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BUFFIER, CLAUDE (1661-1737)
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See also:BUFFIER, See also:CLAUDE (1661-1737) , See also:French philosopher, historian and educationalist, was See also:born in See also:Poland, on the 25th of May 1661, of French parents, who returned to See also:France, and settled at See also:Rouen, soon after his See also:birth. He was educated at the Jesuit See also:college there; and was received into the See also:order at the See also:age of nineteen. A dispute with the See also:archbishop compelled him to leave Rouen, and after a See also:short stay in See also:Rome he returned to See also:Paris to the college of the See also:Jesuits, where he spent the See also:rest of his See also:life. He seems to have been an admirable teacher, with a See also:great See also:power of lucid exposition. His See also:object in the Traite See also:des verites premieres (1717), his best-known See also:work, is to discover the ultimate principle of knowledge. This he finds in the sense we have of our own existence and of what we feel within ourselves. He thus takes substantially the same ground as See also:Descartes, but he rejected the a priori method. In order to know what exists distinct from the self, "See also:common sense " is necessary. Common sense he defined as " that disposition which nature has placed in all or most men, in order to enable them, when they have arrived at the age and use of See also:reason, to See also:form a common and See also:uniform See also:judgment with respect to See also:objects different from the See also:internal sentiment of their own See also:perception, which judgment is not the consequence of any anterior judgment." The truths which this " disposition of nature " obliges us to accept can be neither proved nor disproved; they are practically followed even by those who reject them speculatively. But Buffier does not claim for these truths of " common sense " the See also:absolute certainty which characterizes the knowledge we have of our own existence or the logical deductions we make from our thoughts; they possess merely the highest See also:probability, and the See also:man who rejects them is to be considered a See also:fool, though he is not guilty of a See also:contradiction. Buffier's aversion to scholastic refinements has given to his writings an See also:appearance of shallowness and want of metaphysical insight, and unquestionably he failed entirely even to indicate the nature of that universality and See also:necessity which he ascribed to his " eternal verities "; he was, however, one of the earliest to recognize the psychological as distinguished from the metaphysical See also:side of Descartes's principle, and to use it, with no inconsiderable skill, as the basis of an See also:analysis of the human mind, similar to that enjoined by See also:Locke. In this he has anticipated the spirit and method as well as many of the results of See also:Reid and the Scottish school. See also:Voltaire described him as " the only Jesuit who has given a reasonable See also:system of See also:philosophy." He wrote also Elements de metaphysique (1724), a "French See also:Grammar on a new See also:plan," and a number of See also:historical essays. Most of his See also:works appeared in a collected form in 1732, and an See also:English See also:translation of the Traite was published in 1780. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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