The French Reception and Transformation of Pragmatism

The early 20th century bore witness to a vibrant transatlantic exchange of ideas. In France, the epicenter of this exchange became the controversy surrounding Anglo-American pragmatism. When in 1913, Émile Durkheim opened his lecture series Pragmatism and Sociology at the Sorbonne, he was investigating a then still somewhat recent philosophical tendency that sought to evaluate concepts with regard to their practical effects. His diagnosis was of “an attack on reason which is truly militant and determined.” According to Durkheim, pragmatism would not only challenge traditional rationalism, but also French culture and philosophy as such. “If pragmatism were valid,” he concluded, “we should have to embark upon a complete reversal of this whole tradition.” Durkheim’s choice of words reflects the irritation that pragmatism provoked in certain spheres of European thinking.

However, whilst some perceived it as a threat, others saw pragmatism as a chance for renewal, a means of developing an “image of thought” that would better correspond to the reality of subjectivities as constituted in the world. More than fifty years later, in his essay “On the Superiority of Anglo-American Literature,” Gilles Deleuze remarked that, apart from Sartre, Jean Wahl had been the most important French philosopher in his intellectual formation. Wahl had introduced his generation to Anglo-American thought, making it possible to think entirely new ideas in French. Deleuze thus characterized a different aspect of the French reception of pragmatism and Anglo-American thought which had similarly had an impact at the beginning of the century. Wahl, as well as Édouard Le Roy and, before them, Henri Bergson, all recognized pragmatism’s potential to revive a philosophical creativity that had been stifled by sterile academic discourse.

This dissertation project analyzes the importance of classical American Pragmatism and the closely intertwined concept of “radical empiricism” in the development of 20th century French philosophy. It aims to examine more closely the pragmatist constellations and paths of reception which have so far been easily overlooked. Moreover, in light of the current renaissance of pragmatism in France, this project’s exploration of the transatlantic ‘social life’ of ideas challenges the prevailing narrative of national philosophical unity and ultimately reduces it to absurdity.