Author
Émile Faguet
1847-1916
Émile Faguet (1847-1916) is a public-domain author available on Rivro. Read free books, explore subjects, and discover related classics.
Subjects
Books by Émile Faguet
Initiation into Philosophy
"Initiation into Philosophy" by Émile Faguet is a philosophical overview written in the early 20th century. The work serves as a primer for those new to philosophy, guiding readers from ancient philosophical thought through medieval and modern developments. The author intends to spark curiosity in the foundational ideas and historical contexts of philosophical inquiry, discussing major thinkers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle and their contributions to moral and metaphysical philosophy. The opening of the text presents the author's aim to excite and engage beginners in the field of philosophy. Faguet outlines a structured approach to exploring significant philosophical epochs, beginning with the pre-Socratic thinkers and progressing through the contributions of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the evolution of ideas and their connections, serving as a scaffold for deeper exploration. Through discussions of early philosophical concepts, like the nature of reality and the beginnings of ethical thought, Faguet establishes a framework for the rest of the discourse, inviting readers to contemplate the essence of philosophical inquiry.
Initiation into Literature
"Initiation into Literature" by Émile Faguet is a literary guidebook written during the late 19th century. The book is designed to introduce beginners to a broad sweep of literary history, starting from ancient writings and tracing the development of literature through various cultures and epochs, including Indian, Hebraic, Greek, Roman, and medieval literature. Faguet aims to spark curiosity and encourage further study, presenting an organized panorama of literary progress. The beginning of "Initiation into Literature" features a preface by the author outlining his intentions, emphasizing the book's role as a repository for those new to the study of literature. The opening chapters immediately delve into ancient Indian literature, discussing sacred texts like the Vedas, the emergence of Buddhism and its literature, and the famous epics, the Mahabharata and Ramayana. Additionally, Faguet highlights the key characteristics of these works, such as their poetic style, moral teachings, and the inclusion of animals as significant characters—a reflection of the cultural context surrounding Indian literary traditions.
Études Littéraires; dix-huitième siècle
"Études Littéraires; dix-huitième siècle" by Émile Faguet is a critical analysis written in the late 19th century focusing on the literature of the 18th century. This work delves into the ideas and influences of major writers from that era, such as Pierre Bayle, Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau, examining how their thoughts reflect the broader cultural and philosophical changes of their time. Faguet contends that the 18th century is characterized by a notable decline in moral and literary standards when compared to the preceding and succeeding centuries, largely due to the era's distancing from Christian and nationalistic ideals. The opening of the book establishes the author's purpose in addressing students of literature and critiques the writers of the 18th century as more concerned with ideas than artistic techniques. Faguet outlines key themes of the period, such as the rejection of traditional moral frameworks and the rise of individualism against a backdrop of political stagnation. He offers a detailed examination of significant figures, beginning with Bayle, asserting that his approach to philosophy serves as a precursor to the broader intellectual trends that define the century, marked by skepticism, a detachment from Christian thought, and a complex relationship with concepts of nationality and morality.
The cult of incompetence
"The Cult of Incompetence" by Émile Faguet is a critical examination of modern democracy, likely written in the early 20th century. Through his insights, Faguet argues that contemporary democratic systems worship and promote incompetence, specifically in governance and the selection of leaders. He explores the detrimental effects of this preference on society, government, and the law, suggesting that a more competent and informed leadership is essential for effective governance. The opening of the book begins with an introduction that sets the stage for Faguet's argument by discussing historical frameworks of governance and the importance of principles in various government forms. It transitions into a critical overview of how democracies tend to elevate the incompetent, illustrated through historical examples and philosophical reflection. Faguet contends that this trend leads to a lack of specialization and a decline in governmental effectiveness, as the populace fails to appreciate the necessity of qualified leaders, resulting in chaotic and ineffective legislation driven by popular passion rather than wisdom or reason. Overall, the opening portion establishes a thought-provoking foundation for the arguments and critiques that will unfold throughout the entire text.
Le féminisme
"Le Féminisme" by Émile Faguet is a philosophical treatise written in the early 20th century. The book delves into the concepts and discussions surrounding feminism, particularly exploring the roles, rights, and societal perceptions of women compared to men. Faguet engages critically with other feminist works, including those of Charles Turgeon, while advocating for women's equality across various aspects of life, such as education, family, and civil rights. The opening of the treatise introduces the discussion of feminism by referencing Charles Turgeon's comprehensive work on the topic, highlighting both its thoroughness and certain shortcomings. Faguet emphasizes that while Turgeon's arguments for equality are largely agreeable, he confounds legal rights with practical realities, prompting Faguet to illuminate the distinction between the two. He outlines the essential aspects of feminism, arguing for absolute equality between men and women in legal contexts while acknowledging the complexities of real-life implementation within families and society. Overall, this beginning sets the stage for a deeper exploration of feminist ideology whilst recognizing the challenges that accompany its application in practice.
L'Anticléricalisme
"L'Anticléricalisme" by Émile Faguet is a historical and philosophical examination written in the early 20th century. The work explores the longstanding anticlérical sentiment in France, analyzing its roots, manifestations, and implications for the national character and societal behavior. Faguet intends to approach the subject impartially, providing insights into the interplay between religion, politics, and the French psyche. The opening of "L'Anticléricalisme" introduces Faguet's study of what he considers a pervasive and deep-rooted malady within the French character—anticléricalism. The author begins by discussing the dual nature of French identity as both inherently religious and irreligious, suggesting that this paradox has shaped historical conflicts and societal attitudes. He critiques the notion that past religious wars were driven predominantly by sincere faith, arguing instead that they often served as covers for political and social battles. Faguet emphasizes the French tendency towards skepticism, lightheartedness, and a penchant for conflict, positing that these traits contribute to a general aversion to traditional religious authority. Through this lens, he sets the stage for a broader exploration of the historical and cultural dimensions of anticléricalism in France.
Corneille expliqué aux enfants
"Corneille expliqué aux enfants" by Émile Faguet is an educational work written in the late 19th century. This book aims to introduce children and young people to the greatness of French literature, focusing specifically on the playwright Pierre Corneille. It presents not only his life and works but also seeks to extract moral lessons applicable to young readers, making the themes accessible and meaningful. The opening of the work sets the stage for discussing France during the reign of Louis XIII, a period characterized by both glory and hardship. Faguet emphasizes the importance of cultural and literary figures in imparting virtues like courage and patriotism to the nation’s youth. He introduces Corneille as a pivotal figure, highlighting his contributions to theatre and the profound sentiments he expressed through his works. The text serves as a blend of historical background and biographical detail, intending to nurture an appreciation of great literature and its moral underpinnings in young minds.
Pour qu'on lise Platon
No description available.
L'art de lire
"L''art de lire" by Émile Faguet is a literary essay and practical guide to reading written in the early 20th century. It sets out how to read not as a critic on duty but as a cultivated reader seeking the fullest pleasure and understanding. Faguet argues for slow, attentive reading and tailored methods for different kinds of works—philosophical, sentimental, and dramatic—so that readers think better, feel more truly, and see more clearly. The opening of the book contrasts reading to learn or to judge with reading for enjoyment, and declares the author’s aim: to teach the art of pleasurable, intelligent reading. First comes a cardinal rule—always read slowly, distrust first impressions, avoid skimming—because slowness both deepens comprehension and immediately separates worthwhile books from the rest. For books of ideas, he recommends a continual back-and-forth comparison within the text to uncover an author’s governing notions, their growth and contradictions, illustrating with Plato, Montesquieu, Descartes, and La Rochefoucauld; he frames this as a courteous intellectual fencing match that sharpens the reader’s mind without dogmatism. For books of sentiment, he urges initial surrender to emotion, then a second phase of judgment grounded in real-life observation and self-analysis, with cautions about “exceptional” cases and a brisk portrait gallery of reader types (narrative-chasers, realists, idealists, poetry devotees, seekers of the exceptional, and classicists). Turning to drama, he defends reading plays as an appeal from the theater, and advises reading them as if staged—seeing entrances, groupings, and gestures—especially in Greek tragedy; a detailed example unpacks the physical action embedded in Racine’s Phèdre before the discussion moves toward Athalie.
Zola
"Zola" by Émile Faguet is a critical examination of the literary work of the renowned French author Émile Zola, written in the early 20th century. This book serves as a biography and literary critique, focusing specifically on Zola's contributions and impact on literature over a career that spanned nearly forty years, from the early 1860s until his death in 1902. Faguet delves into the nature of Zola's writings, emphasizing their thematic qualities and stylistic choices, which reflect a significant, though often contentious, evolution within the literary landscape of the time. In this analysis, Faguet evaluates Zola's work through various lenses, noting how his early influences and eventual embrace of naturalism led to a distinctive style that emphasized descriptions of social conditions and human behavior. He categorizes Zola's career into three distinct phases, detailing his growth from a youthful Romantic to a more deliberate and ambitious writer with the "Rougon-Macquart" series. Despite Zola's popularity and notoriety, Faguet remains critical of his often grotesque portrayals of humanity, arguing that they lack psychological depth and complexity. As Faguet concludes, while Zola's forceful depictions of life resonated with the masses, they also showcased a troubling misanthropy that revealed the author's deeper discontent with humanity.
A kontárság kultusza
"A kontárság kultusza" by Émile Faguet is a critical sociopolitical treatise written in the early 20th century. The text addresses the prevalent ideologies influencing the political and social landscapes of modern democracies, especially focusing on the pitfalls of incompetence and demagoguery. Faguet critiques the excesses of democracy and the cultural shift towards incompetence that he observes in political institutions. The opening of the book introduces Faguet's examination of political governance, positing that various forms of government, such as monarchy and democracy, each have foundational principles that can lead to their decline when overstretched or abandoned. He discusses the dangers associated with modern democracy, illustrating how it fosters a disregard for expertise and promotes an environment that prioritizes popular sentiment over competence. By drawing on historical references and contemporary examples, Faguet outlines his argument that the essence of democracy, while seemingly inclusive, can create a system where incompetence flourishes, ultimately threatening the integrity of governance itself.
Le culte de l'incompétence
"Le culte de l'incompétence" by Émile Faguet is a political essay written in the early 20th century. It argues that mass democracies, intent on equality and direct control, displace specialized competence with passion-driven representation, leading parliaments to govern, administer, and legislate poorly. The work contrasts this drift with an ideal of informed, moderate, and detached lawmaking and warns of a polity that politicizes every function and churns out reactive, short-lived laws. The opening of the essay situates the book within a contemporary studies series, then revisits Montesquieu’s idea that each regime has a guiding principle to claim that democracy’s is the worship of incompetence. Faguet illustrates how popular sovereignty erodes specialization: Athens replaced trained judges with paid jurors; modern democracies evolved from filtered elections to direct representation that rewards passion over expertise, producing “politicians” dependent on the crowd. He shows the legislature usurping executive and administrative roles, dictating appointments and decisions, distrusting inamovibility, and turning governance into partisan oversight, while genuine competence retreats to private professions that the state seeks to nationalize; even socialism, he argues, would slide toward despotism. He then sketches the truly competent legislator—well informed about a people’s temperament, moderate, and free of passion—favoring insinuation over command and prudence in changing laws, before concluding that democracy instead elects impassioned, uninformed lawmakers who pass episodic, event-driven measures like a daily newspaper.
Initiation philosophique
No description available.
... Et l'horreur des responsabilités (suite au Culte de l'incompétence)
"... Et l''horreur des responsabilités (suite au Culte de l''incompétence)" by Faguet is a political and legal essay written in the early 20th century. It contends that modern French institutions are consciously arranged to evade responsibility, with special emphasis on how the judiciary and public life shift blame onto laws, superiors, and the state. The work continues the author’s broader critique of civic incompetence by examining law, professions, family, and social customs through a sharp, polemical lens. The opening of the treatise argues that the French strive to be irresponsible and first targets legal ideas and customs. It claims that, since the Revolution, judges are reduced to automatic applicators of statutes, shedding moral responsibility, unlike the old French magistrates, English judges, or Roman praetors who shaped law and felt its burdens. Beccaria’s case for strict textualism is invoked to show how fear of “the spirit of the law” also shelters judges from blame. The author defends the Ancien Régime’s sale of judicial offices (following Montesquieu and La Beaumelle against Voltaire) as a paradoxical guarantee of independence, and argues the Revolution annexed justice to the executive, making government the true judge. He then illustrates politicized judging: the Paris court’s condemnation of Cardinal Luçon, allegedly based on ministry assurances and a distorted quotation, and the 1906 Court of Cassation in the Dreyfus affair, said to have inverted a legal article to avoid a new court-martial—thus appeasing power while keeping the case unresolved. The narrative widens to show executive and parliamentary encroachment, the sway of deputies and local “governments,” and echoes of Guizot and Poincaré on the danger of politics in the courts. In sum, the beginning portrays a judiciary doubly shielded—by literalism and by obedience—leaving justice in the hands of an irresponsible authority.
Les préjugés nécessaires
Les préjugés nécessaires by Émile Faguet is a philosophical treatise written in the early 20th century. It examines how societies are built and held together by “necessary prejudices”—beliefs people adopt less from proof than from social need. Arguing that humans are naturally familial and only reluctantly social, it claims war both creates and sustains society, forging civic cohesion and recasting instincts. The work appears set to analyze core beliefs (such as love of life and free will) as instruments that align individuals with collective survival. The opening of this treatise questions whether humans are innately social, comparing us with solitary, social, and gregarious animals and concluding we most resemble the gregarious. It traces a path from prolonged childrearing to family, sedentarism, domestication, and agriculture, then argues that true society arose not from the family but from war driven by population pressure, which necessitated defensive coalitions, laws, and permanent states that elevate martial virtues. Faguet then defines “necessary prejudices” and illustrates two: love of life, which society redirects from personal impulse to patriotic self-sacrifice, and free will, treated as a probable illusion yet a socially imposed creed that grounds responsibility, punishment, remorse, and conversion. The section closes by canvassing critiques of volition (Spinoza, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Ribot) while explaining why belief in freedom persists because society requires it.
La démission de la morale
"La démission de la morale" by Émile Faguet is a philosophical treatise written in the early 20th century. The work examines how moral thought moves from ancient, persuasive ethics to the Christian era’s commanding duties and, finally, to Kant’s autonomous morality of pure obligation. It asks whether modern ethics has let duty abdicate in favor of comfort, utility, or sentiment, turning morality into a mere art of living. Readers interested in ethics and intellectual history will find a rigorous, critical survey of moral foundations. The opening of the treatise states its aim: to trace the evolution of morality—especially in France—from pre-Kantian systems to the latest debates. Faguet distinguishes morality as science (normative, rule-giving) from morality as art (techniques for happiness), then surveys antiquity: Socratic and Stoic ethics as rational yet persuasive, Epicurean ethics as eudaimonistic and hypothetical, all lacking true imperative force, much like the mixed imperatives of Greek religion with its gods, Fate, and Nemesis. He shows Christianity instituting a genuinely imperative morality grounded in obedience to God, transformed by Jesus from justice to love, yet still supported by religious sanctions; later, as faith wanes, utilitarian and sentimental “independent” moralities remain merely persuasive and subjective. Turning to Kant, he presents the first fully independent, autonomous morality: the moral fact is self-evident and categorical; duty commands without conditions; freedom is affirmed by the experience of remorse; rewards or pleasure corrupt moral purity; virtue is a conquest against nature; and an enduring tension opposes individual happiness to species-level duty—so that morality becomes, from the start, a perpetual internal struggle of the self against itself.
"... és a felelősségtől való rettegés" : $b "A kontárság kultuszának" folytatása
"... és a felelősségtől való rettegés" : "A kontárság kultuszának" folytatása by Émile Faguet is a political and legal essay written in the early 20th century. It argues that a cultural fear of responsibility has shaped French institutions since the Revolution, encouraging mechanical legality, bureaucratic dependence, and moral evasion. Building on his earlier critique of incompetence, Faguet probes how legal doctrines and administrative structures foster unaccountable judges and a subservient judiciary. The opening of the work stakes a bold thesis: modern France strives to make decision-makers irresponsible, especially in law. Faguet contrasts judges who rigidly apply statutes (thereby avoiding moral judgment) with the older, precedent-shaping English judges and the Roman praetors who accepted real responsibility. He revisits Montesquieu versus Voltaire on the venality of offices, arguing that hereditary or purchased judicial posts once secured independence from the executive, whereas the Revolution tethered courts to the government, producing a double irresponsibility (strict textualism plus political dependence). To illustrate, he dissects a case against Cardinal Luçon about mixed public schools, accusing the court of trusting ministerial assurances, neglecting factual inquiry, and even twisting a legal opinion. He then analyzes the Dreyfus affair’s cassation ruling, claiming the court subtly inverted a procedural article to avoid remand, thereby serving state convenience while leaving the affair morally unresolved. The section closes by hinting at ministerial influence behind such outcomes, underscoring the book’s core theme: institutions engineered to evade accountability.