Hamelin, Octave

HAMELIN, OCTAVE. - Philosopher, b. at Lion d'Angers (Maine-et-Loire), on 22 July 1856, d. at Hucker (Landes) on 8 Sept. 1907 in a generous attempt at rescue. He taught at the University of Bordeaux (from 1895), then (from 1903) at the Sorbonne.

H. is among the most conspicuous representatives of French neocriticism. A disciple of Renouvier, he shares his starting point with him, but arrives at results that bring him close to Hegel no less than to his master. The world is essentially a complex of relations, and reality is determined through the constructive process of the categories, rational forms of the real. The analytic method (Renouvier) must therefore be integrated with the synthetic method (Hegel): it develops in a series of dialectical positions in which the real affirms itself while at the same time being discriminated, and whose ultimate term is the constitution of completed being, existing for itself and personal, God. H. thus departs from Hegelian idealistic monism, drawing close to the theistic position.

Principal works: Essai sur les éléments principaux de la représentation (Paris 1907; new ed. ibid. 1925); L'éducation par l'instruction (ibid. 1902); La philosophie analytique de l'histoire de Renouvier (ibid. 1899); Le système de Descartes (ibid. 1910); Le système d'Aristote (ibid. 1920).

Andrea Ferre