JANET, PAUL-ALEXANDRE-RENÉ. – Philosopher, born in Paris on 30 April 1823, died there on 4 October 1899. He was first a student at the École Normale, then a professor in 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 initiated by V. Cousin and continued his eclectic approach. Although he did not conceal his uncertainty regarding every form of positive religion (with regard to which he adopted the attitudes of a freethinker, with consequent departures from orthodoxy), his speculation was always oriented in opposition to materialism and metaphysical scepticism. Following the spiritualist method of introspection and reflection, J. proceeded to affirm God, the eternal and absolute Being, the principle of dignity and excellence. A large part of his numerous and perhaps somewhat overly loquacious writings is devoted to the reappraisal of morality and to the necessary connection between morality and 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); Éléments 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).