Littre, Emil

The son of a naval artilleryman, a great free-thinker, graduated from medical school, but, remaining after the death of his father, became a pillar of the family, he began to give lessons in Latin and Greek languages ​​for the purchase of money.

During the July Revolution of 1830, he fought on the barricades. He was an employee of Le National , Carrell and the Revue des Deux Mondes . The publication of the first volume of the works of Hippocrates (1839) immediately created Littre's reputation as a first-class scientist; in the same year he was elected a member of the Academy of Inscriptions . At the same time, he became acquainted with the works of Auguste Comte , the reading of which, by his own admission, constituted a "turning point in his life."

He became close to Comte, decided to popularize his ideas in a number of articles, and at the same time continued the publication of Hippocrates (until 1862), published Pliny's Historia naturalis, and after 1844 replaced Foriel in the Histoire littéireire de la publishing committee France. " During the revolution of 1848, he fought against the extreme parties. His articles, during this time placed in the "National", were collected and published by him in 1852 under the title "Conservation, Révolution et Positivisme". In the last years of his life, Conte Littre somewhat separated from Comte, not sharing his new views.

After the death of Comte, Littre presented his view of positivism in Paroles de Philosophie Positive (1859) and in more detail in Auguste Comte et la Philosophie Positive (1863). Here he draws Comt’s ideas from the teachings of Turgot , Kant and Saint-Simon and makes an assessment of his philosophy. The method of Comte Littre hotly protects against the attacks of John Stuart Mill , but is skeptical of his "religion of mankind."

Since 1867, Mr Littre published the journal Philosophie Positive along with Vyrubov . Since 1863, Mr .. Littre began to compile a large dictionary of French, helped him in this Marcel Bernard Julien . In the same year, he put forward his candidacy in the French Academy, but was rejected because he was known as the head of the French materialists. After the fall of the empire, he, at the invitation of Gambetta , lectured on history in Bordeaux. In December 1871, Mr .. Littre was elected a member of the French Academy, despite the strong opposition to Dupanlu .

Littre's dictionary was completed in 1873. Elected as a life-long senator, Littre wrote several articles in defense of the republic. In 1879, he reprinted his book “Conservation, Révolution et Positivisme”, attaching to it a categorical denial of many of Comte's doctrines, and published a small treatise “Pour la dernière fois”, in which he expressed his unswerving loyalty to materialism.

When it became clear that old Littre was left to live a short time, his wife and daughter, zealous Catholic, made every effort to convert it to their religion. Littre had long meetings with pater Milerio, the famous counterstrike; but it seems quite incredible that Littre actually changed his mindset. His funeral was performed according to the Catholic rite.

As a philosopher, Littre developed and popularized the ideas of Comte and was the founder of a special direction in positivism; as a lexicographer, he was compared to himself. Johnson , but his vocabulary is as much as Johnson’s, as far as the nineteenth-century philological science. surpasses science XVIII century.

As a writer on a wide variety of issues, he served until the beginning of the 20th century. prominent place between modern French scientists and publicists.

The most important of his numerous books and articles, besides those mentioned above:

• in philology - Histoire de la langue française (1862);
• on medicine - a new edition of “Dictionnaire de médecine, de chirurgie etc.” P.Yu. Nisten (1855);
• on philosophy:
  • “Analyze the raisonnée du cours de philosophie positive de Mr. A. Comte "(1845),
  • "Application de la Philosophie positive au Gouvernement" (1849),
  • "La Science au point de vue philosophique" (1873),
  • Fragments de philosophie et de sociologie contemporaine (1876) and others;
• mixed content:
  • Études et Glanures (1880),
  • "La Vérité sur la mort d'Alexandre le Grand" (1865),
  • "Études sur les barbares et le moyen-âge" (1867),
  • "Médecine et Médicins" (1871, there is a Russian. Per.),
  • "Littérature et Histoire" (1875),
  • “De rétablissement de la troisième ré publique” (1880).

In addition, he translated D.F. Strauss (1839–40) from German, The Life of Jesus (1839–40), published the works of Armand Carrel (1854–58) and the complete works of Comte (from 1867) with notes. A number of his articles have been translated into Russian under the title “Abbey, Monks and Barbaras in the West. The fall of the Roman Empire ”(Kiev, 1889).

List of Works

• Medicine and medicine = Médecine et Médicins. - SPb. : Type of. F.Sushchinsky, 1873. - VIII, 388 p. - 2,000 copies

Bibliography

• Littre, Paul-Maximilien-Emile // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : in 86 tons (82 tons and 4 extra). - SPb. , 1890-1907.