Action (1893) : essay on a critique of life and a science of practice : with a new preface

This new edition of the English translation of Maurice Blondel’s Action (1893) remains a philosophical classic. Action was once a common theme in philosophical reflection. It figured prominently in Aristotelian philosophy, and the medieval Scholastics built some of their key adages around it. But by the time French philosopher Maurice Blondel came to focus on it at the end of the nineteenth century, it had all but disappeared from the philosophical vocabulary. Today, it is no longer possible or legitimate to ignore action in philosophy as it was when Blondel defended and published his doctoral dissertation and most influential work, L’Action: Essai d’une critique de la vie et d’une science de la pratique (1893). Oliva Blanchette’s definitive English translation of Action was first published in 1984 to critical acclaim. This new edition contains Blanchette’s translation, corrections of minor errors in the first edition, and a new preface from the translator, describing what makes this early version of Action unique in all of Blondel’s writings and what has kept it in the forefront of those interested in studying Blondel and his philosophy of Christian religion. Action (1893) will appeal to philosophers, theologians, and those looking for spiritual reading, and it is an excellent study in reasoning for the more scientifically inclined. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title Page 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 Maurice Blondel’s Philosophy of Action 12 Acknowledgments 29 Note on the Translation 30 Preface to the New Edition 32 Introduction 36 Part I Is There a Problem of Action? 49 CHAPTER 1 How We Claim the Moral Problem Does Not Exist 49 CHAPTER 2 That We Fail to Suppress the Moral Problem and How 59 Part II Is the Solution to the Problem of Action Negative? 69 CHAPTER 1 How We Claim to Make Nothingness the Conclusion of Experience,the End of Science and the End of Human Ambition 69 CHAPTER 2 That There is No Negative Solution to the Problem of Action;and What the Consciousness of or the Will for Nothingness Harbors 76 THE NATURAL ORIENT A TION OF THE WILL Does the problem of action allow for a positive solution? 84 Part III The Phenomenon of Action 87 How we try to define action through science aloneand to restrict it to the natural order 87 Stage One FROM SENSE INTUITION TO SUBJECTIVE SCIENCEThe scientific conditions and the unconscious sources of action 89 CHAPTER 1 The Inconsistency of Sensation and Scientific Activity 89 CHAPTER 2 The Incoherence of the Positive Sciencesand the Mediation of Action 95 CHAPTER 3 The Elements of Consciousness and the SubjectiveScience of Action 127 Stage Two FROM THE THRESHOLD OF CONSCIOUSNESSTO THE VOLUNTARY OPERATION The conscious elements of action 142 CHAPTER 1 The Conception of Action 144 CHAPTER 2 The Reason of Action 154 CHAPTER 3 The Determination of Freedomand the Production of Action 165 Stage Three FROM THE INTENTIONAL EFFORT TO THE FIRSTEXTERIOR EXPANSION OF ACTIONThe organic growth of willed action 178 CHAPTER 1 The Body of Action and Subjective Physiology 183 CHAPTER 2 The Action of the Body and the Psychologyof the Organism 195 CHAPTER 3 The Interior Synergy and the Constitution ofIndividual Life through Action 210 Stage Four FROM INDIVIDUAL ACTION TO SOCIAL ACTION Generation, fecundation and reproduction of human actions 228 CHAPTER 1 The Immediate Expansion and th 230 CHAPTER 2 Coaction 240 CHAPTER 3 Influence and Cooperation218vu 251 Stage Five FROM SOCIAL ACTION TO SUPERSTITIOUS ACTION The profound unity of wills and the universalextension of action 267 CHAPTER 1 The Voluntary Unity and the Fruitful Actionof Common LifeFamily, Country, Humanity 274 CHAPTER 2 The Universal Extension of ActionThe tiered forms of natural morality 296 CHAPTER 3 Superstitious ActionHow man attempts to bring his action to completionand to be self-sufficient 318 Part IV The Necessary Being of Action 333 How the terms of the problem of human destinyare inevitably and voluntarily posited 333 I. THE CONFLICT 335 FIRST MOMENT The Will Contradicted and VanquishedThe apparent abortion of willed action 335 SECOND MOMENT The Will Affirmed and Maintained The indestructibility of voluntary action 342 THIRD MOMENT The One Thing Necessary The inevitable transcendence of human action 347 II. THE ALTERNATIVE330 363 FIRST OPTION The Death of Action 365 SECOND OPTION The Life of ActionThe substitutes and the preparations for perfect action 378 Part V The Completion of Action 391 The end of human destiny 391 CHAPTER 1 The Notion of Dogmas and of Revealed Preceptsand Philosophical Critique 396 CHAPTER 2 The Value of Literal Practiceand the Conditions of Religious .Action 406 CHAPTER 3 The Bond of Knowledge and Action in Being 422 Conclusion 458 In *L'Action*, Blondel developed a "philosophy of action" in which he applies the method of phenomenology. This leads him to the first order issue of "action", critiquing the Enlightenment enshrinement of thought, which he subsumes under the category of action. This leads him to discover the distinction between the willing will and the willed will. This distinction shows a real insufficiency between the two elements of the will. The problem of connaturility - that man cannot desire something which cannot be fulfilled - leads to investigating how the willing will can be fulfilled in the willed will. This insufficiency leads him to eventually hypothesize the supernatural as the only real possibility. He insists that this is as far as a philosopher can go, that the supernatural is the real end of man, and that the content of the supernatural is left to the realm of theology. (Source: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Blondel)) "Action was once a prominent theme in philosophical reflection. It figured prominently in Aristotelian philosophy, and the medieval Scholastics built some of their key adages around it. But by the time Maurice Blondel came to focus on it for his own philosophical reflection, it had all but disappeared from the philosophical vocabulary. It is no longer possible or legitimate to ignore action in philosophy as it was in France when Blondel appeared on the scene in 1882, when at the age of 21 he first began to focus on action as a dissertation subject, and in 1893, when he defended and published the dissertation now presented here for the English reader-- Back cover