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BAUTAIN, LOUIS EUGENE MARIE (1796-1867)

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 541 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BAUTAIN, See also:LOUIS See also:EUGENE See also:MARIE (1796-1867) , See also:French philosopher and theologian, was See also:born at See also:Paris. At the Ecole Normale he came under the See also:influence of See also:Cousin: In 1816 he adopted the profession of higher teaching, and was soon after called to the See also:chair of See also:philosophy in the university of See also:Strassburg. He held this position for many years, and gave a parallel course of lectures as See also:professor of the See also:literary See also:faculty in the same See also:city. The reaction against speculative philosophy, which carried away De See also:Maistre and See also:Lamennais, influenced him also. In 1828 he took orders, and resigned his chair at the university. For several years he remained at Strassburg, lecturing at the Faculty and at the See also:college of Juilly, but in 1849 he set out for Paris as See also:vicar of the See also:diocese. At Paris he obtained considerable reputation as an orator, and in 1853 was made professor of moral See also:theology at the theological faculty. This See also:post he held till his See also:death. Like the Scholastics, he distinguished See also:reason and faith, and held that See also:revelation supplies facts, otherwise unattainable, which philosophy is able to See also:group by scientific methods. Theology and philosophy thus See also:form one comprehensive See also:science. Yet Bautain was no rationalist; like See also:Pascal and See also:Newman he exalted faith above reason. He pointed out, following chiefly the Kantian See also:criticism, that reason can never yield knowledge of things in themselves.

But there exists in addition to reason another faculty which may be called intelligence, through which w e are put in connexion with spiritual and invisible truth. This intelligence does not of itself yield a See also:

body of truth; it merely contains the germs of the higher ideas, and these are made productive by being brought into contact with revealed facts. This fundamental conception Bautain worked out in the departments of See also:psychology and morals. The details of this theology are highly imaginative. He says, for instance, that there is a spirit of the See also:world and a spirit of nature; the latter gives See also:birth to a See also:physical and psychical spirit, and the physical spirit to the See also:animal and See also:vegetable See also:spirits. His theories may well be compared with the arbitrary See also:mysticism of See also:van See also:Helmont and the Gnostics. The most important of his See also:works are :—Philosophie du C'hristianisme (1835); Psychologie experimentale (1839), new edition entitled Esprit humain et ses facultes (1859); Philosophie morale (1840); See also:Religion et liberte (1848); La Morale de l'evangile comparee aux See also:divers systemes de morale (Strassburg, 1827; Paris, 1855); De l'See also:education publique en See also:France au XIX e siecle (Paris, 1876).

End of Article: BAUTAIN, LOUIS EUGENE MARIE (1796-1867)

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