While we see in Positivism a system of thought which opposed itself to Eclecticism, we find in the philosophy of Renouvier a system of doctrine which is opposed to both Eclecticism and Positivism. Indeed Renouvier puts up a strong mental fight against both of these systems; the latter he regarded as an ambitious conceit. He agreed, however, with Comte and with Cournot upon the relativity of our knowledge. “I accept,” he says, “one fundamental principle of the Positivist School—namely, the reduction of knowledge to the laws of phenomena.”[24] The author of the _Essais de Critique générale_ considered himself, however, to be the apostolic successor, not of Comte, but of Kant. The title of _neo-criticisme_[25] which he gave to his philosophy shows his affinity with the author of the _Kritik der reinen Vernunft_. This is very noticeable in his method of treating the problem of knowledge by criticising the human mind and especially in his giving a preference to moral considerations.[26] It would be, however, very erroneous to regard Renouvier as a disciple of Kant, for he amends and rejects many of the doctrines of the German philosopher. We have noted the fact that he translated Hume; we must observe also that Hume’s influence is very strongly marked in Renouvier’s “phenomenalism.”[27] “Renouvier is connected with Hume,” says Pillon, in the preface he contributed to the translation,[28] “as much as with Kant. . . . He reconciles Hume and Kant. . . . Something is lacking in Hume, the notion of law; something is superfluous in Kant, the notion of substance. It was necessary to unite the phenomenalism of Hume with the a _priori_ teaching of Kant. This was the work accomplished by Renouvier.” [24] Preface to _Essais de Critique générale_. [25] The English word “_criticism_” is, it should be noted, translated in French by “_critique_” and not by the word “_criticisme_,” a term which is used for the philosophy of the _Kritik_ of Kant. [26] In recognising the primacy of the moral or practical reason in Kant, Renouvier resembles Fichte. [27] Renouvier’s phenomenalism should be compared with that of Shadworth Hodgson, as set forth in the volumes of his large work on _The Metaphysic of Experience_, 1899. Hodgson has given his estimate of Renouvier and his relationship to him in _Mind_ (volume for 1881). [28] _Psychologie de Hume : Traité de la Nature humaine_, Renouvier Préface par Pillon, p. lxviii.