PAUL-ALEXANDRE-RENÉ JANET. — Philosopher, born in Paris on 30 April 1823, died there on 4 October 1899. He was first a student at the École Normale, then professor at Strasbourg, at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, and finally at the Sorbonne. He was a member of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques.
J. adhered to the tradition begun by V. Cousin and continued his eclectic approach. Although he did not conceal his uncertainty towards every form of positive religion (towards which he adopted attitudes of a freethinker, with consequent departures from orthodoxy), his speculation was always oriented in opposition to materialism and to metaphysical scepticism. Following the spiritualist method of introspection and reflection, J. proceeded to affirm God as the eternal and absolute Being, the principle of dignity and excellence. Much of his writing, numerous and perhaps somewhat too prolix, is devoted to the re-evaluation of morality and to the necessary consistency of morality with religion.
Principal philosophical works: *Etudes sur la dialectique dans Platon et Hegel* (1860); *La philosophie du bonheur* (1862); *Le matérialisme contemporain en Allemagne* (1864); *La crise philosophique* (1865); *Le cerveau et la pensée* (1866); *Eléments de morale* (1869); *La morale* (1874); *Les causes finales* (1876); *Traité de philosophie* (1880); *Histoire de la philosophie: les problèmes et les écoles* (1887); *Histoire de la science politique dans ses rapports avec la morale* (1887; 4th ed., 1925); *La philosophie de Lamennais* (1890); *Principes de métaphysique et de psychologie* (1897).