Victor Cousin: Commonsense and the Absolute

Abstract

VICTOR COUSIN is without A doubt the most important figure in French philosophy during the first half of the nineteenth century. Assuming teaching responsibilities at the fledgling Ecole Normale in 1815, he rapidly distinguished himself as a compelling orator whose lectures succeeded in quickening the philosophical climate on the Left Bank to an extent, it is said, that it had not known since the days of Abelard. The coterie of disciples which formed around him was to dominate the academic realm for a considerable portion of the century. Not only did he found his own school of philosophy, known as eclecticism, but he reintroduced into French intellectual life the study and appreciation of the history of philosophy, and produced studies and translations?of Plato and Proclus, Descartes and Pas cal?that stand to this day as paradigms of exegetical thoroughness. And it was he who first pointed out to his countrymen that there was some serious philosophical work being carried out on the other side of the Rhine. Often enough, those who comment on Cousin's philosophy ac knowledge his deep indebtedness to the thinking of Thomas Reid, which was transmitted to Cousin by his early mentor at the Ecole Normale, Pierre Paul Royer-Collard. It is he, in fact, who deserves the credit for having introduced the Scot's philosophical approach into France. Other commentators emphasize Cousin's eclecticism, the name he bestowed on his own philosophy. Suggesting an open ness to a plurality of philosophical positions, the very motto of eclecticism was that each system is correct in what it affirms and mistaken only in what it denies. Alongside these two perspectives, there are those who claim to detect a considerable vein of ideas running through Cousin's works which link him to the absolute ide alist movement of the time?to Schelling and Hegel, in particular. To complicate matters yet further, Cousin changed the name of his