The Relationship between the Physical and the Moral in Man

Description

Maine de Biran's work has had an enormous influence on the development of French Philosophy - Henri Bergson called him the greatest French metaphysician since Descartes and Malebranche, Jules Lachelier referred to him as the French Kant, and Royer-Collard called him simply 'the master of us all' - and yet the philosopher and his work remain unknown to many English speaking readers. From Ravaisson and Bergson, through to the phenomenology of major figures such as Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Michel Henry, and Paul Ricoeur, Biran's influence is evident and acknowledged as a major contribution. The notion of corps propre, so important to phenomenology in the twentieth century, originates in his thought. His work also had a huge impact on the distinction between the virtual and the actual as well as the concepts of effort and puissance, enormously important to the development of Deleuze's and Foucault's work. This volume, the first English translation of Maine de Biran in nearly a century, introduces Anglophone readers to the work of this seminal thinker. The Relationship Between the Physical and the Moral in Man is an expression of Biran's mature 'spiritualism' and philosophy of the will as well as perhaps the clearest articulation of his understanding of what would later come to be called the mind-body problem. In this text Biran sets out forcefully his case for the autonomy of mental or spiritual life against the reductive explanatory power of the physicalist natural sciences. The translation is accompanied by critical essays from experts in France and the United Kingdom, situating Biran's work and its reception in its proper historical and intellectual context.

Francois-Pierre-Gonthier Maine de Biran(1766 - 1824) was a prominent 19th century French Philosopher and Politician. Darian Meacham is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at UWE, Bristol, UK. Joseph Spadola has a PhD in Philosophy from the Universite Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne, France and is currently a lawyer in New York.

This edition and translation of Maine de Biran's text on the relationship between the physical and the moral is to be greatly welcomed. Praised as a metaphysician by Bergson, and this volume gives a good indication of the accuracy of Bergson's insight. Biran's text offers a novel account of the relationship between the will, knowledge, and morality, and opens up possibilities of thinking that diverge from Kant and the Kantian orthodoxy in philosophy. The translation is first-rate and the volume contains invaluable editorial material. This is a must read for anyone interested in the origins of modern French philosophy and in key developments in French thought from phenomenology to post-structuralism. * Keith Ansell-Pearson, Professor of Philosophy, University of Warwick, UK * Among English-speaking philosophers, interest has been growing in nineteenth-century French philosophy in general, and the work of Pierre Maine de Biran in particular. This is a a timely translation of one of Biran's most important works, and it contains helpful editorial material and introductory essays by leading specialists that contextualize his thought. The translator and editor, together with the contributors, have done a wonderful job in making Biran's work more accessible to an English-speaking public. * Mark Sinclair, Senior Lecturer, Department of History, Politics and Philosophy, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK * The Relationship Between the Physical and the Moral in Man is an event in English-speaking philosophy. Readers will have for the first time access to an important work of a founding figure of spiritualist thought. The translation is careful and reads with great ease. The translators provide the original French in places where the text does not translate literally into English or in places where there may be more than one way to translate or read the text in question. The scholarly articles contextualise and show the importance of Biran's thought for philosophy today. Meacham and Spadola give to English readers an important translation of and guide to one of early modernity's more original and fascinating philosophical works. * Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *