Brunschvicg, Léon

Brunschvicg, Léon

▪ French philosopher
born Nov. 10, 1869, Paris
died Feb. 2, 1944, Aix-les-Bains, Fr.

      French Idealist philosopher who regarded mathematical judgment as the highest form of human thought.

      After cofounding the Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale (1893) and the Société Française de Philosophie (1901), Brunschvicg became professor of general philosophy in 1909 at the Sorbonne, where he remained (except for the war years, 1914–18) until 1940. In 1919 he was elected to the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques and served as its president in 1932.

      In his widely acclaimed doctoral thesis, La Modalité du jugement (1897; Sorbonne), Brunschvicg set down his fundamental assertion that knowledge creates the only world we know. He maintained that there can be no philosophy beyond judgment, for judgment is the first activity of the mind and synthesizes the form and content of concepts. Philosophy, therefore, must be a critical appraisal of thought itself, for knowledge can be subjected to reflection only by thought, which provides intelligibility. The spirit's own activity, not concepts, is the principal object of thought.

      Brunschvicg's critical Idealism studied the activity of the mind as manifested in the history of mathematics, science, and philosophy, an approach differentiating his method from Kant's deductive one. By contributing to man's progressive self-understanding, science refines man's conscience and thus takes on a moral or spiritual aspect. History, he says, is le progrès de la conscience, meaning both conscience and consciousness. His influence was profound both in France and throughout Europe.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • BRUNSCHVICG, LEON — (1869–1944), French philosopher. In 1909 he was appointed professor of philosophy at the Sorbonne, and in 1920 a member of the Académie des Sciences Morales. Brunschvicg, who was a spokesman of the idealistic school of thought in France,… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Brunschvicg, Léon — (1869 1944)    philosopher    Born in Paris, Léon Brunschvicg, as a philosopher, rejected positivistic empiricism and spiritualism, and adopted a critical idealist position in his studies on the conditions and evolution of the scientific spirit.… …   France. A reference guide from Renaissance to the Present

  • Brunschvicg, Leon — (1869 1944)    French philos opher. He was a professor at the Sorbonne. He wrote a critical edition of Blaise Pascal s Pensees …   Dictionary of Jewish Biography

  • Brunschvicg — Léon Brunschvicg Léon Brunschvicg Léon Brunschvicg, philosophe français Activité(s) philosophe, mathématicien, biologiste, physicien Naissance 10 novembre 1869 Paris Décès 18 …   Wikipédia en Français

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  • Léon Brunschwig — Léon Brunschvicg Léon Brunschvicg Léon Brunschvicg, philosophe français Activité(s) philosophe, mathématicien, biologiste, physicien Naissance 10 novembre 1869 Paris Décès 18 …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Léon Brunschvicg — Léon Brunschvicg, philosophe français Activités philosophe, mathématicien, biologiste, physicien Naissance 10 novembre 1869 Paris IIe Décès …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Leon Brunschvicg — (* 10. November 1869 in Paris; † 18. Januar 1944 ebenda) war ein französischer Philosoph und Lehrer an der Sorbonne seit 1909. Er war verheiratet mit der feministischen Politikerin Cécile Brunschvicg, geb. Kahn (1877 1946). Brunschvicgs… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Brunschvicg — Leon Brunschvicg (* 10. November 1869 in Paris; † 18. Januar 1944 ebenda) war ein französischer Philosoph und Lehrer an der Sorbonne seit 1909. Er war verheiratet mit der feministischen Politikerin Cécile Brunschvicg, geb. Kahn (1877 1946).… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • BRUNSCHVICG (L.) — BRUNSCHVICG LÉON (1869 1944) Philosophe français, né à Paris, Léon Brunschvicg entre, en 1880, à l’École normale supérieure et suit à la Sorbonne les cours de Victor Brochard et d’Émile Boutroux. Sa thèse de doctorat a pour sujet et pour titre La …   Encyclopédie Universelle

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