Abstract
The fourth session heard Jean-Marie Chevalier (Collège de France) talk about the reception of pragmatism in France. According to him, the story of this reception is a love story. The heart of French philosophers was up for grabs, crystallized by the "action" philosophy of Maine de Biran, Ravaisson and Blondel. This explains James's perfect love affair with France, particularly through Bergson and Boutroux. But love at first sight is not without a kind of pragmatist syncretism, where everyone recognizes his ideas, combined with a form of anti-intellectualism. Peirce's speed-dating with the French is, on the contrary, a disappointed love: Francophilia has not been paid back. Peirce's relationship with Renouvier is revealing in this respect. Not to mention the honeymoon he literally spent in Boulogne with the logician McColl, Peirce's "amourettes" with André Lalande and Louis Couturat did, after all, initiate the dissemination of his ideas in France. The reasons for the choice between James and Peirce, a sort of Jules and Jim couple, in favor of the former, are explained by the analysis of two "labyrinths", continuity (psychological vs. logical-mathematical approach) and necessity (indeterminism quarrel).
