COUSIN, VICTOR. - Philosopher, b. in Paris on 28 Nov. 1792, d. at Cannes on 14 Jan. 1867. He taught at the École Normale from 1814 to 1820, at the Sorbonne from 1828. After the July 1830 revolution he was a Peer of France, councillor of State, director of the École Normale, rector of the University, minister of Public Instruction (an office he held for only 8 months, in 1840). On the fall of Louis Philippe (1848) he withdrew from politics and in 1852 also from teaching.
C. was among the most celebrated philosophers of his time, both in France and abroad (discussed in Italy, among others, by P. Galluppi, A. Rosmini and V. Gioberti), although his fame afterwards declined rapidly. In reality, if he has great merits in the history of philosophy, especially medieval philosophy, as a philosopher he lacks true speculative depth. His characteristic philosophical position was eclecticism (v.), to which he was the first to give organic and systematic form.
Eclecticism, as a system, arises from the following considerations: « Metaphysics, like morals, is founded upon psychology, that is, upon facts of consciousness that no one can absolutely disown... Reflection strives to grasp and express that reality in all its extent. It may well happen that it takes the part for the whole; but in short, that part which it manages to discern is not a chimera... The success of a system is a demonstration of the truth of some part of it; and since history takes account exclusively of the systems that have had resonance... we must conclude that the history of philosophy is not a sterile succession of chimeras, but a rich collection of partial truths, precious fragments of the whole truth » (Cours de l'histoire de la philosophie moderne, 1st series, IV, new ed., Paris 1846-47, lessons XVII-XVIII).
So many have been the systems since the origin of the history of philosophy that by now the entire truth has been expressed in those fragments. It is only necessary to discern them and reunite them. Now, in every man there is a kind of sense of the true, capable of judging with certainty, not contingent realities, but eternal truths: it can be called reason, conscience, common sense, or even simply the human spirit, thought. Making use of this criterion we shall be able, once the errors of the various systems have been discarded (errors that derive from having elevated a part of the truth to the status of total truth), to bring to light a residue, which will be the complete truth in a state of clear consciousness. This is for C. « réaliser l'éclectisme ».
Later, in the preface to the 1853 edition of Du vrai du beau et du bien, eclecticism, which had earlier been in C. a system, is no more than « a purely historical method, subordinate to spiritualism, which is our true doctrine, our true banner ». And again in 1861 (in the preface to the 4th ed. of the Introduction à l'histoire de la philosophie): « Eclecticism is not a system, it is a method, a certain manner of considering things... too reasonable to be entirely new ».
C.'s further activity aimed at freeing speculation from the narrowness and superficiality of the psychological school that had reached its extreme form with Condillac, and as such it exercised a lasting beneficial influence, in particular on French philosophy. Of the psychological school C. wished to preserve and defended to the last the positive method, which founds philosophy on the observation of the facts of consciousness; but he held firm that among these facts there are some not reducible to sensibility, namely the voluntary and the rational.
There are, according to C., two fundamental laws of reason: that of causality and that of substance; to these are reduced the 10 categories of Aristotle and the 12 of Kant. They have absolute value, and not, as Kant thinks, « relative to the human condition ». « Reason is impersonal », since « its character of universality and necessity is the contrary of individuality » (pref. to the 1st ed. of the Fragments philosophiques, 1826).
The doctrine held until about 1833, that there exists only a single substance and that particular substances must be called its phenomena (cf. pref. cit.), a doctrine that reduces to a flabby and inconsequent Spinozism amalgamated with German idealism, was reproached to C. from various quarters and not without foundation as pantheism. From this accusation he defended himself vigorously, asserting that the single substance was to be understood, Platonically, of God in a theistic sense; and that he had never intended to affirm that the I and the non-I are simple modifications of the single substance, so true is it that « all my moral and political philosophy rests on the notion of the I considered as an essential force endowed with freedom » (Notice to the 3rd ed. of the Fragments philosophiques, 1838). In fact, C. was a decided, though not always consistent, spiritualist; and he clearly affirmed both the spirituality of God in a theistic sense and the spirituality of the human soul, of which, from his earliest years of teaching, he demonstrated individual immortality with the moral argument deduced from the justice of God. But he was unable to give a solidly coherent form to his system.
For the Christian religion he professed « a respect that no trial has disturbed or diminished, because it derives from the most intimate convictions and from philosophy itself »
(pref. to the 4th ed. of the Introduction à l'histoire de la philosophie, 1861). And when, under the reign of Louis Philippe, he was the arbiter of the public school in France, he wished teachers to be bound to respect the fundamental doctrines of Christianity. In the early period, however, he professed rather the concept of a natural religion in a deistic sense (v. DEISMO), from which indeed he seems not to have totally freed himself.
Principal works: Du vrai, du beau, du bien (1st ed. Paris 1818); Cours de l'histoire de la philosophie moderne, (1st series [courses of 1815-20], 5 vols., ibid. 1841; 2nd series [courses of 1828-29], 3 vols., ibid. 1841. The work was placed on the Index [decr. 8 Aug. 1844]. The individual parts were then elaborated and published under distinct titles: Cours d'histoire de la philosophie morale au XVIIIe siècle (5 vols., ibid. 1840-41); Fragments philosophiques (ibid. 1826; Italian trans. by P. Galluppi, 2 vols., Naples 1831-32); De la métaphysique d'Aristote (Paris 1835); Etudes sur Jacqueline Pascal (ibid. 1844).
Furthermore: translation of the complete works of Plato (13 vols., ibid. 1825-40); edition of Proclus (6 vols., ibid. 1820-27; 1 vol., in 4to, ibid. 1864); Abelard (1 vol., ibid. 1836; 2 vols., ibid. 1859); Descartes (11 vols., ibid. 1824-26).
Bibliography10 works
Felice Cenci