Renouvier Charles (1815–1903), French philosopher influenced by Kant and Comte, the latter being one of his teachers. Renouvier rejected many of the views of both these philosophers, however, charting his own course. He emphasized the irreducible plurality and individuality of all things against the contemporary tendencies toward absolute idealism. Human individuality he associated with indeterminism and freedom. To the extent that agents are undetermined by other things and self-determining, they are unique individuals. Indeterminism also extends to the physical world and to knowledge. He rejected absolute certitude, but defended the universality of the laws of logic and mathematics. In politics and religion, he emphasized individual freedom and freedom of conscience. His emphasis on plurality, indeterminism, freedom, novelty, and process influenced James and, through James, American pragmatism. See also FREE WILL PROBLE. R.H.K.