Maine de Biran

Abstract Why do we still persist today in describing Maine de Biran’s thought as “spiritualist,” even though it sets materialism and spiritualism back-to-back as speculative systems – already present in embryonic form within Cartesian doctrine – that run counter to inner experience and the true science of humankind? This article revisits the genesis of the discovery of a force that, according to its author, alone proves truly capable of grasping the feeling of effort or sense of self, something that no prior metaphysical or physiological explanation had succeeded in articulating. Such a force is not spiritual if by “spiritual” we mean a force divorced from all matter and any physiological conditions of its realization. Consequently, as Biran repeatedly insists, all discussions of spiritualism and materialism revolve around the ambiguity between the self ( moi ) and the soul ( âme ). To be a philosopher of consciousness, must one be a spiritualist?