Overview

Being Inclined is the first book-length study in English of the work of Félix Ravaisson, France's most influential philosopher in the second half of the nineteenth century. Mark Sinclair shows how Ravaisson, in his great work Of Habit (1838), understands habit as tendency and inclination in a way that provides the basis for a philosophy of nature and a general metaphysics. In examining Ravaisson's ideas against the background of the history of philosophy, and in the light of later developments in French thought, Sinclair shows how Ravaisson gives an original account of the nature of habit as inclination, within a metaphysical framework quite different to those of his predecessors in the philosophical tradition. Being Inclined sheds new light on the history of modern French philosophy and argues for the importance of the neglected nineteenth-century French spiritualist tradition. It also shows that Ravaisson's philosophy of inclination, of being-inclined, is of great import for contemporary philosophy, and particularly for the contemporary metaphysics of powers given that ideas about tendency have recently come to prominence in discussions concerning dispositions, laws, and the nature of causation. Being Inclined therefore offers a detailed and faithful contextualist study of Ravaisson's masterpiece, demonstrating its continued importance for contemporary thought.

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9780198844587

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Reviews

erudite, clearly written, and well-argued. It is rich in the history of philosophy and in philosophical ideas. * Leonard Lawlor, Journal of the History of Philosophy * Mark Sinclair continues the rediscovery of F´elix Ravaisson that has been apparent for quite a few years in Anglophone philosophy. Focused on the principal text of the French philosopher, Of Habit (1838), Sinclair displays a healthy propensity to read the authors of the past as interlocutors for contemporary debates without decontextualizing their thought. He also shows how it can be productive to ignore the barriers that have been erected over the years between analytic philosophy and other traditions in European philosophy. * Tullio Viola, Revue philosophique * Sinclair's monograph on Ravaisson is original in that it combines conceptual precision, historical contextualization and perspective through confrontation with contemporary philosophy. He shows Ravaisson's immense influence on twentieth century philosophy, but also his originality and topicality. . . . Sinclair's work thus seems to me not only relevant, but also necessary: it restores Ravaisson's philosophy to its rightful place, while at the same time incisively questioning contemporary theories. * Mathilde Tahar, Notre Dame Philosophical Revivews * Being Inclined is erudite, clearly written, and well-argued. It is rich in the history of philosophy and in philosophical ideas. * Leonard Lawlor, Journal of the History of Philosophy *

Mark Sinclair continues the rediscovery of Felix Ravaisson that has been apparent for quite a few years in Anglophone philosophy. Focused on the principal text of the French philosopher, Of Habit (1838), Sinclair displays a healthy propensity to read the authors of the past as interlocutors for contemporary debates without decontextualizing their thought. He also shows how it can be productive to ignore the barriers that have been erected over the years between analytic philosophy and other traditions in European philosophy. * Tullio Viola, Revue philosophique * Sinclair's monograph on Ravaisson is original in that it combines conceptual precision, historical contextualization and perspective through confrontation with contemporary philosophy. He shows Ravaisson's immense influence on twentieth century philosophy, but also his originality and topicality. . . . Sinclair's work thus seems to me not only relevant, but also necessary: it restores Ravaisson's philosophy to its rightful place, while at the same time incisively questioning contemporary theories. * Mathilde Tahar, Notre Dame Philosophical Revivews * Being Inclined is erudite, clearly written, and well-argued. It is rich in the history of philosophy and in philosophical ideas. * Leonard Lawlor, Journal of the History of Philosophy *

erudite, clearly written, and well-argued. It is rich in the history of philosophy and in philosophical ideas. * Leonard Lawlor, Journal of the History of Philosophy * Mark Sinclair continues the rediscovery of Felix Ravaisson that has been apparent for quite a few years in Anglophone philosophy. Focused on the principal text of the French philosopher, Of Habit (1838), Sinclair displays a healthy propensity to read the authors of the past as interlocutors for contemporary debates without decontextualizing their thought. He also shows how it can be productive to ignore the barriers that have been erected over the years between analytic philosophy and other traditions in European philosophy. * Tullio Viola, Revue philosophique * Sinclair's monograph on Ravaisson is original in that it combines conceptual precision, historical contextualization and perspective through confrontation with contemporary philosophy. He shows Ravaisson's immense influence on twentieth century philosophy, but also his originality and topicality. . . . Sinclair's work thus seems to me not only relevant, but also necessary: it restores Ravaisson's philosophy to its rightful place, while at the same time incisively questioning contemporary theories. * Mathilde Tahar, Notre Dame Philosophical Revivews * Being Inclined is erudite, clearly written, and well-argued. It is rich in the history of philosophy and in philosophical ideas. * Leonard Lawlor, Journal of the History of Philosophy *

Being Inclined is erudite, clearly written, and well-argued. It is rich in the history of philosophy and in philosophical ideas. * Leonard Lawlor, Journal of the History of Philosophy *

Author Information

Mark Sinclair is Reader in Philosophy at the University of Roehampton and an Associate Editor at the British Journal for the History of Philosophy. He is the editor of Félix Ravaisson: Selected Essays (Bloomsbury 2017), the author of Bergson (Routledge 2019), and the co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Modern French Philosophy (forthcoming). He holds degrees in Philosophy from the University of Warwick, Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV), and the Manchester Metropolitan University.

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