ROYER-COLLARDPierre Paul (1763-1845), French statesman and philosopher, was born on the 21st June 1763 at Sompuis near Vitry-le-Français. At an early age he became a member of the bar, and pleaded several times in the old parlement of Paris. On the breaking out of the Revolution he took the popular side, and was elected to a seat in the municipal council of Paris. He was secretary to this body from 1790 to 1792, but separated himself from the later excesses of the Revolution. During the Reign of Terror he lived in retirement at Sompuis, and after vainly endeavouring in 1797, as member of the Council of Five Hundred, to bring about the restoration of the monarchy, he retired altogether from public life till the fall of Napoleon in 1814. During the interval he devoted himself mainly to philosophical studies. Animated by a profound distrust of the negative sensationalism and materialism which had characterized the French philosophy of the 18th century, he found a master whom he could follow in Thomas Reid. The study of Reid’s inquiry, which he picked up on a book-stall, first gave a definite form and direction to his thinking. Royer-Collard may be said to have introduced Reid to France, and the works of the Scottish philosopher were translated not long afterwards by his pupil Joutfroy. In 1810 Royer-Collard became professor of philosophy, and taught with success in Paris, till the Restoration recalled him to political life. In 1815 he was elected to represent his native department of the Marne in the chamber of deputies; he was also made councillor of state and appointed president of the commission of public instruction. A royalist of moderate views, he helped to restrain the extreme members of his own party, opposing alike the reactionary laws against the press and the ...proposal to give the clergy control of public instruction. In 1827 he was so popular as to be elected in seven departments, and shortly afterwards he became a member of the French Academy; in the following year he was made president of the chamber. In this capacity he had the unpleasant duty of presenting to Charles X. the address in which the majority of the chamber refused their further support to the Government (March 1830). Royer-Collard retained his position as deputy under the new régime of Louis Philippe, but no longer took a prominent part in public affairs. In 1842 he withdrew completely from active life and spent most of his remaining time at his country seat of Chateauvieux near Sainte-Aignan. He died there on the 2d September 1845.
As a philosopher, Royer-Collard is not distinguished either by originality or profundity; but he possesses a certain importance as having transplanted to France the philosophy of common sense. He has Iiimself left no philosophical writings except some fragments which appear in Jouil'roy’s edition of Reid; but by his example and teaching he founded the school which has been variously named the Scoto-French, the eclectic, the spiritualistic, or the psychological. Maine de Biran, Cousin to some extent, and Jouffroy in a closer way, as well as Janet and others at the present day, are the chief representatives of the school. The name “Spiritualisme,” which is perhaps the commonest designation, expresses the tenacity with which, in opposition to the dominant Sensationalistic materialism of France, it upholds the doctrine of a spiritual Ego as a fact of consciousness. The title psychological, however, would be preferred by the philosophers themselves as describing their method, and the basis on which they claim to have erected their philosophy. Philosophy tends for them, as for Reid and Stewart, to become a classification of isolated facts of consciousness.
Several biographies of Royer-Collard have been published. Barante, Vie politique de Al. Royer-Collard, ses discours, et ses écrits, 1861, is the fullest. Others are by Philippe and Lacombe. In addition may be mentioned Aleinoires sur Royer-Collard, by his nephew Genty de Bussy.
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