Ravesson, Jean Gaspard Felix

Felix Ravesson was born in 1813 in Namur , after the death of his father, was brought up by his uncle G.T. Moliène, from whom he received a second surname. He studied at Rollen College with Hector Pore, where in 1832 he received an honorary award for his essay “Method in Philosophy”. In 1834 he was awarded the first prize of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences for the competitive essay on Aristotle 's “Metaphysics” . In 1837 he published the first volume of the revised "Experience on the" Metaphysics "of Aristotle." In 1838 , having defended his thesis "On Habit," he received the position of professor of philosophy in Rennes . In 1839 he visited Munich , where he listened to Schelling's lectures, with which he was in lengthy correspondence. In 1840 he received a doctorate in literature for his dissertation "On Habit". From 1839 to 1853 he served as general inspector of public libraries, from 1853 to 1880 as general inspector of higher education. From 1880 - member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, from 1870 - curator of classical antiquities in the Louvre . Knight of the Legion of Honor . He died in Paris on May 18, 1900.

The teachings of Aristotle, Plato , Leibniz , Schelling and Men de Biran influenced the formation of the views of Ravesson. The philosopher called his own doctrine "spiritualistic realism", seeking to combine the psychological ideas of Men de Biran with the natural philosophy of Schelling. Like Biran, Ravesson saw the main method of cognition in self-observation , revealing the facts of inner experience , and considered individual experience as the basis for comprehending all reality. He saw Biran’s main merit in pointing out the fact of volitional activity in which the essence of our spirit is directly revealed to us. In his philosophy, Ravesson deepened the voluntaristic motive of Biran’s philosophy, giving free will the status of the most essential, creative element of reality ^[1] . The aim of philosophy, Ravesson believed, is to comprehend the spirit as the absolute reality and the true foundation of the world.

Of particular interest is Ravesson's work On Habit, in which the philosopher developed a whole doctrine of nature . A habit, according to Ravesson, is a kind of border that separates will and nature. In human life, a habit demonstrates a return from free self-determination to natural automatism . Consciousness involves a gap between the goal and its implementation, filled with reflection ; in the habit, this gap is reduced, and then completely disappears; habit is an act of rational but unconscious. In this the philosopher saw the key to the solution of nature: nature is not a blind mechanical force, it is a dying consciousness and a frozen will. There is no gap between nature and spirit: in all reality there is universal spontaneity, the source of which is God ; the automatism of the laws of nature is only a kind of petrified remnant of spiritual activity. These thoughts, developed in the “Report on French Philosophy,” were highly appreciated by Henri Bergson ^[1] .

• An Experience on the Metaphysics of Aristotle ( Essai sur la métaphysique d'Aristote , 1837–1846)
• About the habit ( De l'habitude , 1838)
• Report on Stoicism ( Rapport sur le stoïcisme , 1851)
• Venus de Milo ( La Vénus de Milo , 1862)
• Philosophy in France in the 19th Century ( La philosophie en France au XIX-e siècle , 1868)
• Morality and Metaphysics ( Morale et métaphysique , 1893)

• Blauberg I.I. Henri Bergson . - M .: Progress-Tradition, 2003 .-- 672 p.
• Blauberg I.I. Ravesson-Moliène, Jean Gaspard Felix . - Encyclopedia Krugosvet.