MOUNIER, EMMANUEL. – Philosopher, born in Grenoble on 1 April 1905, died in Paris on 22 March 1950.
He abandoned his early medical studies to devote himself to philosophy, and in Grenoble was a student of J. Chevalier. In 1929, in Paris, his study of the writings of C. Péguy directed him toward the dynamism of social activity, and in October 1932 he founded the journal Esprit to disseminate his philosophical and social ideas. In 1936 he launched his program (Le manifeste au service du personnalisme, in Esprit, 4 [1936], pp. 1–210), whose ideas found supporters in France and abroad.
M. left many writings of a critical-religious and philosophical-social character. Among the former: La pensée de Charles Péguy (Paris 1931); L'affrontement chrétien (Neuchâtel 1944); Liberté sous conditions (Paris 1946); Feu la chrétienté (ibid. 1950); in these he examines Christianity not in theological terms, but in historical and social terms. Among the latter, noteworthy are: Revolution personnaliste et communautaire (ibid. 1935; Italian trans., Milan 1949); De la propriété capitaliste à la propriété humaine (ibid. 1936; Italian trans., Brescia 1947); Introduction à l'existentialisme (ibid. 1946); Traité du caractère (ibid. 1946; Italian trans., Alba 1949); Qu'est-ce que le personnalisme (ibid. 1947; Italian trans., Turin 1948).
Of his philosophical thought, known by the term «personalism», M. formulates the following judgment: «personalism is rigorously distinguished from individualism and emphasizes the collective and cosmic insertion of the person» (A. Lalande, Vocabulaire technique et critique de la philosophie, 5th ed., Paris 1947, p. 738).