Background
Pierre Laromiguière was born on November 3, 1756 at Livignac.
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Pierre Laromiguière was born on November 3, 1756 at Livignac.
In 1799 Pierre Laromiguière was made a member of the Tribunate, and in 1833 of the Academy of Moral and Political Science.
He wrote also two Memoires, read before the Institute, Les Paradoxes de Condillac (1805) and Leqons de philosophie (1815 - 1818).
Laromiguiere's philosophy is interesting as a revolt against the extreme physiological psychology of the natural scientists, such as Cabanis.
He distinguished between those psychological phenomena which can be traced directly to purely physical causes, and the actions of the soul which originate from within itself. Psychology was not for him a branch of physiology, nor on the other hand did he give to his theory an abstruse metaphysical basis.
A pupil of Condillac and indebted for much of his ideology to Destutt de Tracy, he attached a fuller importance to Attention as a psychic faculty.
Attention provides the facts, Comparison groups and combines them, while Reason systematizes and explains.
The soul is active in its choice, i. e. is endowed with freewill, and is, therefore, immortal.
He held that its judgments are, at the best, statements of identity, and that its so-called discoveries are merely the reiteration, in a new form, of previous truisms.
Laromiguiere was not the first to develop these views; he owed much to Condillac, Destutt de Tracy and Cabanis.
But, owing to the accuracy of his language and the purity of his style, his works had great influence, especially over Armand Marrast, Cardaillac and Cousin.
A lecture of his in the Ecole Normale impressed Cousin so strongly that he at once devoted himself to the study of philosophy.
In 1799 he was made a member of the Tribunate, and in 1833 of the Academy of Moral and Political Science.
Quotes from others about the person
Jouffroy and Taine agree in describing him as one of the great thinkers of the 19th century.
