Antonelle (Pierre Antoine) Marquis d’, French political economist, b. Arles 1747. He embraced the revolution with ardor, and his article in the Journal des Hommes Libres occasioned his arrest with Babœuf. He was, however, acquitted. Died at Arles, 26 Nov. 1817.
Antoninus (Marcus Aurelius). See [Aurelius].
Apelt (Ernst Friedrich), German philosopher, b. Reichenau 3 March, 1812. He criticised the philosophy of religion from the standpoint of reason, and wrote many works on metaphysics. Died near Gorlitz, 27 Oct. 1859.
Aquila, a Jew of Pontus, who became a proselyte to Christianity, but afterwards left that religion. He published a Greek version of the Hebrew scriptures to show that the prophecies did not apply to Jesus (A.D. 128). The work is lost. He has been identified by E. Deutsch with the author of the Targum of Onkelos.
Arago (Dominique François Jean), French academician, politician, physicist and astronomer, b. Estagel, 26 Feb. 1786. He was elected to the French Academy of Sciences at the age of twenty-three. He made several optical and electro-magnetic discoveries, and advocated the undulatory theory of light. He was an ardent Republican and Freethinker, and took part in the provisional Government of 1848. He opposed the election of Louis Napoleon, and refused to take the oath of allegiance after the coup d’état of December, 1851. Died 2 Oct. 1853. Humboldt calls him a “zealous defender of the interests of Reason.”
Ardigo (Roberto), Italian philosopher, b. at Casteldidone (Cremona) 28 Jan. 1828, was intended for the Church, but took to philosophy. In 1869 he published a discourse on Peitro Pomponazzi, followed next year by Psychology as a Positive Science. Signor Ardigo has also written on the formation of the solar system and on the historical formation of the ideas of God and the soul. An edition of his philosophical works was commenced at Mantua in 1882. Ardigo is one of the leaders of the Italian Positivists. His Positivist Morals appeared in Padua 1885.
Argens (Jean Baptiste de Boyer) Marquis d’, French writer, b. at Aix, in Provence, 24 June 1704. He adopted a military life and served with distinction. On the accession of Frederick the Great he invited d’Argens to his court at Berlin, and made him one of his chamberlains. Here he resided twenty-five years and then returned to Aix, where he resided till his death 11 June, 1771. His works were published in 1768 in twenty-four volumes. Among them are Lettres Juives, Lettres Chinoises and Lettres Cabalistiques, which were joined to La Philosophie du bon sens. He also translated Julian’s discourse against Christianity and Ocellus Lucanus on the Eternity of the World. Argens took Bayle as his model, but he was inferior to that philosopher.
Argental (Charles Augustin de Ferriol) Count d’, French diplomat, b. Paris 20 Dec. 1700, was a nephew of Mme. de Tencin, the mother of D’Alembert. He is known for his long and enthusiastic friendship for Voltaire. He was said to be the author of Mémoires du Comte de Comminge and Anecdotes de la cour d’Edouard. Died 5 Jan. 1788.
Aristophanes, great Athenian comic poet, contemporary with Socrates, Plato, and Euripides, b. about 444 B.C. Little is known of his life. He wrote fifty-four plays, of which only eleven remain, and was crowned in a public assembly for his attacks on the oligarchs. With the utmost boldness he satirised not only the the political and social evils of the age, but also the philosophers, the gods, and the theology of the period. Plato is said to have died with Aristophanes’ works under his pillow. Died about 380 B.C.
Aristotle, the most illustrious of ancient philosophers, was born at Stagyra, in Thrace, 384 B.C. He was employed by Philip of Macedon to instruct his son Alexander. His inculcation of ethics as apart from all theology, justifies his place in this list. After the death of Alexander, he was accused of impiety and withdrew to Chalcis, where he died B.C. 322. Grote says: “In the published writings of Aristotle the accusers found various heretical doctrines suitable for sustaining their indictment; as, for example, the declaration that prayer and sacrifices to the gods were of no avail.” His influence was predominant upon philosophy for nearly two thousand years. Dante speaks of him as “the master of those that know.”