Jouffroy, Theodore Simon

Jouffroy, Theodore Simon a noted modern French eclectic philosopher, was born at Pontets in 1796. In 1832 he became professor of philosophy at the College of France, and continued in this relation until 1837. He died in 1842. He was by far the most celebrated pupil of Cousin, and very popular as a writer of great elegance of style and terseness of diction. He first became known to the public at large through the medium of a translation of Dugald Stewart's Moral Philosophy. To this translation he prefixed an essay or preface, in which he vindicates the study of intellectual science against the attacks of those who would banish all except natural philosophy, out of the domain of human investigation. "Nothing," says Morell (Hist. of Mod. Phil. p. 662), "can exceed the clearness, and even the beauty, with which he establishes in this little production the fundamental principles of intellectual philosophy." To a careful observer it is evident that he had deeply imbibed the principles and the spirit of the Scottish metaphysicians, while, at the same time, he would generally rise to those more expansive views of philosophical truth which were inculcated in the lectures of his illustrious instructor. In the Melanges Philosophiques (Paris, 1833; 2d edit. 1838- 43), the second work to which we desire to call attention. "we see," says Morell, "the zealous pupil and successor of Cousin, the genuine modern eclectic, touching more or less upon all points within the range of intellectual philosophy, and pouring light derived from all directions upon them. We feel ourselves in company with a master mind, one who does not servilely follow in the track pointed out by others, but yet who knows how to appreciate the labors of all true hearted thinkers, and to make their results tell upon the elucidation of his own system." We have not space here to elucidate his system, and refer our readers to Morell. His works were published entire in 6 octavo vols. in 1836. See Caro, in the Revue de deux Mondes, March 15, 1865.