Charles Bernard Renouvier

Charles Bernard Renouvier (; 1 January 1815 – 1 September 1903) was a French philosopher. He considered himself a "Swedenborg of history" who sought to update the philosophy of Kantian liberalism and individualism for the socio-economic realities of the late nineteenth century, and influenced the sociological method of Émile Durkheim.

Biography Renouvier was born in Montpellier and educated in Paris at the École Polytechnique. He took an early interest in politics, but never held public office, spending his time writing, away from public scrutiny.

Philosophy Renouvier was the first French philosopher after Nicolas Malebranche to formulate a complete idealistic system, and had a vast influence on the development of French thought. His system is based on Immanuel Kant's, as his chosen term neocriticism (néo-criticisme) indicates; but it is a transformation rather than a continuation of Kantianism. Instead he posited a finite personal God that was good but limited in knowledge and power. His theology preserved human free will and absolved God from evil that humans commit. He described God as the "permanent personality in the world". (1869) Uchronie (1876) Comment je suis arrivé à cette conclusion (1885) Esquisse d'une classification systématique des doctrines philosophiques (1885–86) Philosophie analytique de l'histoire (1896–97) La Nouvelle Monadologie (1899) Histoire et solution des problèmes métaphysiques (1901) Victor Hugo: Le Poète (1893) Victor Hugo: Le Philosophe (1900) Les Dilemmes de la métaphysique pure (1901) Le Personnalisme (1903) Critique de la doctrine de Kant (1906)