Adolphe Franck

Adolphe Franck , born with Liocourt the October 9th 1809 and died in Paris the April 11th 1893, is a French philosopher, at the same time philosophical spiritualistic and eclectic in the line of Victor Cousin, philosopher of the Judaïsme and philosopher of the Droit.

Biography

It makes its studies at the ic school Rabbin of Alaincourt, then with the college of Nancy and the university of Toulouse. Not having been able to obtain a purse to continue its rabbinical studies, it turns to medicine, then chooses philosophy. In 1832, it is received first with the contest of aggregation of philosophy and obtains the same year its doctorate arts. He is then professor of philosophy to the colleges of Douai, Nancy and Versailles, then with the Lycée Charlemagne of Paris, where he has inter alia as pupils Edmond About and Francisque Sarcey.

In 1840, it inaugurates with the Sorbonne a free course on the social philosophy, which is stopped by a disease which leads it to remain during some time with Pisa. In 1844, its work on the Cabal, qualified by Jules Michelet of “chief of work of criticism,” is worth to him to be elected member of the Academy of Science morals and political at the age of only 36 years. The same year, whereas the Dictionnaire of philsosophic sciences starts to appear which it writes with about fifty collaborators, he becomes member of the central Consistoire of the Jews of Nancy. In 1848, it is presented without success to the legislative elections of the department of the Meurthe. Of 1849 with 1852, he is the substitute for Jules Barthelemy-Saint-Hilaire with the pulpit of Greek and Latin philosophy to the Collège de France. In 1852, he becomes preserving assistant of the imperial Bibliothèque. Of 1854 with 1881, it ensures a course on the right of nature and people to the Collège de France. Starting from 1882, he is member of the Company of the Jewish studies, of which he is president in 1888. He is also member of the Superior council of the state education and account among the founders and presidents of the Ligue of peace and freedom and the National league against atheism, where he creates in 1891 the review Social peace .

In addition to a score of works, Adolphe Franck is the author of very many contributions to the publications of the Academy of Science morals and policies, with the Archives Jews of France , with the Journal of the debates and with the Journal of the scientists .

Portrait

Alfred Fouillée:

Sincere, no one was to it nothing any more but him, of a burning sincerity, which ended sometimes up resembling passion. An idea that he believed true it was not seized its spirit, it had it entire, he did not see any more but it; it supported it towards and against all with an ardor which the years could never cut down; its eyes shone of an interior flame; its jerked word and incisor seemed to slice a Gordian knot. It had found his/her best friends among the adversaries of his idea, it had attacked them before as much impetuosity than enemies. Philosophy was for him a true religion. Attached to the worship Jew by the most sizeable traditions of family and race, there remained always an independent philosopher and admitted of another authority only that of the reason, of the conscience; but it had a temperament of apostle. Its speeches seemed, as one often made of it the remark, a remote echo of the prophets of Israel.

Jean-Barthelemy Hauréau:

Its moral person had not undergone the attacks of the age; the passion which it had conceived in its youth, not only for philosophy, but still for certain philosophical doctrines, it had preserved it very whole, and, always prompt with the response, it would not have, as lately as yesterday, dreaded contradiction; it would have rather caused it. It was valiancy even. It was before a whole moralist; a moralist, by character and having, intransigent.

Outlines of its work

The Dictionary of philosophical sciences , which comprises some: 1800 pages and to which Adolphe Franck contributes itself a very great number of articles, is devoted especially to the Histoire of philosophy and the “four forms of the human thought” which must according to him be the subject of a “progressive conciliation”: naturalism, idealism, Skepticism, Mysticism. Major philosophical work of the 19th century in the field of the Criticisme and the applied sciences, in particular as regards Perception and of Psychology, however is largely neglected there.

A big part of the work of Adolphe Franck is devoted to the Judaism. In the Cabal or the Religious Philosophy of the Hebrews , it makes a thorough analysis of the Sefer Yetsirah and Zohar and puts in parallel the philosophical concepts of the Kabbale with those of Plato, of Philon of Alexandria, the Christianisme, the Gnosticisme and the old religions Chaldée. He concludes from it that the origins of the Cabal must be required in the Zoroastrisme, at the time of the first Jewish exile, i.e. a long time before his first demonstrations written in the middle of the 13th century. In the field of mysticism, Adolphe Franck also publishes several tests on Eastern philosophies as well as an important study on the origins of the Martinisme.

The most innovative aspect of the philosophy of Adolphe Franck is in the field of the bases of the civil law and, especially, the criminal law. To the principle of atonement like base of the penalty, like to the alleged right to punish or punish, taken in the direction “to remunerate the evil by the evil”, he opposes the right of conservation of the company, i.e. his right of self-defense with regard to all that tends to destroy it. From there the two other laws the company derive: right of intimidation and right of repair. According to Alfred Fouillée, the theory of Adolphe Franck “misses neither of originality, nor of boldness; it constitutes a considerable progress on the doctrines of Kant, of Cousin, Guizot, the duke of Broglie, like also on the utility theories or the purely medical theories. ”

Principal publications

Of the literary Revolutions, thesis of literature presented to the Faculty of Arts of Toulouse (1832)
Draft of a history of logic, preceded by a wide analysis of the Organum of Aristote (1838; 1898) Text in line
the Cabal or the Religious Philosophy of the Hebrews (1843; 1889: 1892). Republication: Slatkine, Geneva, 1981. English translation in line
Dictionary of philosophical sciences by a Company of professors and scientists, under the direction of Mr. AD. Franck, of the Institute (6 volumes, 1844-1852; 1875: 1885) Text in line
Of the Certainty, report/ratio to the Academy of Science morals and policies, preceded by an introduction on the duties of philosophy into times present of the company (1847)
the Communism judged by the history (1848; 1849; 1871)
Eastern Studies (1861; 1864)
Reforming and publicity agents of Europe, the Middle Ages, rebirth (1864)
Philosophy of the criminal law (1864; 1880; 1888)
Philosophy of the ecclesiastical right, the Reports/ratios of the religion and the State (1864; 1885)
mystical Philosophy in France at the end of the XVIIIe century: Holy Martin and his Master Martinez Pasqualis (1866)
Philosophy and religion (1867; 1869)
Elements of morals (1868; 1872; 1872; 1885)
Morals for all (1868; 1873; 1880; 1884) Text in line
Moralists and philosophical (1872; 1874) Text in line
Philosophical modern, foreign and French (1879)
Reforming and publicity agents of Europe, XVIIè century (1881)
Tests of philosophical criticism (1885)
Philosophy of the civil law (1886)
New tests of philosophical criticism (1890)
Reforming and publicity agents of Europe, XVIIIè century (1893)
New Eastern studies (1896)

Notes, sources and references

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