Paul Janet is not one of the philosophers who are often quoted a lot. However, this spiritualist expressed many valuable ideas about the nature of the human mind. For the most part, the views and works of the French thinker were aimed at combating the traditions of materialism.
From the biography of Paul Janet
The future philosopher was born on April 30, 1823 in the capital of France. Paul Janet is considered a student of V. Cousin. The scientist received a solid education. After graduating from the school course, he studied at the Ecole Normal Parisian higher pedagogical school. After that Janet taught philosophy at the Sorbonne.
In 1864 Janet became a member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences. The scientist and teacher has created many works in the field of philosophy. Here are just a few of the works he wrote:
- "The history of political science in its relationship with morality";
- "Experience on dialectics in Plato and Hegel";
- "Morality";
- End Causes;
- "Victor Cousin and his work";
- "Principles of Metaphysics and Psychology";
- "Foundations of Philosophy";
- “History of Philosophy. Problems and Schools”.
The philosopher worked hard to create his own philosophical system. It reflects the traditions of Aristotle and Descartes, Leibniz and Kant, Cousin and Jouffroy. Janet assimilated the views of his predecessors and often drew on their works to substantiate certain aspects of his philosophical concept. However, the views of the representatives of spiritualism were of decisive importance in the formation of the scientific views of the French philosopher. This direction was developed in the first half of the 19th century.
Paul Janet's views
Janet is known for his irreconcilable stance on materialism. He fought against this line of philosophical thought throughout his scientific career. Paul Janet's system is aimed at finding the foundations of metaphysics. His position is characterized by a desire for evidence, generalizations and broad scientific synthesis. According to Janet, philosophy should turn into a "science of sciences", which, however, can be limited to the facts known in a certain era. Therefore, any scientific system will be far from complete.
Janet not only recognized the existence of progress, but also insisted on this statement. He strove to view philosophy in the context of the history of society. The general pathos of the French philosopher's system was to generalize the knowledge accumulated by mankind, using methods free of contradictions for this.
Janet believed that philosophy is the same science as many other disciplines. He saw the significance of the questions raised by philosophy in the very nature of such problems. Philosophy is useful because it leads a person to self-knowledge and comprehension of truth, it teaches the mind to analyze abstract issues.
Janet considered private sciences to be a semblance of some kind of product of living human thought. And he assigned the place of philosophy to the science of the fundamental laws of the universe.
Janet pointed to the duality of the object of philosophy, separately considering man and God. From this followed the division of philosophy into two sections. The first is the philosophy of the human mind. The second is the "first" philosophy. Janet considered God to be the embodiment of the highest principle of being, the limit and the last word of science. Without the idea of God, man remains an incomplete being.
The two main parts of philosophy are inseparably linked to one another. They are one science. In philosophical research, the scientist must move from the lesser known to the more famous. In this way, the spirit of modern science is manifested.
Janet chose the doctrine of the mind as the starting point of his philosophical doctrine. What was he guided by in this? The fact that a person knows his own mind better than the general causes and principles of being.
Janet divided the philosophy of the human mind into several branches of knowledge. These sections are:
- logics;
- psychology;
- morality;
- aesthetics.
Psychology occupies a special place in such rubrification. It is designed to help in the study of "empirical laws". The remaining sections of the science of the mind reflect the ideal goals towards which the human mind should be directed.
Paul Janet against materialism
Much attention in the philosophical writings of Janet is paid to refutation of the materialistic understanding of reality and, in particular, the understanding of the Universe. The philosopher argued that the materialist concept of matter is inconsistent and inconsistent. Why? Because on this path there are insurmountable difficulties in explaining the nature of living human thinking.
According to Janet, a detailed analysis of the forms of movement also leads to the refutation of materialism. Nature, the thinker claims, obeys the law of causes that have their own goals. Expediency is not the way the mind operates; it characterizes nature itself. It is possible to confirm the operation of the law of cause: for this you only need to rely on real facts.
Janet's merit in the development of scientific methodology can be considered his desire to use in his system the works and achievements of natural scientists of that time. However, the basically correct method had an idealistic basis, which prevented Janet from embarking on the path of knowing the truth. Although his contribution to the formation of the connection between the natural sciences and philosophy cannot be denied.
Developing his views against materialism, Janet considered it necessary to classify in a special way the proof of the existence of God, which was put forward by his predecessors. The metaphysical attributes of the divine, the French philosopher believed, may well be captured by the thought of a scientist. You just need to try to discard everything that relates exclusively to the conditions of existence of finite things. Only five attributes will remain:
- simplicity;
- unity;
- eternity;
- immutability;
- infinity.
Paul Janet criticized the idea of pantheism. He believed that this teaching makes any individuality null and void. Janet considered the god of pantheists to be a sleeping creature. And the God of the Spiritualists is the waking principle.
Janet lived and was engaged in creativity at a time when the natural sciences and philosophy were in crisis. He associated this phenomenon with the dominance of German idealism and the spread of the ideas of positivism. The thinker contrasted these concepts with spiritualism, believing that this teaching best reflects the freedom of the human mind and emphasizes the dignity of reason. It was with spiritualism, with its renewal, that Janet linked the future of philosophy. The scientist sharply opposed this direction of philosophical thought not only to materialism, but also to the basic idealistic concepts.
The famous French philosopher passed away on October 4, 1899 in Paris. He did not live quite a bit until the beginning of the new century, which opened the most interesting pages in natural science, thanks to which a materialistic view of the forms of movement of natural phenomena gradually began to be affirmed in science.
