VACHEROT, ÉTIENNE. - Philosopher, b. at Langres, 29 July 1809, d. at Paris 28 July 1897. He taught philosophy at the École Normale and at the Sorbonne; from 1868 he was a member of the National Assembly.

V. is an independent follower of the spiritualism of Cousin (v.), imbued with the principles of German idealism. According to V., psychology is the foundation of metaphysics; the soul is an active and free principle. The moral law is absolute and known to every conscience. In theodicy he departs from Leibniz to draw closer to Hegel. The infinite being is merely an ideal: the concept of the supreme unity that we seek to realize through knowledge and through moral activity. Theodicy has the same right as mathematics, which, without having a real object, serves as a norm for the other sciences.

Principal works, all published at Paris: Histoire critique de l'école d'Alexandrie (3 vols., 1846-51); La métaphysique et la science (2 vols., 1858; 2nd ed., 3 vols., 1863); Essais de philosophie critique (1864); La religion (1868); La science et la conscience (1870); Le nouveau spiritualisme (1884).

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: L. Ollé-Laprune, V., Paris 1898; further references in Überweg, V, p. 74.

Andrea Ferro

@incollection{ec12_vacherot_etienne, author = {Ferro, Andrea}, title = {Vacherot, etienne}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XII}, pages = {954--955}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1954}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/vacherot-etienne} }

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Vacherot, Étienne

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