The Idealist Illusion and Other Essays

by Blondel, Maurice; Long, Fiachra; Troisfontaines, Claude

• ISBN13: 9780792366546
• ISBN10: 0792366549
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-11-01
• Publisher: Kluwer Academic Pub

Summary

This book presents three of Blondel's most important articles, which have not yet appeared in English. These are Idealist Illusion (1898), The Elementary Principle of a Logic of the Moral Life (1903), and The Starting Point of Philosophy (1906). These essays became significant in Blondel's transition from the early Action (1893) to his later works on Thinking (1934), Being and Beings (1935), and Action (1936-7). They offer evidence for and explain the nature of the pragmatism in Blondel's thought, which developed as he began to articulate the logic of action in response to the criticism that he was an idealist. The Introduction argues that Blondel's measured response to this charge led to the development of a metaphysics of the concrete life and allied him closely to the commonsense school of Reid. These articles should interest students of philosophy and theology who want to explore the theme of concrete experience.

Table of Contents

Preface (Claude Troisfontaines)	ix
Acknowledgements	xi
List of Abbreviations	xiii
Examples of Blondel's Script	xiv
INTRODUCTION	1	(148)
Determining the Parameters	1	(2)
Ideas as Dynamic Motions	3	(6)
Blondel's Science of Practice	9	(2)
Ideas as Instruments	11	(6)
Blondel's Action (1893)	17	(14)
The Fallout from Action (1893)	31	(10)
The Three Articles	41	(24)
The Idealist Illusion	41	(4)
The Elementary Principle	45	(12)
Aristotle	48	(2)
Kant	50	(2)
Bergson	52	(5)
The Starting Point	57	(8)
Jouffroy	58	(7)
This Translation	65	(10)
MAURICE BLONDEL:
The Idealist Illusion	75	(14)
Critical Notes	89	(6)
The Elementary Principle of a Logic of the Moral Life	95	(15)
Critical Notes	110	(4)
The Starting Point of Philosophical Research January 1906	114	(15)
June 1906	129	(16)
Critical Notes	145	(4)
Index	149	(2)
Appendix	151