Contents
“Mais il n’y a pas que cette France, que cette France glorieuse, que cette France révolutionnaire, cette France émancipatrice et initiatrice du genre humain, que cette France d’une activité merveilleuse et comme on l’a dit, cette France nourrie des idées générales du monde, il y a une autre France que je n’aime pas moins, une autre France qui m’est encore plus chère, c’est la France misérable, c’est la France vaincue et humiliée, c’est la France qui est accablée, c’est la France qui traîne son boulet depuis quatorze siècles, la France qui crie, suppliante vers la justice et vers la liberté, la France que les despotes poussent constamment sur les champs de bataille, sous prétexte de liberté, pour lui faire verser son sang par toutes les artères et par toutes les veines, oh! cette France-là, je l’aime.”—GAMBETTA, Discours, 29 September, 1872.
“Les jeunes gens de tous les pays du monde qui sont venus dans les campagnes de France combattre pour la civilisation et le droit seront sans doute plus disposés à y revenir, apres la guerre chercher la nourriture intellectuelle. Il importe qu’ils soient assurés de l’y trouver, saine, abondante et forte.”—M. D. PARODI, Inspecteur de l’Académie de Paris, 1919.
FOREWORD
Je serais heureux que le public anglais sût le bien que je pense du livre de M. Gunn, sur la philosophie francaise depuis 1851. Le sujet choisi est neuf, car il n’existe pas, à ma connaissance, d’ouvrage relatif à toute cette période de la philosophie française. Le beau livre que M. Parodi vient de publier en français traite surtout des vingt dernières années de notre activité philosophique. M. Gunn, remontant jusqu’à Auguste Comte, a eu raison de placer ainsi devant nous toute le seconde moitié du siècle passé. Cette période de cinquante ans qui a précédée notre vingtième siècle est d’une importance capitale. Elle constitue réellement notre dix-neuvième siècle philosophique, car l’oeuvre même de Maine de Biran, qui est antérieure, n’a été bien connue et étudiée qu’à ce moment, et la plupart de nos idées philosophiques actuelles ont été élaborées pendant ces cinquante ans.
Le sujet est d’ailleurs d’une complication extrême, en raison du nombre et de la variété des doctrines, en raison surtout de la diversité des questions entre lesquelles se sont partagés tant de penseurs. Dr. Gunn a su ramener toutes ces questions à un petit nombre de problèmes essentiels : la science, la liberté, le progrès, la morale, la religion. Cette division me paraît heureuse. Elle répond bien, ce me semble, aux principales préoccupations de la philosophie francaise. Elle a permis à l’auteur d’être complet, tout en restant simple, clair, et facile à suivre.
Elle présente, il est vrai, un inconvénient, en ce qu’elle morcelle la doctrine d’un auteur en fragments dont chacun, pris à part, perd un peu de sa vitalite et de son individualité. Elle risque ainsi de présenter comme trop semblable à d’autres la solution que tel philosophe a donnée de tel problème, solution qui, replacée dans l’ensemble de la doctrine, apparaîtrait comme propre à ce penseur, originale et plus forte. Mais cet inconvénient était inévitable et l’envers de l’avantage que je signalais plus haut, celui de l’ordre, de la continuité et de la clarté.
Le travail du Dr. Gunn m’apparaît comme tout à fait distingué. Il témoigne d’une information singulièrement étendue, précise et sûre. C’est l’oeuvre d’un esprit d’une extrême souplesse, capable de s’assimiler vite et bien la pensée des philosophes, de classer les idées dans leur ordre d’importance, de les exposer méthodiquement et les apprécier à leur juste valeur.
[These pages are a revised extract from the more formal Rapport which was presented by M. Bergson to the University of Liverpool].
PREFACE
This work is the fruit of much reading and research done in Paris at the Sorbonne and Bibliothèque nationale. It is, substantially, a revised form of the thesis presented by the writer to the University of Liverpool for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy, obtained in 1921. The author is indebted, therefore, to the University for permission to publish. More especially must he record his deep gratitude to the French thinkers who gave both stimulus and encouragement to him during his sojourn in Paris. Foremost among these is M. Henri Bergson, upon whose rapport the Doctorate was conferred, and who has expressed his appreciation of the work by contributing a Foreword for publication.
Mention must also be made of the encouragement given by the late M. Emile Boutroux and by the eminent editor of the well-known Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale, M. Xavier Léon, a leading spirit in the Société de Philosophie, whose meetings the writer was privileged to attend by invitation. Then MM. Brunschvicg, Levy-Bruhl, Lalande, Rey and Lenoir, from time to time discussed the work with him and he must record his appreciation of their kindness.
To Professor Mair of Liverpool is due the initial suggestion, and it has been felt a fitting tribute to his supervision, criticism, encouragement and sympathy that this book should be respectfully dedicated to him by one of his grateful pupils. In the labour of dealing with the proofs, the writer has to acknowledge the co-operation of Miss M. Linn and Mr. J. E. Turner, M.A.
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The method adopted in this history has been deliberately chosen for its usefulness in emphasising the development of ideas. A purely chronological method has not been followed. The biographical system has likewise been rejected. The history of the development of thought centres round problems, and it progresses in relation to these problems. The particular manner in which the main problems presented themselves to the French thinkers of the second half of the nineteenth century was largely determined by the events and ideas which marked the period from 1789 to 1851. For this reason a chapter has been devoted to Antecedents. Between the Revolution and the coup d’état of Napoleon III., four distinct lines of thought are discernible. Then the main currents from the year 1851 down to 1921 are described, with special reference to the development of the main problems. The reconciliation of science and conscience proved to be the main general problem, which became more definitely that of Freedom. This in itself is intimately bound up with the doctrines of progress, of history, of ethics and religion. These topics are discussed in a manner which shows their bearing upon each other. The conclusion aims at displaying the characteristics of French thought which reveal themselves in the study of these great problems. Its vitality, concreteness, clearness, brilliance and precision are noted and a comparison made between French thought and German philosophy.
From a general philosophical standpoint few periods could be so fascinating. Few, if any, could show such a complete revolution of thought as that witnessed since the year 1851. To bring this out clearly is the main object of the present book. It is intended to serve a double purpose. Primarily, it aims at being a contribution to the history of thought which will provide a definite knowledge of the best that has been said and thought among philosophers in France during the last seventy years. Further, it is itself an appeal for serious attention to be given to French philosophy. This is a field which has been comparatively neglected by English students, so far as the nineteenth century is concerned, and this is especially true of our period, which is roughly that from Comte to Boutroux (who passed away last month) and Bergson (who has this year resigned his professorship). It is the earnest desire of the writer to draw both philosophical students and lovers of France and its literature to a closer study and appreciation of modern French philosophy. Emotion and sentiment are inadequate bases for an entente which is to be really cordiale between any two peoples. An understanding of their deepest thoughts is also necessary and desirable. Such an understanding is, after all, but a step towards that iternationalisation of thought, that common fund of human culture and knowledge, which sets itself as an ideal before the nations of the world. La philosophie n’a pas de patrie! Les idées sont actuellement les forces internationales.
J. A. G.
THE UNIVERSITY,
LIVERPOOL,
December, 1921
CHAPTER I
(INTRODUCTORY)
ANTECEDENTS
HISTORICAL SURVEY OF THE MAIN CURRENTS FROM THE REVOLUTION OF 1789 UP TO 1851.
After the Revolution—The Traditionalists: Chateaubuand, De Bonald, De Maistre, Lamennais, Lacordaire
Main Currents:
1. Maine de Biran.
2. The Eclectics: Cousin, Jouffroy.
3. The Socialists: Saint-Simon, Fourier and Cabal, Proudhon and Blanc.
4.Positivism: Auguste Comte.
CHAPTER I
ANTECEDENTS
This work deals with the great French thinkers since the time of Auguste Comte, and treats, under various aspects, the development of thought in relation to the main problems which confronted these men. In the commencement of such an undertaking we are obliged to acknowledge the continuity of human thought, to recognise that it tends to approximate to an organic whole, and that, consequently, methods resembling those of surgical amputation are to be avoided. We cannot absolutely isolate one period of thought. For this reason a brief survey of the earlier years is necessary in order to orient the approach to the period specially placed in the limelight, namely 1851-1921.
In the world of speculative thought and in the realm of practical politics we find reflected, at the opening of the century, the work of the French Revolutionaries on the one hand, and that of Immanuel Kant on the other. Coupled with these great factors was the pervading influence of the Encyclopædists and of the thinkers of the Enlightenment. These two groups of influences, the one sudden and in the nature of a shock to political and metaphysical thought, the other quieter but no less effective, combined to produce a feeling of instability and of dissatisfaction at the close of the eighteenth century. A sense of change, indeed of resurrection, filled the minds and hearts of those who saw the opening of the nineteenth century. The old aristocracy and the monarchy in France had gone, and in philosophy the old metaphysic had received a blow at the hands of the author of the Three Critiques.
No better expression was given to the psychological state of France at this time than that of Alfred de Musset in his Confession d’un Enfant du Siècle. Toute la maladie du siècle présent (he wrote) vient de deux causes; le peuple qui a passé par ’93 et par 1814 porte au cœur deux blessures. Tout ce qui était n’est plus; tout ce qui sera n’est pas encore. Ne cherchez ailleurs le secret de nos maux.[[1]] De Musset was right, the whole course of the century was marked by conflict between two forces—on the one hand a tendency to reaction and conservatism, on the other an impulse to radicalism and revolution.
[1] The extract is taken from Première partie, ch. 2. The book was published in 1836. Somewhat similar sentiments are uttered with reference to this time by Michelet. (See his Histoire du XIXe Siècle, vol. i., p. 9).
It is true that one group of thinkers endeavoured, by a perfectly natural reaction, to recall their fellow-countrymen, at this time of unrest, back to the doctrines and traditions of the past, and tried to find in the faith of the Christian Church and the practice of the Catholic religion a rallying-point. The monarchy and the Church were eulogised by Chateaubriand, while on the more philosophical side efforts on behalf of traditionalism were made very nobly by De Bonald and Joseph de Maistre. While they represented the old aristocracy and recalled the theocracy and ecclesiasticism of the past by advocating reaction and Ultramontanism, Lamennais attempted to adapt Catholicism to the new conditions, only to find, as did Renan later, that “one cannot argue with a bar of iron.” Not the brilliant appeals of a Lacordaire, who thundered from Notre Dame, nor the modernism of a Lamennais, nor the efforts in religious philosophy made by De Maistre, were, however, sufficient to meet the needs of the time.
The old traditions and the old dogmas did not offer the salvation they professed to do. Consequently various groups of thinkers worked out solutions satisfactory to themselves and which they offered to others. We can distinguish clearly four main currents, the method of introspection and investigation of the inner life of the soul, the adoption of a spiritualist philosophy upon an eclectic basis, the search for a new society after the manner of the socialists and, lastly, a positive philosophy and religion of humanity. These four currents form the historical antecedents of our period and to a brief survey of them we now turn.
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