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See also:BATTEUX, See also:CHARLES (1713-1780) , See also:French philosopher and writer on .esthetics, was See also:born near Vouziers (See also:Ardennes), and studied See also:theology at See also:Reims. In 1739 he came to See also:Paris, and after teaching in the colleges of See also:Lisieux and See also:Navarre, was appointed to the See also:chair of See also:Greek and See also:Roman See also:philosophy in the See also:College de See also:France. In 1746 he published his See also:treatise See also:Les See also:Beaux-Arts reduits a un name principe, an See also:attempt to find a unity among the various theories of beauty and See also:taste, and his views were widely accepted. The reputation thus gained, confirmed by his See also:translation of See also:Horace (1750), led to his becoming a member of the Academie See also:des See also:Inscriptions (1754) and of the French See also:Academy (1761). His Cours de belles lettres (1765) was afterwards included with some See also:minor writings in the large treatise, Principes de la litterature (1774). The rules for See also:composition there laid down are, perhaps, somewhat pedantic. His philosophical writings were La Morale d'Epicure tiree de ses propres gaits (1758), and the Histoire des causes premieres (1769). In consequence of the freedom with which in this See also:work he attacked the abuse of authority in philosophy, he lost his professorial chair. His last and most extensive work was a Cours deludes d l'usage des See also:eaves de l'ecole militaire (45 vols.). In the Beaux-Arts, Batteux See also:developed a theory which is derived from See also:Locke through See also:Voltaire's sceptical sensualism. He held that See also:Art consists in the faithful See also:imitation of the beautiful in nature. Applying this principle to the art of See also:poetry, and analysing, See also:line by line and even word by word, the See also:works of See also:great poets, he deduced the See also:law that the beauty of poetry consists in the accuracy, beauty and See also:harmony of individual expression.
This narrow and pedantic theory had at least the merit of insisting on propriety of expression. His Histoire des causes premieres was among the first attempts at a See also:history of philosophy, and in his work on See also:Epicurus, following on Gassendi, he defended Epicureanism against the See also:general attacks made against it.
See See also:Dacier et See also:Dupuy, " loges," in Mimoires de d Academie des Inscriptions.
End of Article: BATTEUX, CHARLES (1713-1780)
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