Victor Cousin was a French educationalist and philosopher. He was born in 1792, and died in 1867. He was educated at the Ecole Normale, University of Paris. Cousin was appointed lecturer at the University of Paris in 1815 and was made director of the Ecole Normale in 1830, the year he became a councillor of state and a peer of France. In 1840 he became minister of public instruction in the French cabinet; under his influence the French system of primary education was reorganised, philosophical freedom was encouraged in the university, and the study of the history of philosophy was introduced into academic curricula.
Victor Cousin is regarded as the founder of the modern philosophical school of eclecticism. Believing that no single philosophical system is entirely correct, Victor Cousin combined aspects of idealism, materialism, mysticism, and scepticism into an eclectic system of his own. He was particularly influenced by the philosophy of common sense of the Scottish philosopher Thomas Reid and by the idealism of the German philosopher G. W. F. Hegel. Research Victor Cousin
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
People
Research Victor Cousin
