy did matter matter for Descartes and Leibniz? The answer, Kurt Smith argues in this thought‐provoking book, is that without it mathematics would be unintelligible. A world without matter is insufficient for mathematics because the immaterial cannot be divided into discrete quantities. Without a divisible material structure, the determinate unities necessary for the additive quantities in turn necessary for mathematics are unactualisable. God ne…Read more
  •  165
    Offsetting Race Privilege
    Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 11 (2): 1-23. 2017.
    For all the talk there has been lately about privilege, few have commented on the moral obligations that are associated with having privilege. Those who have commented haven't gone much beyond the idea that the privileged should be conscious of their privilege, should listen to those who don't have it. Here we want to go further, and build an account of the moral obligations of those with a particular kind of privilege: race privilege. In this paper we articulate an understanding of race privile…Read more
  •  48
    From Habit to Monads: Félix Ravaisson's Theory of Substance
    British Journal for the History of Philosophy 23 (6): 1085-1105. 2015.
    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 …Read more
  •  26
    On Habit
    British Journal for the History of Philosophy 23 (2): 380-383. 2015.
  •  90
    Was James Ward a Cambridge Pragmatist?
    British Journal for the History of Philosophy 22 (3): 557-581. 2014.
    Although the Cambridge Professor of Mental Philosophy and Logic James Ward was once one of Britain's most highly regarded Psychologists and Philosophers, today his work is unjustly neglected. This is because his philosophy is frequently misrepresented as a reactionary anti-naturalistic idealist theism. In this article, I argue, first, that this reading is false, and that by viewing Ward through the lens of pragmatism we obtain a fresh interpretation of his work that highlights the scientific nat…Read more
  •  23
    Monadologies: an historical overview
    British Journal for the History of Philosophy 23 (6): 1023-1032. 2015.
    This introductory overview comprises a brief account of Leibniz's own monadology; a discussion of the reception of his philosophy up to Kant; and a short overview of the monadologies developed after Kant's first Critique, made via a summary of key points raised in this guest issue, highlighting recurrent themes, which include questions of historiography
  •  99
    Idealism, Pragmatism, and the Will to Believe: Charles Renouvier and William James
    British Journal for the History of Philosophy 23 (4): 1-23. 2015.
    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 f…Read more