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THEODORE SIMON JOUFFROY (1796-1842)

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 523 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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THEODORE See also:SIMON See also:JOUFFROY (1796-1842)  , See also:French philosopher, was See also:born at Pontets, near Mouthe, See also:department of See also:Doubs . In his tenth See also:year, his See also:father, a tax-gatherer, sent him to an See also:uncle at See also:Pontarlier, under whom he commenced his classical studies . At See also:Dijon his compositions attracted the See also:attention of an inspector, who had him placed (1814) in the normal school, See also:Paris . He there came under the See also:influence of See also:Victor See also:Cousin, and in 1817 he was appointed assistant See also:professor of See also:philosophy at the normal and See also:Bourbon See also:schools . Three years later, being thrown upon his own resources, he began a course of lectures in his own See also:house, and formed See also:literary connexions with Le Courrier See also:francais, Le Globe, L'Encyclopedie moderne, and La Revue europeenne . The variety of his pursuits at this See also:time carried him over the whole See also:field of See also:ancient and See also:modern literature . But he was chiefly attracted to the philosophical See also:system represented by See also:Reid and See also:Stewart . The application of " See also:common sense " to the problem of substance supplied a more satisfactory See also:analytic for him than the See also:scepticism of See also:Hume which reached him through a study of See also:Kant . He thus threw in his See also:lot with the Scottish philosophy, and his first See also:dissertations are, in their leading position, adaptations from Reid's Inquiry . In 1826 he wrote a See also:preface to a See also:translation of the Moral Philosophy of Stewart, demonstrating the possibility of a scientific statement of the See also:laws of consciousness; in 1828 he began a translation of the See also:works of Reid, and in his preface estimated the influence of Scottish See also:criticism upon philosophy, 'giving a See also:biographical See also:account of the See also:movement from See also:Hutcheson onwards . Next year he was returned to See also:parlement by the See also:arrondissement of Pontarlier; but the See also:work of legislation was See also:ill-suited to him . Yet he attended to his duties conscientiously, and ultimately See also:broke his See also:health in their See also:discharge .

In 1833 he was appointed professor of See also:

Greek and See also:Roman philosophy at the See also:college of See also:France and a member of the See also:Academy of Sciences; he then published the Melanges philosophiques (4th ed . 1866; Eng. trans . G . See also:Ripley, See also:Boston, 1835 and 1838), a collection of fugitive papers in criticism and philosophy and See also:history . In them is foreshadowed all that he afterwards worked out in See also:metaphysics, See also:psychology, See also:ethics and See also:aesthetics . He had already demonstrated in his prefaces the possibility of a psychology apart from See also:physiology, of the See also:science of the phenomena of consciousness distinct from the perceptions of sense . He now classified the See also:mental faculties, premising that they must not be confounded with capacities or properties of mind . They were, according to his See also:analysis, See also:personal will, See also:primitive instincts, voluntary movement, natural and artificial signs, sensibility and the faculties of See also:intellect ; on this analytic he founded his See also:scheme of the universe . In 1835 he published a Cours de See also:droit naturel (4th ed . 1866), which, for precision of statement and logical coherence, is the most important of his works . From the conception of a universal See also:order in the universe he reasons to a Supreme Being, who has created it and who has conferred upon every See also:man in See also:harmony with it the aim of his existence, leading to his highest See also:good . Good, he says, is the fulfilment of man's destiny, evil the thwarting of it .

Every man being organized in a particular way has, of See also:

necessity, an aim, the fulfilment of which is good; and he has faculties for accomplishing it, directed by See also:reason . The aim is good, however, only when reason guides it for the benefit of the See also:majority, but that is not See also:absolute good . When reason rises to the conception of universal order, when actions are submitted, by the exercise of a sympathy working necessarily and intuitively to the See also:idea of the universal order, the good has been reached, the true good, good in itself, absolute good . But he does not follow his idea into the details of human See also:duty, though he passes in See also:review See also:fatalism, See also:mysticism, See also:pantheism, scepticism, egotism, sentimentalism and See also:rationalism . In 1835 See also:Jouffroy's health failed and he went to See also:Italy, where he continued to translate the Scottish philosophers . On his return he became librarian to the university, and took the See also:chair of See also:recent philosophy at the See also:faculty of letters . He died in Paris on the 4th of See also:February 1842 . After his See also:death were published Nouveaux melanges philosophiques (3rd ed . 1872) and Cours d'esthetique (3rd ed . 1875) . The former contributed nothing new to the system except a more emphatic statement of the distinction between psychology and physiology . The latter formulated his theory of beauty .

Jouffroy's claim to distinction rests upon his ability as an expositor of other men's ideas . He founded no system; he contributed nothing of importance to philosophical science; he initiated nothing which has survived him . But his See also:

enthusiasm for mental science, and his command over the See also:language of popular exposition, made him a See also:great See also:international See also:medium for the transfusion of ideas . He stood between See also:Scotland and France and See also:Germany and France; and, though his expositions are vitiated by loose See also:reading of the philosophers he interpreted, he did serviceable, even memorable work . See L . See also:Levy See also:Bruhl, History of Modern Philos. in France (1899), pp . 349-357; C . J . See also:Tissot, Th . Jouffroy: sa See also:vie et ses ecrits (1876) ; J . P . See also:Damiron, Essai sur l'histoire de la philos. en France an xixe siecle (1846) .

End of Article: THEODORE SIMON JOUFFROY (1796-1842)
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