CARO, Edme-Marie. - Philosopher, b. at Poitiers on 4 March 1826, d. in Paris on 13 July 1887. A brilliant mind and a forceful polemicist, he was one of the most listened-to professors at the Sorbonne in the second half of the 19th century.
The tendency of his philosophy is spiritualist-apologetic, as is particularly demonstrated in his work L'idée de Dieu et ses nouveaux critiques (1864, 4th ed. 1873), in which he defends Christian theodicy against the doctrines of Vachetot, Renan, and Taine; however, he does not always manage to free himself from the eclectic school to which he adhered through education and method. In Problèmes de morale sociale (1878), Caro criticises the positivistic, naturalistic, and evolutionistic positions of many of his contemporaries. Other works by him include: Le matérialisme et la science (1868); Le pessimisme au XIXᵉ siècle (1878); Littré et le positivisme (1880), etc.