VACHEROT, ETIENNE. - Philosopher, born at Langres on 29 July 1809, died in Paris on 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. was an independent follower of Cousin’s spiritualism (v.), imbued with the principles of German idealism. Psychology, in V.’s view, 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 supreme unity which we strive to realize through knowledge and moral activity. Theodicy has the same right as mathematics, which, though lacking a real object, serves as a norm for the other sciences.
Principal works, all published in Paris: *Histoire critique de l'école d'Alexandrie* (3 vols., 1846–51); *La métaphysique et la science* (2 vols., 1858; 2nd ed., 3 vols., 1861); *Essais de philosophie critique* (1864); *La religion* (1868); *La science et la conscience* (1870); *Le nouveau spiritualisme* (1884).