Charles Batteux (6 May 171314 July 1780) was a French

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

and writer on

aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...

Biography

Batteux was born in Alland'Huy-et-Sausseuil,

Ardennes The Ardennes (french: Ardenne ; nl, Ardennen ; german: Ardennen; wa, Årdene ; lb, Ardennen ), also known as the Ardennes Forest or Forest of Ardennes, is a region of extensive forests, rough terrain, rolling hills and ridges primarily in Be ...

, and studied

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

Reims Reims ( , , ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French department of Marne, and the 12th most populous city in France. The city lies northeast of Paris on the Vesle river, a tributary of the Aisne. Founded by ...

. In 1739 he came to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, and after teaching in the colleges of

Lisieux Lisieux () is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France. It is the capital of the Pays d'Auge area, which is characterised by valleys and hedged farmland. Name The name of the town derives from the l ...

and

Navarre Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...

, was appointed to the chair of

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

and Roman philosophy in the

Collège de France The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment ('' grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris n ...

. His 1746 treatise ''Les beaux arts réduits à un même principe'' (translated into English as ''The Fine Arts Reduced to a Single Principle'', trans. James O. Young, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015) was an attempt to find a unity among existing theories of

beauty Beauty is commonly described as a feature of objects that makes these objects pleasurable to perceive. Such objects include landscapes, sunsets, humans and works of art. Beauty, together with art and taste, is the main subject of aesthetics, o ...

and

taste The gustatory system or sense of taste is the sensory system that is partially responsible for the perception of taste (flavor). Taste is the perception produced or stimulated when a substance in the mouth reacts chemically with taste receptor ...

on "a single principle", and its views were widely accepted, This cites Dacier et Dupuy, ''Éloges'', in ''Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions''. not only in France but throughout Europe. According to P. O. Kristeller, The reputation thus gained, confirmed by his translation of

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...

(1750), led to Batteux's becoming a member of the

Académie des Inscriptions An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...

(1754) and of the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

(1761). His ''Cours de belles lettres'' (1765) was afterwards included with some minor writings in the large treatise, ''Principes de la littérature'' (1774). His philosophical writings were ''La morale d'Épicure tirée de ses propres écrits'' (1758), and the ''Histoire des causes premières'' (1769). In consequence of the freedom with which in this work he attacked the abuse of authority in philosophy, he lost his professorial chair. His last and most extensive work was a ''Cours d'études à l'usage des élèves de l'école militaire'' in forty-five volumes. In ''Les Beaux Arts'', Batteux developed a theory influenced by

John Locke John Locke (; 29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "father of liberalism ...

through

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his ...

's sceptical

sensualism In epistemology, Sensualism is a doctrine whereby sensations and perception are the basic and most important form of true cognition. It may oppose abstract ideas. This ideogenetic question was long ago put forward in Greek philosophy ( Stoicism, ...

. He held that the

fine arts In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwork ...

are arts ("assemblages of rules for doing well"), for producing fine or beautiful things ("which please" of themselves), always "in imitation of ''la belle nature''" and requiring genius. Applying this principle to the art of

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

, and analysing, line by line and even word by word, the works of great poets, he deduced the law that the beauty of poetry consists in the accuracy, beauty and harmony of individual expression. His ''Histoire des causes premières'' was among the first attempts at a history of philosophy, and in his work on

Epicurus Epicurus (; grc-gre, Ἐπίκουρος ; 341–270 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher and sage who founded Epicureanism, a highly influential school of philosophy. He was born on the Greek island of Samos to Athenian parents. Influenced ...

, following on Gassendi, he defended Epicureanism against the general attacks made against it.

For his work "La Morale d'Épicure"

1758 Events January–March * January 1 – Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus (Carl von Linné) publishes in Stockholm the first volume (''Animalia'') of the 10th edition of Systema Naturae, 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'', the sta ...

see A. Toscano,“La Morale d’Épicure” di Charles Batteux ed il principio del “secondo natura”, in “Scienze e Ricerche” n. 42, 1 dicembre 2016, ISSN: 2283-5873, pp. 20–29. Strictly in Aesthetics terms Batteux sets the single principle for fine arts in imitation of nature, and this in terms of ideal of perfection to make a harmonious whole: "let's choose the most beautiful parts of nature, to make an exquisite whole, more perfect then nature, but never ending to be natural".Book I, part I: "à faire un choix des plus belles parties de la nature pour en former en tout exquis, qui fùt plus parfait que la nature elle-méme, sans cependant cesser d'étre naturel". See: TOSCANO A. (1991). Charles Batteux: Les Quatre Poëtiques. RIVISTA DI ESTETICA, vol. 39; p. 67-78, In this concept, clearly, Batteux follows a long tradition, present at least in

Leon Battista Alberti Leon Battista Alberti (; 14 February 1404 – 25 April 1472) was an Italian Renaissance humanist author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, and cryptographer; he epitomised the nature of those identified now as polymaths. H ...

; as well as for the expression of fine arts, present in Giovanni Battista Armenini and more back in

Sebastiano Serlio Sebastiano Serlio (6 September 1475 – c. 1554) was an Italian Mannerist architect, who was part of the Italian team building the Palace of Fontainebleau. Serlio helped canonize the classical orders of architecture in his influential treat ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Batteux, Charles 1713 births 1780 deaths People from Ardennes (department) Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Members of the Académie Française 18th-century French philosophers Academic staff of the Collège de France French male non-fiction writers