SECRETAN, CHARLES. - Philosopher, b. in Lausanne on 19 Jan. 1815, d. there on 20 Jan. 1895. He taught philosophy there for about thirty years.
The central problem of S.'s philosophy is the problem of freedom, which he understands, in the manner of Kant, as the realm of metaphysics and morality: freedom as a metaphysical principle is God himself acting upon the world. But S.'s most vivid and deeply felt interest is ethical-religious. The law of charity becomes the supreme law: “charity tends toward unity, and if the aspirations of charity are fully realized, moral unity will be constituted through freedom... This union is love, an act of freedom... The creature can attain its supreme destiny only by uniting itself with God, through its freedom” (La raison et le christianisme, pp. 202-203).
Principal works: La philosophie de Leibniz (Lausanne 1840); Philosophie de la liberté (Paris 1849); Recherches de la méthode (Lausanne 1857); La raison et le christianisme (Paris 1863); Etudes sociales (Lausanne 1889); Les droits de l'humanité (there 1890).