Jules de Gaultier (1858 in

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 ...

– 1942 in

Boulogne-sur-Seine Boulogne-Billancourt (; often colloquially called simply Boulogne, until 1924 Boulogne-sur-Seine, ) is a wealthy and prestigious commune in the Parisian area, located from its centre. It is a subprefecture of the Hauts-de-Seine department and th ...

), born Jules Achille de Gaultier de Laguionie, 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 essayist. He was a contributor to ''Mercure de France'' and one of the chief advocates of " nietzscheism" in vogue in the literary circles of the day. He was known especially for his theory of "

bovarysme Bovarysme is a term derived from Gustave Flaubert's ''Madame Bovary'' (1857), coined by Jules de Gaultier in his 1892 essay on Flaubert's novel, "Le Bovarysme, la psychologie dans l’œuvre de Flaubert". It denotes a tendency towards escapist da ...

" (the name taken from Flaubert's novel), by which he meant the continual need of humans to invent themselves, to lie to themselves. His books include ''De Kant à Nietzsche'' (1900) and ''Le Bovarysme, essai sur le pouvoir d'imaginer'' (1902).Le Petit Robert 2, S.E.P.R.E.T. (Paris), 1975.

References

1858 births 1942 deaths French philosophers French male non-fiction writers {{france-philosopher-stub