Background
Rauh, Frédéric was born on March 31, 1861 in St-Martin-le-Vinux, Isère, France.
Rauh, Frédéric was born on March 31, 1861 in St-Martin-le-Vinux, Isère, France.
L’Ecole Normale Supérieure.
1898-1901, Professor of Philosophy, Faculté des Lettres de Toulouse. 1901-1909, Professor of Philosophy, Sorbonne and L’École Normale Supérieure.
Rauh’s enduring preoccupation was with the nature and ground of morality. His work, however, passed through different phases. At first, he championed a metaphysics inspired by the ‘spiritualism’ of Jules Lachelier and Emile Boutroux. Thus in his Essai (1890) he criticized the attempt to ground ethics in naturalism and maintained that the only real certitude is the Idea, the invisible, and that therefore there can be no ethics without metaphysics, without the search for an absolute which is the type of every being. Accordingly, he defined moral action as ‘métaphysique en acte’. None the less Rauh’s subsequent works were anti-metaphysical. In them he adopted an experimentalist standpoint, arguing that there is no difference between the ways in which moral truths and scientific truths are established and obtain our assent. Consequently he held that we must not attempt to deduce moral certainty from abstract ideologies, but must assume instead the impersonal attitude of the scientist in each situation, and put relevant ideas to the critical test by comparing them with reality and other ideas. Rauh stressed that morality has its source not in passive conformity to social norms or preestablished standards, but rather in individual initiative and creativity. To some extent, he prepared the way for later French philosophers, such as Jean Grenier and Raymond Polin. who stressed the primacy of choice and the creation of values.