Étienne Vacherot (29 July 180928 July 1897) was a French philosophical writer.

Life

Vacherot was born of peasant parentage at

Torcenay Torcenay () is a commune in the Haute-Marne department in north-eastern France. See also *Communes of the Haute-Marne department The following is a list of the 426 communes in the French department of Haute-Marne. The communes cooperate in ...

, near

Langres Langres () is a commune in northeastern France. It is a subprefecture of the department of Haute-Marne, in the region of Grand Est. History As the capital of the Romanized Gallic tribe known as the Lingones, it was called Andematunnum, then ...

in the

Haute-Marne Haute-Marne (; English: Upper Marne) is a department in the Grand Est region of Northeastern France. Named after the river Marne, its prefecture is Chaumont. In 2019, it had a population of 172,512.département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. Ninety ...

'' of France. He was educated at the École Normale, and returned there as director of studies in 1838, after some years spent in provincial schoolmasterships. In 1839 he succeeded his master

Victor Cousin Victor Cousin (; 28 November 179214 January 1867) was a French philosopher. He was the founder of "eclecticism", a briefly influential school of French philosophy that combined elements of German idealism and Scottish Common Sense Realism. As ...

as professor of philosophy at the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

. His ''Histoire critique de l'école d'Alexandrie'' (3 vols. 1846–51), was his first and best-known work. It drew on him attacks from the Clerical party which led to his suspension in 1851. Shortly afterwards he refused to swear allegiance to the new imperial government, and was dismissed from his post. His work ''La Démocratie'' (1859) led to a political prosecution and imprisonment. This work in turn cites

Léon Ollé-Laprune Léon Ollé-Laprune (25 June 1839 – 19 February 1898) was a French Catholic philosopher. Life Under the influence of the philosopher Elme Marie Caro and of Père Gratry's book ''Les Sources'', Ollé-Laprune, after exceptionally brilliant ...

, ''Étienne Vacherot'' (Paris, 1898). On 7 March 1868 he was elected to 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 ...

. Upon the fall of the Empire, he took an active part in politics, was maire of a district of Paris during the siege, and in 1871 was in the National Assembly, voting as a Moderate Liberal. In 1873 he drew nearer the Conservatives, after which he was never again successful as a parliamentary candidate, though he maintained his principles vigorously in the press. While a noted freethinker in the 1850s and 1860s, later in life Vacherot had remorse over the growth of atheistic

anticlericalism Anti-clericalism is opposition to religious authority, typically in social or political matters. Historical anti-clericalism has mainly been opposed to the influence of Roman Catholicism. Anti-clericalism is related to secularism, which seeks to ...

and returned to both

Catholicism 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 ...

and monarchism, receiving Catholic burial upon his death. The Vacherot brothers,

André André — sometimes transliterated as Andre — is the French and Portuguese form of the name Andrew, and is now also used in the English-speaking world. It used in France, Quebec, Canada and other French-speaking countries. It is a variation ...

and Marcel, both French tennis champions, were grandsons of Étienne Vacherot.Family tree of Étienne Vacherot
Marcel is noticed as his grandson (André is missing), published at the Geneanet Website.

Philosophy

Vacherot was a man of high character and adhered strictly to his principles, which were generally opposed to those of the party in power. His chief philosophical importance consists in the fact that he was a leader in the attempt to revivify French philosophy by the new thought of Germany, to which he had been introduced by

, but of which he never had more than a second-hand knowledge.

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 ...

he held to be based on

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...

. He maintains the unity and freedom of the

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest atte ...

, and the absolute obligation of the moral law. In religion, which was his main interest, he was much influenced by Hegel, and appears somewhat in the ambiguous position of a sceptic anxious to believe. He sees insoluble contradictions in every mode of conceiving God as real, yet he advocates religious belief, though the object of that belief have but an abstract or imaginary existence.

Works

Besides the two works mentioned above, he wrote: *''La Métaphysique et la science'' (1858) *''Essais de philosophie critique'' (1864) *''La Religion'' (1869) *''La Science et la conscience'' (1870) *''Le Nouveau Spiritualisme'' (1884) *''La Démocratie libérale'' (1892)

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vacherot, Etienne French philosophers Academic staff of the University of Paris Members of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques 1809 births 1897 deaths French male non-fiction writers