RIBOT, THÉODULE-ARNAUD. - Philosopher, b. at Guingamp on 18 Dec. 1839, d. in Paris on 9 Dec. 1916. In 1876 he founded the *Revue philosophique*. From 1885 he was professor of psychology at the Sorbonne, and from 1888 at the Collège de France.
He belonged to the positivist school, but against the excesses of psychophysiology he emphasized the independence of psychology from metaphysics, aiming to grasp the psychic fact in its irreducible originality, which he found in the will antecedent to the intellectual act and predominant over it (v. SCHOPENHAUER, ARTHUR). He noted the inadequacy of English associationism, especially in explaining affective life.
Principal works: *La psychologie anglaise contemporaine* (Paris 1870); *L'hérédité psychologique* (ibid. 1878); *La psychologie allemande contemporaine* (ibid. 1879); *Les maladies de la mémoire* (ibid. 1883); *Les maladies de la personnalité* (ibid. 1885); *Psychologie de l'attention* (ibid. 1888); *Psychologie des sentiments* (ibid. 1896); *L'évolution des idées générales* (ibid. 1897); *Essai sur l'imagination créatrice* (ibid. 1900); *La logique des sentiments* (ibid. 1905); *Essai sur les passions* (ibid. 1907).