Édouard Louis Emmanuel Julien Le Roy (; 18 June 1870 in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 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), ma ...

– 10 November 1954 in Paris) was a French philosopher and

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

Life

Le Roy entered the ''

École Normale Supérieure École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, S ...

'' in 1892, and received the '' agrégation'' in mathematics in 1895. He became Doctor in Sciences in 1898, taught in several high schools, and became in 1909 professor of mathematics at the ''

Lycée Saint-Louis The lycée Saint-Louis is a highly selective post-secondary school located in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, in the Latin Quarter. It is the only public French lycée exclusively dedicated to providing '' classes préparatoires aux grandes ...

'' in Paris. From then on, Le Roy took an important interest in philosophy and

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

. A friend of

Teilhard de Chardin Pierre Teilhard de Chardin ( (); 1 May 1881 – 10 April 1955) was a French Jesuit priest, scientist, paleontologist, theologian, philosopher and teacher. He was Darwinian in outlook and the author of several influential theological and philo ...

and Henri Bergson's closer disciple, he succeeded Bergson at the College of France (1922) and, in 1945, at the '' Académie française''. In 1919, Le Roy was also elected member of the ''

Académie des Sciences morales et politiques 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 philosop ...

''. Le Roy was especially interested in the relations between science and morality. Along with Henri Poincaré and

Pierre Duhem Pierre Maurice Marie Duhem (; 9 June 1861 – 14 September 1916) was a French theoretical physicist who worked on thermodynamics, hydrodynamics, and the theory of elasticity. Duhem was also a historian of science, noted for his work on the Eu ...

, he supported a conventionalist thesis on the

foundation of mathematics Foundations of mathematics is the study of the philosophical and logical and/or algorithmic basis of mathematics, or, in a broader sense, the mathematical investigation of what underlies the philosophical theories concerning the nature of mathe ...

. Although a fervent

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, he extended this conventionalist theory to revealed truths, which did not, according to him, withdraw any of their strength. He rejected in the domain of religious

dogma Dogma is a belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Roman Catholicism, Judaism, Isla ...

s, abstract reasonings and speculative

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 ...

in favour of instinctive faith, heart and sentiment. He was one of those close to Bergson who encouraged him to turn to the study of

mysticism Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in ...

, explored in his later works. His conventionalism led his works, charged of

modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

, to be placed on the Index by the

Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of R ...

Works

*''Théorie du potentiel newtonien : leçons professées à la Sorbonne pendant le premier semestre (1894-1895)'' (1896) *''Sur l'intégration des équations de chaleur'' (1898) *''Sur les séries divergentes et les fonctions définies par un développement de Taylor (1899)'' *''Science et Philosophie'' (1899) *''Dogme et Critique'' (1907) *''A New Philosophy: Henri Bergson'' (''Une philosophie nouvelle : Henri Bergson'', 1912) *''What Is a Dogma?'' (1918) * ''Qu'est-ce-que la Science ?: réponse à André Metz'' (1926) *''L'Exigence idéaliste et le fait de l'évolution'' (1927) *''Les Origines humaines et l'évolution de l'intelligence'' (1928) *''La Pensée Intuitive. Le problème de Dieu'' (1929) * ''Introduction à l'étude du problème religieux'' (1944) *''Discours de réception'' (1946) *''Essai d'une philosophie première'' (1956) *''Bergson et Bergsonisme'' (1947) * ''Essai d'une philosophie première : l'exigence idéaliste et l'exigence morale'', 2 vol., posthumous (1956-1958)

References

External links

* *
''A New Philosophy: Henri Bergson''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Le Roy, Edouard 1870 births 1954 deaths Writers from Paris École Normale Supérieure alumni Academic staff of the Collège de France French mathematicians 20th-century French philosophers Henri Bergson Members of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques Members of the Académie Française Catholic philosophers

Life

Works

See also

References

External links