Date post: | 07-Aug-2018 |
Category: |
Documents |
Upload: | bruno-roldan-garcia |
View: | 218 times |
Download: | 0 times |
8/20/2019 Nietzsche and Guyau
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/nietzsche-and-guyau 1/24
University of Pennsylvania Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the
History of Ideas.
http://www.jstor.org
On Jean-Marie Guyau, ImmoralisteAuthor(s): Geoffrey C. FidlerSource: Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 55, No. 1 (Jan., 1994), pp. 75-97Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2709954Accessed: 29-11-2015 07:04 UTC
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of contentin a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
This content downloaded from 147.96.1.236 on Sun, 29 Nov 2015 07:04:43 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
8/20/2019 Nietzsche and Guyau
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/nietzsche-and-guyau 2/24
On Jean-Marie
uyau,
mmoraliste
Geoffrey
. Fidler
"Itis still hecultofChristianmorality nder
a new
name-The
freethinkers,
.g., Guyau."
(Friedrich ietzsche,
he Will
To
Power)
"...
je disais
a
Culture, ee
de
la
vie,
tuant
a vie."
(Andre
Gide,L'Immoraliste)
Unlike
Nietzsche nd Bergson,
withwhomhe is
invariablyompared,
thephilosopher-poetean-Marie uyau 1854-88)
s
notwidely
known. ut
his Esquisse
d'une morale
ans obligation
i
sanction f
1885 was some-
thing
f a sensation
n its
day,bringing
im
a
reputation
nd
a measure
f
notorietys a sort
f French
ietzsche. his was
reinforced
ith he
ppear-
ance
two
years
ater
f its
quasi-sequel,
'Irre'ligion
e l'avenir. By
their
provocative
itles
t least, hese
works eemed
o be theepitome f French
positivisticspiration,
ith
morality
isengaged
rom
eligion
nd meta-
physics,
rom
bligation nd sanction.
et they ame
to situate
uyau
n
the
spiritualist
r ntuitionistchool
of French
hilosophy
rom
Maine
de
Biran
through avaisson
nd
Lachelier o Fouillee
and
Bergson,
nd
to
earn
him,
vicariously,
he immoralist"nd
psychologist
redentials
f Nietzsche.
o
be
sure,
with ts uncommon
roposal
f anomie
morale,
his work
prefig-
ures-in
part rovokes-that
ense of
a
"crisis f
themoral dea" at the
fin
de
siecle,
f
which
urkheim's
more amiliar
iagnosis
fmoral nomiewas
symptomatic.
My
concern
n
this
ssay
s
to
present
uyau
s a moralist.Whilebroadly
venturing
is reconsideration
n
this
egard,
also extend
he
purview
ftwo
recent
tudies f
his work n aestheticsndon the rigin fthe deaoftime.I
I
am
grateful o an anonymous
eaderof this essay
and
to
the
editorof JHI
for
providing
elpful riticism
nd suggestions.
I
F. J.W. Harding,Jean-Marie
Guyau (1854-1888):
Aesthetician
nd Sociologist
(Geneva,
1973); J.A. Michon et al., ed. and tr.,Guyau
nd
the dea
of
Time
New
York,
1988);
J.-M.
Guyau, Esquisse
d'une morale sans
obligation
ni sanction
Paris,
18964,
75
Copyright
994
y
Journal
f
he
History
f
deas,
nc.
This content downloaded from 147.96.1.236 on Sun, 29 Nov 2015 07:04:43 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
8/20/2019 Nietzsche and Guyau
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/nietzsche-and-guyau 3/24
76
Geoffrey.
Fidler
Then will laboratehe win
sychological
nd
ociologicalrientationsf
hisphilosophyy wayof
providing
frameworkor he
Esquisse
d'une
morale,
n which his ssay ocuses.
Largely vershadowedyNietzsche, uyau
as sufferedrom
eglect
not east
y
theFrench
hemselves,espite novelty
nd
ndependence
f
philosophiciewpoint hich
ore
ignificantly
n
thefutureirectionf
Frenchhought.
n
a
relentlessly
onest
eactiongainstmoralitiesrounded
in
conventionalroyance,
uyau
et ut o
challenge
he
revailingeligious
and
philosophicalases,
Christianr
Kantian,
tilitarian
rotherwise
dog-
matic," f
what
he
regarded
s fixedmoralities. s
a philosopher
n
this
respect,e s rightlyoupledwith ietzsche,hose eadingmongmodem
French
exts
ncluded
he
Esquisse
and
L'Irre'ligion
de
l'avenir.2
For
Nietzsche,
onventional
oralityntails hedenial f "an ascending
nd
affirmative
ife"
y
which
he
haos
f
ourmindss
organized.
or
Guyau
t
promotespsychologyarmful
o
human
ompletenessy
the
hypocritical
construction-the
internal
utilation"
r
bad
faith-of hose
mpediments
to
moralitys
the
unity
f
being." spousinghe healthy" oralityf n
ethical aturalism
r,more
ervasively,
f an
aestheticevaluationf the
world, ietzsche'simmoralism"ffirmshe nstinctf ife ndovertums
the
entralalues and he
moral
sychology)f
raditional
hristian
thics.
Likewise, uyau's nitial
uest
or naturalistic
thics ejectshe nher-
ently
ivisive haracter
f
conventional
orality
nd the
immorality
f
dogmaticaith,"
ut
his
oncept
f ife
lsoreflectsis ttachmentoDarwin
and
o
empiricalsychology.
he rucial onditionf
his vital orce"s one
of
expenditure.
Themore
t
takes
n,"
he
maintains,
themore
t
needs o
give
ut."
While ife as
ntensity
n
simple hysical
utritionnd
ssimila-
tion, tsintensityor ndividualsncreases ith herange f instinctual
activities
eculiar
o
it,
with he
facts" f desire nd
thoughtntrinsico
life.Oncewe are onsciousfthis
uperabundancefvital
orce,produc-
tion"
omes
o
furnishhe
mbryonic
ource f
dutynd
disinterestedness
n
social
ife.
y
contrast
ith
ietzsche's,hen, uyau's
nstinctf ife
s
one
1885),tr.Gertrude apteyn, Sketch fMorality ndependentf Obligation rSanction
(London, 1898).
L'Irreligionde
I'avenir:
etude ociologique
Paris,
1887),
tr.
anon.) as
The
Non-Religion ftheFuture:
A
Sociological
Study NewYork, 1897),
repr. New
York,
1962)
with n intro.
y N. N. Glatzer eplacing
utmainly
eproducing uyau's
original.
Cf.
DominiqueParodi,La
Philosophie
contemporaine
n
France
(Paris,
1918),
ch.
X;
Genevieve
Bianquis,Nietzsche n France: l
influence
e
Nietzsche ur a
penseefranVaise
(Paris,
1929), 25-26; Emile
Brehier, istoirede la
philosophie
Paris,1964), II,
887-88;
F.
Copleston,
A
History fPhilosophy, IX:
Maine de Biran to
Sartre NewYork,
1985),
III, 174-77.
2
Alfred
Fouillee, Nietzsche
et l'immoralisme 2nd
ed., Paris,
1902),
iiff;
Daniel
Halevy,Nietzsche 1902/1944]Paris, 1977),479; also HaraldHoffding, odern hiloso-
phers,tr.A. C. Mason
(London,
1915),
144-57.
This content downloaded from 147.96.1.236 on Sun, 29 Nov 2015 07:04:43 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
8/20/2019 Nietzsche and Guyau
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/nietzsche-and-guyau 4/24
Jean-Marie
uyau
77
officondite
nd
amour: hemost ntensive
ife s also themost
xtensive.3
The immoralism
f
his idea of ife tands
o reinstate
he central
irtues f
Christian orality.
Guyau's mmoralism,ypicallyxpressed s irre'ligion,as readilyon-
strued
s profane y critics
ike heCatholic
hinker
eon
Olle-Laprune.
et
as
much s
he wouldhave rreligion
rive eligion
o thewall
in
thenameof
some
future orality,
uyaudid
not o much enounce he acred
s certain
ofthe ultural
ndreligious
enials
r
representations
f t.His vitalisms
an
expression f
some
of theprimary
lements
f the sacred s a
"religion
f
humanity."
ften voking
he
ntense ndividual
xperience
f themystic,
Guyau
eems
mbued
with hekinds
f
doubts, egations,
opes,
ndbeliefs
that ink himalso to Bergson,whilerenderingim"unconsciouslynar-
chist"
in the eyes of
a
Kropotkin.
or
Kropotkin,
n
fact,
he "whole
question
f
morality"
as summed
p
in
themix of intuitive
nsight
with
fraternal
ommunity
entral o
the
uniquely
umane nd
generous
pirit
f
Guyau's
"fecundity
f will."
Certainly,
he
humanity
nd
sincerity
f
Guyau's
style
f
"exquisite
ensibility" ained
him
he
widespread
dmira-
tion
of his many
ritics,ncluding
ergson
nd Durkheim.4
Having aught
n
1874 at
the
Lyqee
Condorcetwhere
ergsonwas then
a student), uyau hereafteremainedn invalid nda private hilosopher.
His output pans
barely
hirteen ears,
ut
t
includes
nine
original
mono-
graphs
or
ublication
n
addition
o
the
prize-winning
hesis
he wrote t the
age
ofnineteen
n theutilitarian
radition.
e also
published
ritical
ditions
I
"Nous avonsplus
de larmes u'il
n'en
faut
ournos
propres ouffrances":
squisse,
98
(84);
also 73,
108-9,
245-49
(62,
93,
209-12), and
Bk.
I,
chs. 1-2; La Morale anglaise
contemporaine:morale d'utiliteet de 1'e'volution1879] (2nd edn., Paris, 1885), ix-x
("Tout
dogme st foncierement
mmoral..").
Cf. Nietzsche
n Twilight fthe dols, tr.
R.
J. Hollingdale
London,
1990), 55-56
["Morality s Anti-Nature,"
-6]; andEcce Homo,
tr.Hollingdale
Penguin,
1979), 128-29,
131 ["Why am
a Destiny"]. dentifying
imself
firmly"moi")
withGuyau's
"immoralite
e
la
foi dogmatique,"
ietzsche
made glosses
on his copies of
the
Esquisse
and
L Irreligion,
he
former
xisting s a printed
ppendix
o
J.-M.
Guyau,
Sittlichkeit
hne
"Pflicht" Esquisse
d'une Morale ...),
tr.
Elisabeth
Schwarz, ntro.
Alfred ouillee
(Leipzig, 1909),
279-303. Schwarz
makes the
prefatory
remark
hat
the
marginal
glosses (copied
from
the
original
by Peter Gast
[Heinrich
Koselitz]) came
to
her from
he
Nietzsche
Archiveunder
the
supervision
f Elisabeth
Forster-Nietzsche.ouilleefirst new fthem hroughheFrenchNietzsche cholarHenri
Lichtenberger
nd
obtained copy
from heArchive f
thoseon
theEsquisse butnot "a
notre
grandregret") 'Irre'ligion.
ee "Les Jugements
e
Nietzschesur Guyau,"
Revue
philosophique,
52
(1901),
569-99;
Nietzsche t l'immoralisme,
iin.
I wish
to thankmy
colleague,VirginiaNixon,
for ssistance
with
he
German ources.
4 Durkheim
writes of "exquise
sensibilite"
n his review of L'Irreligion,
Revue
philosophique,
23
(1887),
306 (tr. and
ed. W. S. F. Pickering,
urkheim
n Religion
[London,
1975],33); cf.
L.
Olle-Laprune,
e
Prix de
la
vie 2nd ed.,
Paris,1895), 138-39.
See also
Peter
Kropotkin,
AnarchistMorality,"
Kropotkin's
Revolutionary
amphlets
[1927],
ed. R. N.
Baldwin NewYork,
1970), 108-10;
E. Molina Garmentia,
os Filosofos
contemporaneos: uyau-Bergson rev.edn.,Santiago,1948), 7-8; Frederic aulhan, Le
Nouveau
mysticisme,"
evuephilosophique,
0
(1890), 500, 515.
This content downloaded from 147.96.1.236 on Sun, 29 Nov 2015 07:04:43 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
8/20/2019 Nietzsche and Guyau
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/nietzsche-and-guyau 5/24
78 Geoffrey
. Fidler
and translations
f Ancient
nd French
exts,
ontributionso theRevuedes
deuxmondes nd
Revue
hilosophique,
nd
a series f
highly opular
chool
manuals
n
the ecularmoral
diom f the
arly
Third
Republic.'Guyauwas
raised nd nfluencedybothhis motherwhosemoral rimer,e Tourde la
France par
deux
enfants, ublished
n
1877,
was a
Republican"best-
seller"), and
his
stepfather,
he
philosopher
Alfred
Fouillee.
Widely
re-
spectedfor
his
published
workon
Plato,
Fouillee
1838-1912)
shared
he
neo-Kantianism
f his
contemporaries
achelier
nd Boutroux.
is
concept
of idees-forces
whichDominique
Parodi
depicts
s a
kind of
"positivist
metaphysics") as nonetheless
n
original ontribution
o
contemporary
attemptso
reconcile
hilosophical
dealism
with
cientific
aturalism.
he
eclecticthrustf his prolific ffort o bridgethepoles of Comtean nd
evolutionaryocial theory n
one
hand nd
French
eo-Kantian hilosophy
on theother, hapedGuyau's
own
efforto elaborate he
motif t
enounced,
that s, how
to connect
heconclusions
f
an
evolutionaryheory
with he
axiomsof a
speculative
thics.
To theextent uyau ookthisup (and granting is sympatheticnder-
standing
f
widely ivergenthilosophicalraditions),
t
s difficulto
assign
him
o a single ntellectualamp.The diversity
f
his nterestss indicated y
the arly ssayLa Genesede V'idee e temps, hich aul Ricoeurhas called
"the mostbrilliant nd subtle xampleof
the
nvoluntaryomagepaid to
transcendentalhilosophy y genetic sychology."
icoeurdoes
more
han
signal diversity
f
orientation,owever;
he
points
here
to a
dimension f
Guyau's work
thatrisks
neglectby those,
ike
Piaget,
who see
only
his
onslaught n
the
"Kantian
Ethics." n
attemptingo replace the Kantian
intuition priori f time with purely mpirical-developmentaloncept,
Guyauconflates hepresumed
otion
f genesis
with
heapparent sycho-
logicalcategoriestgenerates-the origin" f the dea oftime, hat s, with
theorigin f our wareness f the dea of time.Whetherr notunwittingly,
Guyau's "homage" o Kant
s
conceivably is reinforcementf theKantian
precondition. uilding
on the internal
ropensities f mind, he Esquisse
d'une
morale
ikewise
ncorporates-if
t
does not
n
effect iscard-Kant's
formula
priori
f
morals
n
its
pursuit
f
"equivalents." uyau's Kantian
I
Fouillee's apologeticbutcritical) a Morale, art t a religion apres Guyau 2nd
ed., Paris,
1892) remains hefullest
ccount; f.
P.
Archambault, uyau Paris, 1901).The
Memoire ur la morale
utilitaire epuis Epicure
usqu'a
1'e'cole anglaise
of
1873 was
honored ytheAcademie
des Sciences
Morales etPolitiques La Morale
anglaise, xi n.).
See also the
following, ll
published
n
Paris (by
Alcan):
La
Morale
d'Epicure et ses
rapports
avec
les
doctrinescontemporaines
1874]
(4th, rev. ed., 1904); Versd'un
philosophe1881);
Les
Problemes e
1
esthetique ontemporaine1884);
L
Art
upoint
de
vue
sociologique (1889); Education et
here'dite':
'tude
ociologique (1889), tr. W. J.
Greenstreet,ducation nd
Heredity
London, 1891); La Genesede
V'idee
de
temps, d.
Fouillee 1890) (see above,
n. 1), "Origin
f the dea ofTime." The
school manualsranto
multiple ditions,notably he PremiereAnne'e e lecture ourante 1875) andL'Annee
preparatoire
e lecture 1884).
This content downloaded from 147.96.1.236 on Sun, 29 Nov 2015 07:04:43 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
8/20/2019 Nietzsche and Guyau
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/nietzsche-and-guyau 6/24
Jean-Marie
uyau
79
studies
were
more han merepreliminary,
nd as Ricoeurhints,
e
under-
stoodKant.6
Like Nietzsche
poet
andpsychologist,
uyau
produced
riginal
works
on religion, rt, nd poetics s pivotal oa wider nd "powerful"hilosophy
of life,
his
moral
viewpoint
tanding
s perhaps
his most mportant
nd
certainly
is most ontroversial
ffort.
is ethics eceived
either
omplete
nor
fully ystematic
reatment,
owever; nd
the
Esquisse therefore
ompels
attention
o ts companion
orks,
hose n
Epicurus
nd ater tilitarians,
n
religion
nd education,
s
well as to
themore omplete
nd
familiartudies
on the
"aesthetics
f social sympathy."
lthough
Guyau's
interest
was
preeminently
sychological
beginning
ith
he eappraisalf
Epicurean
nd
utilitarianthics),his conceptof life as fecundityendshis philosophy
pronounced
ociological
haracter.7
These twin
orientations
rovide
he framework
ora concept
of life
drawn
o raise
hekinds
f
questions
bout
morality
hat ad
to
do,
ike hose
of Schopenhauer
nd Nietzsche,
with ts
very ossibility
nd ntelligibility.
Juxtaposing
n intensive
with an
expansive
vital
urge,
Guyau's
concept
reflects
is relation
o
the currents
f
biological-psychological
s
well as
systematic
ociological
nquiry
nfluentialt
the
ime.
n
turn,
hese
urrents
of thought ignaltheproximityf his "moralityutsideof morality"o
some
significant
ontemporary
ntellectual
epartures,
ncluding
heaes-
thetic-as-ethical
lternative
f
Nietzsche;
he
imperative
o complete
u-
tonomy
f Frederic
auh's
L
Experience
morale,
which esurrects
nd rede-
fines
hekindof
morale ndependante
hatGuyau
had set out
to
construct;
and
the would-be
neutral ociological
diom
of a science
of
morality,
r
science
des
moeurs, ropounded
y
Durkheim
nd Lucien
Levy-Bruhl.8
n
6
Fouillee,La
Morale,5;
thephilosopher
enri
Marion
laimsGuyau's
education
was
"profondement
dealiste,"
withKant among
his "maitres
n morale":
La Revuebleue,
47
(1891),
653.
Paul Ricoeur,
"FromKant
to
Guyau,"ed.
Michon,
150; JeanPiaget,
Le
Jugement
oral
hez l'enfantParis,
1932),
272.
Theessayon
time
prepared
or ublica-
tionby Fouillee
in 1890)
was originally
ublished
ntheRevuephilosophique,
9 (1885),
353-68,
the ameyear s
the
Esquisse.
On
Fouillee,
ee Parodi,
2-48; andElisabeth
Ganne
de Beaucoudrey,
a Psychologie
t a metaphysique
es
idees-forces
hez Alfred
ouillee
(Paris,
1936).On Mme.
Fouillee
Guyau),
see esp. J.
and M.
Ozouf, Le Tour
de
la France
pardeux enfants,"n PierreNora (ed.), Les Lieux de memoire,: La Republique Paris,
1984),291-321.
7 Fouillee,
"La Doctrine e
la
vie chez Guyau,"
Revue
de
metaphysique
t de
morale,
14
(1906),
534;
BenedettoCroce,
Estetica [1902]
(Bari,
1958),
446, drawing
n
Emile
Boirac
in Revue
philosophique,
29 (1890),
647-48.
Marx
also set out
from
studyof
Epicurus,
the
psychology
f
human nature
eliciting
naturalisticpproach
to
human
society
"production"
s
the
vital
forceof
the"species-being"):
K. Marxand
F. Engels,
Collected
Works
New
York,
1975-), and
III
(for
theEconomic nd Philosophic
Manu-
scripts).
8
Parodi,
a Philosophie
ontemporaine,
48ff.
eveloping
his Essai sur
efondement
metaphysiquee la morale of 1890,Rauh's L'Experiencemorale Paris, 1903) appeared
thesame
year as
Levy-Bruhl's
Morale
et la science
des
moeurs;
he Sketch f
Morality
This content downloaded from 147.96.1.236 on Sun, 29 Nov 2015 07:04:43 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
8/20/2019 Nietzsche and Guyau
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/nietzsche-and-guyau 7/24
80
Geoffrey
.
Fidler
sum, hey
all attention
othe
oleprovocateur
f
Guyau's squisse
nd ts
place nan achievementll themorempressiveor he revityfhis ife.
In his broadly sychologistutlook, uyau
s rightlyrouped
ith
NietzschendBergson or
his
contribution
o philosophiesf elan nd of
value.
The
presentssay
concerns otwhatwas
philosophically
t issue
among
hem ut
nly
isrelation
othe wo
hilosophers.
uyau's pproach
tomoral hilosophyascompatible
n
general
ith he
sychologism
f he
Revue
de
metaphysique
t de moralefrom
893,
which
ended
o
treat ts
subject
s a
psychologicalnalysis
f
thoughtand,
ppropriately,
evoted
several
apers
o
Guyau).
s William
ames
mplies,
he rucial
ngredients
ofGuyau'sthics ere imilarlysychologicalndmetaphysical,mphasiz-
ing herole fpurelynward orces,the ubtiletiesfthemoral ensibil-
ity."Guyau ave special ttentionothose hinkersEpicurus, ascal,La
Rochefoucauld,mong thers) hosemoral hilosophies
mbodied psy-
chology;
e also shared
he
ntellectualnclination
fNietzsche
owardhe
psychological
nd
he
ntuitive.9
His own
point
f
departure
s
to
propose
n
interior,on-mechanistic,
and
pontaneous
ital
rinciple.owever,
e
s not
resenting
ife
as
some
ofhiscriticslaimed) s an absolutentity,n objective rinciple,ra
substanceutside f houghtomewhatnalogous
othe
arly
reek
hysi-
ologists. lthoughistinct
rom
ure
r bstract
hought,
ife
s at
onewith
the houghtroduced y themind
r
conscience
eflectingn itself-the
object
nd
ubject
f
mmediate
xperience.
he
lements
f
power
r
force,
which re xtractsf
ife
s a fundamentalrinciple,ssume rominences
interactionccurs etweenndividualives.Fouillee
nsistedhatGuyau's
"doctrinef
ife"
was an
anticipation
n
this
egard
f much
n
Bergson's
conceptf ntuitionmmediatesanapprehensionf he real" fbothmind
andmatter.
vidently,
rom
is
glosses
n
the
Esquisse,Nietzschehares
Fouillee's view of Guyau s "a psychologist
.. an observer n the nside."
sometimes
enders
cience des moeurs s
"moral
science"
(e.g., 80).
Cf.
Leon
Brunsch-
vicg,
"L'Experiencemorale selon Rauh," Revue
philosophique, 105 (1928), 5-32; F.
Carrel,"The Morals of Guyau," nternational ournalof Ethics, 15 (1904-5), 468, on
subsequent
evelopments
n
Frenchmoral heory; ules e
Gaultier, ietzsche t a
reforme
philosophique 3rd
edn.,Paris,
1904), 262, forGuyau's "morale
en
dehorsde la
morale."
9
De
Gaultier,Nietzsche t la
reforme,
55;
WilliamJames, TheMoral Philosopher
and the
Moral
Life,"
The Willto Believe and Other
Essays
in
Popular
Philosophy New
York, 1956), 188.
Cf. Charles
Christophe, Le Principede la vie
comme mobile moral
selon J.-M.
Guyau,"Revuede
metaphysiquet de morale, (1901),
343-60,487-528. The
Guyau-Bergson
ink s
discussed
n
Rene
Berthelot,
n
Romantisme tilitaire:
tudes
ur
le mouvement
ragmatiste, I:
Le
Pragmatisme hez
Bergson Paris,
1913), 142, 152ff;
Vladimir
Jankelevitch,Deux
philosophesde la vie: Bergson,Guyau,"
Revue philoso-
phique,97 (1924), 402-49; and Ben-Ami charfstein,ootsofBergson sPhilosophyNew
York, 1943).
This content downloaded from 147.96.1.236 on Sun, 29 Nov 2015 07:04:43 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
8/20/2019 Nietzsche and Guyau
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/nietzsche-and-guyau 8/24
Jean-MarieGuyau
81
For nstance, e followsGuyauwith pproval
n
the nalysis f ssociationist
psychology,
hich
forged
inksbetween
ersonal leasure
nd altruism
y
recourse o primarilyxternal,artificial"
echanisms. s much s
it would
have infuriated ietzsche,Daniel Halevy is surely orrect o introduce
Nietzsche y reference
o
Guyau
n
this
egard,
oth f whomhe
presents
s
"spiritualist" hilosophers.10
Atthe ame ime,Nietzsche nderscores
he rucial
eatureetting
ff
he
psychology
f
Guyau's
dea
of ifefrom is own. For
Guyau sympathy
nd
sociability re
...
in
the individual,
t the basis of life"
im
Grunddes
Lebens); and so
in
his psychology leasure merges s a byproduct
ather
than he im of ife,
t
"accompanies,muchmore han
t
provokes, he
earch
afterife."Moreover,heres a sociological mplicationoGuyau's hoiceof
words-not "elan"
but vital "expansion."
his
term, dentified ithBerg-
son, conveys dynamic
ut Nietzschean nd individualistic
orce;
with
Guyau
t
prescribes sympathetic
r
social
addition o
the
ntensityrinciple
it
also envelops. ndeed,
ife s enriched
n
Guyau'sconcept y
ts
elastic nd
dynamic
haracter.
orality
eedsa
social
setting
ot o much o
secure
ts
reliabilitys because this s indeed
ts
nature
s "elan energique" r,
to be
exact, s "expansion ympathique."
Becoming" s movementowards he
social milieu, ndthevital mpulse s moreoneof ove than fpower.The
sentimentnderlyingll
human
morality, uyau sserts,
is
always
that f
generosity.
91
From he thical oint f view, hispronounced
ocial
dimension
rings
intorelief
Guyau's
relation
o Nietzsche.Nietzsche
may
have
been
the
only
major hilosopher
onest
nough
o
profess
nd
promote
he
onclusion
hat,
as
Maclntyrergues,
the haracternd
anguage
f
pastmorality
ad
to
be
abandoned."
eeing
n
Guyau
omething
f a
kindred
pirit
owever
and
n
theEsquisse a "melancholy-resolute"ork),Nietzsche s clearlyntrigued
by
his own
conclusion;
or
he
consigns
he rich
morality
f its
altruism,
together
ith
Schopenhauer's ity,
o the inauthentic
llusions,
in
more
concealed
orms,"
fthe
ult
f Christian
orality;
nd he scowls
t
whathe
calls Guyau's "idee
fixe."
Guyau
s detached rom ietzsche
y
his
concept
10
ForHalevythey re"spiritualistes e race et de tradition"Nietzsche, 79); Guyau,
Sittlichkeithne
"Pflicht,"
91; Fouillee, "La Doctrinede la vie," 518-20, 531; cf. La
Morale anglaise, 424ff.
n
his
Philosophy f
Civilization
New York, 1960), 257,
Albert
Schweitzer epicts Fouillee and
Guyau as "elemental
moralists ike
Schopenhauer
nd
Nietzsche."
"
Education ndHeredity, 82 (133): "c'est toujours e sentimente la
generosite."
In
"La
Doctrinede
la vie," 518, Fouilleeputs
Nietzsche's
remarksSittlichkeit,90-91)
thisway: "[Selon Guyau]
sympathie
t
sociabilite ontfondamentales,
t
nonpas,
comme
le veut l'ecole anglaise,
plus ou moins artificielles.... Guyau les trouvedeja dans
l'individu, ans efondde la vie." See also Sketch, 7 (90): "Le plaisiraccompagne .. la
recherche e la vie, beaucoupplus qu'il ne la provoque";
cf
Jankelevitch,
19-22.
This content downloaded from 147.96.1.236 on Sun, 29 Nov 2015 07:04:43 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
8/20/2019 Nietzsche and Guyau
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/nietzsche-and-guyau 9/24
82 Geoffrey
.
Fidler
of n nherentlyxpansiveife;12ndyet, y
"noble"
ath,
e also sets ut
toreconstitutehe mpersonalriteria
nd
ocial
irtuesowhich
hristianity
assigned rigins
ooted
n
sentimentsf weaknessnd
resignation.uyau
does his nthe asisof "Nietzschean"hilosophynd desire or ome
naturalistictandardf values,which e most ffectivelyrticulateswith
Nietzsche)n estheticerms.orGuyau,oo, he ronouncedgnosticismf
a
powerful
ife
roclaims
hat there
s
no
onger
Christ.""3
TheEsquisse s a directesult
f
Guyau'snterest
n
he istoryf thics.
It
proceeds
rom he
philosophy
f
evolution,
hich or
Guyaumarks he
culminatingoint
f
contemporarynglish
thics"
n
thework f
Herbert
Spencer.
n
inewith is
protestgainst
hristian
heology,uyau
s drawn
to whatNealGillespie allsDarwin's positivism."tthe ame ime, e
favorshe
peculation
r
creationism"f hose arwinistsnxious o
retain
a teleologicalonception
f
nature.
arwin
ends upporto the dea ofan
empiricalenesis
o
morality,
ut he ndifferencer blind
truggle"
f
his
conditionsf
life
offers
o
morality
n
the
ordinary
ense.
Spencer, y
contrast,resents system
f
universal oral
armony
hat ombineshe
utility
fthe
Epicurean
ith he
necessity
f
the
toic
ommand
o
ive
n
conformity
ith
ature.
pencer's roposal, quasi-natural
r
organic
er-
sion f he ideal epublic"fKant,llustratesisown hilosophictance s
"une
orte e Spinoza ositiviste."
e is
Guyau's oint
f
departure,ut
Guyau's pencer
ooks
istinctly
ike
Guyau
imself.
4
Whetherrnot evolutiononfuses
im,"
s
Tolstoy emarked,uyau
faced heobvious
roblem
volution
osed
for
his view of conventional
morality:an
a
positive
cience f morals
peak
f
obligation
n
a strictly
natural-biological
onnection?
oral
hilosophies
ad
yet
o
disentangle
he
complex
mix
of
udgments
nd
actions,
eliefs nd
behaviors,
entral
o
moralubjects.utthehistoricalocus fGuyau's arlywork s far rom
implyinghat scientific orality
s
synonymousith science esmoeurs,
with simple istorynd nalysisfhuman orality.romts nception,he
thrustf his moral
hilosophy
as
to
propose
n
alternativebeyond
he
Utilitarians' aximum
leasure
nd
Spencer's rganic ommunity)
o the
abstractormal
ategories
f Kantianranscendental
thics.
uyauoins
he
12
Sittlichkeit,
93
("Idee fixe").
Cf. The
Genealogy f
Morals
(New York, 1956),
161
(I, #2),
where healtruistic s "moral"has
"assumed
the
obsessive force f an
ideefixe";
The Will toPower, ed. W. KaufmannNew York, 1968), 186 (#340);and Werke n drei
Bdnden, d.
Karl
Schlechta Munich,1966), II: Aus Den Nachlass Der
Achtzigerjahre,
7,
on
Guyau
nd the ulture f Christian
morality.
ee also Alasdair
MacIntyre, fter irtue:
A Studyn Moral Theory NotreDame, 1984), 256-58; and D. W. Hamlyn, chopenhauer
(London, 1980), 149-50.
13
Sketch,
4
(17):
"il
n'y
a
plus
de Christ."
14
La Morale
anglaise, 268, and Pt. I, ch. 9 (on Darwin),ch.
10 and
Pt. II, ch.
5
(on
Spencer);N. C. Gillespie, CharlesDarwin and theProblem f Creation Chicago, 1979),
esp.
ch. 1.
This content downloaded from 147.96.1.236 on Sun, 29 Nov 2015 07:04:43 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
8/20/2019 Nietzsche and Guyau
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/nietzsche-and-guyau 10/24
Jean-MarieGuyau
83
Englishmoralists
n presupposinghe apprehensionf duty s inseparable
from content,hat there s no duty ndependently
f thethingwe have
to
do";
but
he also makes he
presumptionwith
which he
Esquisse
s
perhaps
inconsistent)hat thics rises because moralitys there s a sociological
given, n intrinsiceature
f ife s a simultaneously
ntensivendexpansive
force.Of the external r conscious
haracter f utilitarianleasure,Guyau
wouldtherefore
emarkhat leasure riginally
proceeds rom hefunction
[of life],"
which is fecundity,nd subsequently
eactson the function;
pleasurehas its source
n
a superabundancef ife,which s life t ts most
fruitful.'5owever free
t
remains
rom
xternal
onstraints,eal human
naturehas an inner
necessity o
it.
The "is" mightwell command
n
"ought."
Guyau's life
dictates he
activity
f a
perpetually triving
nd self-
realizingmind
in
the eudaimonisticmore thanpurely toical) tradition
reminiscent
f
Spinoza's conatus.Moreover,
n
the bsenceof thecertainty
of
science,
doubt ends
life a "moral" character nd
dignity
f
thought,
where nothing
s
more
moral handoubt."'6
t
is not surprisinghatGuyau
is drawn o Epicurus.
he themes fhis own moral roject re exactly hose
he locates
n
theEpicurean hilosophy:
rom irreligion"nd "provisional
affirmation"o the nstrumentalisdom f thetraditionalirtues nd from
the ethical
haracter f interpersonalelations
o that
f
the relation
f
the
individual
o
the cosmos.
"The
awakening
ciences
have allied
themselves
point y point
with
he
philosophy
f
Epicurus,"
roclaims
ietzsche s
the
Morale
d'Epicure
ame off he
press,
but
point
y point ejected
hristian-
ity."
Herewas the trikingnnouncementhat
he
deal
of a
higheriberty
n
a
life f
significant
ontent as attainable.
picurean
riendship,nsight,
nd
great ocialconcerns
mark life
untrammeledy
fear nd
helplessness
efore
thegods, ndthey ffsetheother picurean iew hat creatureoesmerely
"where
his
pleasure
calls
him.""7There is also the
Epicurean
contra-
diction-which
generated
uyau's
discussion
f the
problem
f
self-sacri-
fice
in
the Esquisse-between
an
egoistic
forceof self-interest,
ith no
content utside
of
self,
and
an altruistic ontent
f
friendship,
ith ts
extreme f self-sacrifice.
his could
be
removed
nly
on the
basis
of
utility.
It
subsequently
tood to be
replacedby
the
precarious
orce f habit nd
15
Sketch,
8 (91):
"Le
plaisir .. procede
de la fonction. lus
tard
..
il
reagit
ur a
fonction," nd
49-50 (58):
"il
n'y a pas de
devoir
ndependamment
e la chose
due,
de
la
representatione l'action";
Tolstoy's etters,
d. and tr.R. F. ChristianNew
York, 1978),
vol. II, 502.
16
Sketch,
3
(73):
"Il n'y a
rien de
plus
moral
que
le
doute."
'7 Ibid.,
78 (91): "l'etreva
...
oiu 'appelle
son plaisir."Cf.Nietzsche,
HumanAll Too
Human, tr.Hollingdale Cambridge,
1986), 44 (#68); and
La
Morale d'Epicure,
288.
Nietzsche'swork ppeared
n the spring f
1878; Guyau'swas based on the memoire
f
1873. ForNietzsche's attachmento Epicurus, ee e.g., The Gay Science,tr. Kaufmann
(New York,
1974), 110 (#45).
This content downloaded from 147.96.1.236 on Sun, 29 Nov 2015 07:04:43 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
8/20/2019 Nietzsche and Guyau
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/nietzsche-and-guyau 11/24
84
Geoffrey
.
Fidler
association
f
ideas
and
the socio-legislative
acets
f utilitarian
ustice
which ad
been eveloped
rom
elvetius
o Bentham
nd
Mill.
The
Morale
d'Epicure (with
its
sequel,
the Morale
anglaise
con-
temporaine)hus rovideshe asisfor oth psychologynd sociology:
for he xpression
fthose
nward
ndoutward
ropensities
hich
Guyau
traced,hrougha
Rochefoucauld
ndHobbes
o
Helvetius
nd he ucces e
scandale
f his"humanitarian"
tilitarianism.
hat
pecially
lluminates
Guyau's
on-conventional
picureanism
owever,
s
its thic
f
elf-perfec-
tion s
the
perfection
f
all
selves.
This
upsets
he
elfish
r "immoral"
viewpoint
hich picureanleasure
ould
t
first
uggest.'8
Guyau's
renewal"
f
Epicurus
evives long radition
f Epicurean
rehabilitation,o which hework fPierreGassendiwas thefirstmajor
French ontribution.
t
also
ventures detailed
eview f theproblem
f
freedom
nd contingency"
n
an
accounthat roved s
contentious
s
it
wasnovel. can nly
ive mphasisere, owever,
o
the mplicationshich
his account
ontainsor
hemoral
rgument
f the
Esquisse.
Drawing
n
Lucretius
nd other
oman ources
f the
Epicurean
hilosophy,uyau
depicts
he
atomic
swerve"
s
a
spontaneous
vent
pt
to
continue
ts
function
s an
nitiatory
nd atent
orce
while
masquerading
s
"chance")
in all matter.n attributingn intrinsicuman alue to liberty-were
independent
f nythingutside
fus,
of
ny
ppeal ochance,ecessity,
r
the ods-Epicurus
eems
ntentntranscending
isownmoral
ystem.
t
s
we who
must ominate
aturepar
notre
olonte."
s
Guyaus aware, he
potential
ffectf his s
tounite ope
with
elf-confidence
n
the
uise
f
spontaneous
umanwill
n
quest
f
tranquility
nd
"equilibre
nterieur."
Freedom
an merge
s an deal atherhan
given ower,
s the ealization
of he
highest
endencies
four
eing
nsofar
s
these redetermined
y he
naturend ircumstancesf ifen ndividuals.reedoms self-development
and elf-perfection
n
all"living"eings.
ut his
way,
Guyau'snclusion
f
Spinoza mong
Modem
Epicureans"
akes ense.
There s theobvious
parallel
f
the
onatus s elan
vital
nd
wellspring
f all
action,ncluding
moral
ction.But there s also what
he
sees
as the mmense
pinozist
synthesis
f lementsf
Epicureanism
nd hemore ational-intellectual
ist
of
Stoicism.
The Morale
d'Epicure
of
1878
complements
heEtudesur la
philosophie
'Epictete
f
1875.19
18
La Morale d'Epicure, 129-40, 242ff, 79-89; cf. the reviewby HenrySidgwick
(whomGuyaubriefly iscusses
n
the
Morale
anglaise), Mind,
4
(1879), 582-87. See also
N.
DeWitt,Epicurus
and
his
Philosophy Minneapolis, 1954), 101-3;
and D. W.
Smith,
Helvetius:A Study n Persecution Oxford, 965), 1.
19
Etude sur la philosophie d'Epictete et traduction u Manuel d'Epictete (Paris,
1875); Versd'un philosophe "Spinoza"), 193-94; Morale d'Epicure, 96ff, 26-36, 284.
His article n freedom nd necessity
n
Epicurus Revuephilosophique, [1877], 47-7 )
had drawn
riticism
rom
enouvier,
whomhe now addresses
n
a
lengthy
ote
100-102).
For the "Epicure renouvele," ee 2n., citingthe examiners' report n the memoire.J.
Masson, "M. Guyauon theEpicureanDoctrineof Free-Will nd Atomic Declination,"
This content downloaded from 147.96.1.236 on Sun, 29 Nov 2015 07:04:43 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
8/20/2019 Nietzsche and Guyau
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/nietzsche-and-guyau 12/24
Jean-Marie
uyau
85
Thisconflation
f nternalnd external,
ntuitive
ndrational lements
s
endorsed
by
the utilitarianism
f J. S. Mill, among
those "doctrines
contemporaines"
hich
Guyau
attaches o the Epicurean
utlook.Despite
his infidelityo Bentham,however,Mill fails to abandon the ultimate
primacy f the
pleasure
principle.
otwithstanding
ts focuson
an acutely
qualitative
et
of nteractionsetween
ndividuals
ndthe
ollectivity,
ill's
utilitarianism
ust
appeal
to
external
ourcesof obligation
nd sanction.
Guyau's
morality
s embedded
n an intuitive
ill
to
live,
a vitalforce.
t
is
also "daughter
f
the ntellect" nd strives
s a
species
of
understanding
in
a sortof
irreligious
mor dei
intellectualis)
o
acquire
a "morecomplete
awareness
f elf ndtheworld."
The nstinctf
ife s one oftheprogress f
moral ecundity.nL'Irre'ligione I avenirGuyaugoeson toportrayspiri-
tuality" s
the progress
f an ideal
of
universal riumph
f mind over
matter-of ntensityegained-in
a
great
ntellectual
ppetite
or
ife.20
Some
of
Guyau's
adversaries
ccused
himof
presenting
ife
s
the ame
"pure
mechanism
ncapable f mprovement"
hichhe was himself
t
pains
to dissociate
rom
he
Epicurean
hilosophy.
owever,
heEsquissepicks
up
the rinciple
f pontaneity
hich
heMoraled
Epicure ad ntroduced.
his
convenientlyprecedes,
ollows,
nd
completes
ature" ut,
more
signifi-
cantly,eaves roomfor gooddeal of"art" opromotehemostfavorable
conditions
f
life
on
the
criterionf
intensity
hich
Guyau
brings
o both
works.His
urge
o
deny
n a
priori
asis
to
ethicsneverthelessncountered
the difficulty
f
producing
n "ought"
from n "is,"
however
reater
hat
"is" (as
in
Schopenhauer)
as than n
egoistic
elf-interest.
is
quest
for
moral
anomie raises
the
problem
vident
n
any
naturalistic
thics,
he
Epicurean
ncluded,
hat such
a
morality
s inclined
o attributeo
the
"natural" lements
f the very
thical deal
it
seeks to promote.
Although
not ntirelyfthe piritualistchool,Guyau hares ts ffirmationf human
liberty nd
ts belief
n the
emergence
f
what s novel
n
the
evolutionary
process.
A
positivist
y
social-scientific
nclination
erhaps,
Guyau
was
philosophically
n ethical
dealist
nd was
himselfnclined o
interpret
he
universe
as a realmwhose significance
ies
in
the ethical
deals that
ts
processes realize.""2
In otherwords,
Guyau
sees a
generosity
hich
is
TheJournal fPhilology, 1 (1882), 34-55,prefigureshemorerecentworks nEpicurus
making
ritical
eferenceo Guyau,
uch
as
J.
M.
Rist,Epicurus:
an Introduction
Cam-
bridge,
972),
52; andPhillip
Mitsis,Epicurus'
Ethical
Theory: hePleasures
of
Vulner-
ability
Ithaca,1988), 5,
passim.
20
L'Irreligion
de l'avenir,
xxii,
437; La Morale anglaise, 112-32,292-303,
on
Mill
("au mecanisme
exterieur]
es
faits, l substitue
elui des
idees ...");
Educationand
Heredity,
06-7 (78):
"[la morale]
est vraiment
illede l'intelligence."
Cf. Alexander
Nehamas,Nietzsche:
ife
s Literature
Cambridge,
985), 123,
where
hewill topower s
also "the
will to life."
21
JosiahRoyce,Studies fGood andEvil [1898] (Hamden,Conn.,1964),371, noting
the role
of
"Kantian nfluences"
n him.
La Morale d'Epicure,
91 ("La
spontaneite
..
This content downloaded from 147.96.1.236 on Sun, 29 Nov 2015 07:04:43 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
8/20/2019 Nietzsche and Guyau
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/nietzsche-and-guyau 13/24
86
Geoffrey
.
Fidler
inseparable
romife
"il
faut leurir...");
ithoutt there an
be no vitality,
and
therefore
o morality.22
Nonetheless,
uyau's
philosophy
ave
considerable cope
to the xpla-
nation ndinterpretationf theprocesses hemselves. he attention uyau
givesto process
eflects
is fascination
ithgenetic
sychology,
hich
ed
himto
the
problem
f
determining
ow the
will is
constituted,
hat
t is.
Hence
his
preoccupation
ith
he
purposes
hat
uasi-instinctual
abits f
willingprocure
s
grounds
or
moral ife. While
his ethics assumes
an
explanatory
sychology
owever,
t
also
presumes
necessarilyociological
interpretation
f the
genesis
nd
evolution f
themoral onsciousness.
or
instance,
e was inclined
o
explain
religions
sociomorphically"
s motifs
de rassemblement,r forces ooted n individual umannature ut funda-
mentally
eflecting
he nature
f the community
o which
humanbeings
belong.
His
quest
for moral
autonomy
ook on
the
status
of "etudes
sociologiques."
Much
confirms
he
positivist
r
neo-positivist
abels Guyau
has
sometimes
een
ssigned,
nd
his
proximity
o the
ociological
irection
of
French
ositivism
eems
ndisputable.
WithDurkheim,
or xample,
he
fellunder
he
pell
of Comte
nd Spencer.
ut he also dismisses
he scien-
tific"morality
f
both
these thinkers,
nd the
social
dimension f
his
philosophys sociology s the"solidarity"f his Versd'unphilosophe.23
Solidarity
nhabits
he
expansive
r
social-interpersonal
ealm f Guy-
au's concept
f
life,
which
fiurnishes
foundationor
hereconciliationf
individual
nd
universal nds.
His concept
xtends
eyond
simple
alance
of
egoistic
and altruistic
ropensities
owever,
o embrace
he ultimate
equilibrium
f cosmic
union nd
repetition,
oncepts
Guyaubegan
to
treat
more
ystematically
n
L'Irreligion
e
l'avenir.
f
his social
pointof view
lends substance
o the otherwise
phemeral
ote
vitalof his
philosophy
s
psychology,t scarcely isposedhimto produce he kind of scientificr
"soulless"
sociology
Durkheim ad
hoped
to find-for all he and Gabriel
Tarde were
eager
to acknowledge
he
sociologist
n a suitably
revised
Guyau.24
precede, uit t complete
a
nature,'empeche
d'etre
un
pur
mecanisme ncapabledu
mieux
..").
For
the
critique,
ee Christophe,
Le
Principe
de la
vie," 496-98;
reviewsof the
Esquisse by Boirac, Revuephilosophique,
19
(1885), 320,
and (of
the translation hose
defects e deplores),G.
E.
Moore,
nternational ournal
f
Ethics,9 (1898-99), 234; and
Fouillee, "La Doctrine e la vie,"523-25. Not surprisingly,oore is hostile o Guyaufor
thenaturalistic
allacy
he ascribes o him: ee
also
Principia
Ethica
Cambridge, 989),
46.
22
Esquisse, 101 (87):
"We must put forth lossoms;
morality .. is the flower f
human ife."
23
Vers d'un philosophe
"Solidarite"), 35-40; JulianMarias,
History f Philosophy
(New York, 1967), 355-56, sees Guyau to join the reaction
also against positivism.
L'Irreligion, -ix; Non-Religion,
8-79, 116-21,
391ff;
Fouillee,"La Doctrinede la vie,"
534-36.
24
Durkheim, evuephilosophique,
3 (1887), 307; GabrielTarde, bid.,
28
(1889),
182-96 ("... ce sociologue eminentn'a pas faita la sociologie sa part suffisante");
Jankelevitch,
Deux
philosophes,"
48
(for
Durkheim's ociology sans ame"). See also
L'Irre'ligion,
iv,
Pt.
III,
ch. 5.
This content downloaded from 147.96.1.236 on Sun, 29 Nov 2015 07:04:43 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
8/20/2019 Nietzsche and Guyau
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/nietzsche-and-guyau 14/24
Jean-Marie
uyau
87
Evidently
he rreligion
e 1'avenir:
tudesociologique of 1887
im-
pressed
nd exerted
nfluence
n
Durkheim,
s
his
substantial
eview or he
Revue hilosophique
would ndicate.
e
la
Divisiondu travail
ocial, which
appearedn1893,was a work f ethics nequally argemeasure. eveloping
Fouillee's dea
of sociability s
applicable o a wider efinition
f sociology
thanComte's
hilosophie ositive
ad allowed,
Guyauportrayseligion
s a
universal ociological
hypothesis,
hich seeks to
explain
all
thingsby
analogies
drawn from
human
society,
imaginatively,
nd
symbolically
considered."
With
Fouillee,
he came close
in
fact o
"putting
ociology o
metaphysical ses,"
depicting
uman
destiny
s the expression
f moral
fecundity,
he
tendency
o
increasing ociability.25
s Tarde was
quick
to
note, hatwas preciselyhe endencyfDurkheim's ivision fLabor. Close
as their oints f departure
or their lleged
nti-rationaleanings)may
have
been,Guyau
nd
Durkheimwereto move
n
differentirections.
ut
they
remained
xponents
like of the"esprit hilosophique"
hichEmile
Bout-
roux ould
descry
n
thedelicate
merger
f science
with he
deal,
he s with
the ught, hat e found
istinctive
fturn-of-the-century
rench hilosophic
life.26
Crucial to the
construction
f a social
morality,
uyau's
thesisthat
religion s in essence "a universal ociologicalexplanationn mythical
form"
licited swift
esponse
rom
urkheim.
lthough 'Irre'ligion
n-
sists on the
"social
point
of
view,"
it
also
adopts
the
individualisticr
would-be
metaphysical
ociological
tanceof
Durkheim's
ritics,
ouillee
prominentmong
them.Durkheim
was
ambivalent,
owever,
bout the
aggregate
f
psychological-sociological,
oluntarist-collectivist,nternal-ex-
ternal lements
n the final omposition
f
a social morality,nd
he could
accept
Guyau's explanation
f
morality
s
a kindof collectiveme'moire.27
More mmediatelyignificantodoubt, renchmoral heoristsncreasingly
shared
heview thatmorals nd
sociology
must e seento coalesce
f
moral
dogmatism
as to be
superseded y
new
ways
of
securing armony
etween
human onduct
nd
social
needs.
n
this ase
Guyau's
workmarks transi-
25
H. Stuart ughes,BetweenCommitment
nd Disillusion:TheObstructed
ath Mid-
dletown, 987),265,
refers o Durkheim nd James
n
a
phrase rom evi-Strauss. eligion
is "une explicationhysique,metaphysique
t
moraledetoutes
hoses
par
analogie avec la
societehumaine...,"
'Irreligion, ii, original mphasis;
nd x-xi
on
sociability: dans
son
horreur our la
metaphysique," omte "a exclu [du positivisme]
oute porteevraiment
universelle
t
cosmique...."
Cf. Durkheim, evuephilosophique, 3, 306-7.
26
Boutroux,
La
Philosophie
n France
depuis
1867," Revue de
metaphysique
t de
morale,
16
(1917),
714-16; Esquisse,
170 (143). See also Durkheim, e la
Division
du
travail ocial (2ndedn.,Paris,
1902), 26, 146-49,205-9; Tarde,Revuephilosophique,
5
(1893), 618-38.
27
L
'Irreligion,xvii.
...
n'y
a-t-il as pournous quelque
chose
de
fratemel ans toute
pensee de l'homme?"; also v,
iii
("une explication
ociologique universelle ' forme
mythique"),ited by Durkheim,eview,300. On Durkheim's hought, f.Jerrold eigel,
"Autonomy
nd Personality
n
Durkheim:
An
Essay
on Content nd Method,"JHI, 48
(1987), 484ff.
This content downloaded from 147.96.1.236 on Sun, 29 Nov 2015 07:04:43 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
8/20/2019 Nietzsche and Guyau
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/nietzsche-and-guyau 15/24
88
Geoffrey.
Fidler
tion from
he kind
of scientific
morality"independent
f
obligation
r
sanction"), rounding
tself n some
deal or
principle,
o the
peculatively
neutral
ind
f a sciencedes
moeurs.28
The intensive spectofGuyau's social viewpointmarks t offby and
large
rom urkheim's
ui generis
ategoryf
conscience
ollective.
y the
same oken,
his iew,
with tsmulti-facetedppeal
o
synthesis
f
ndividual
and
community,
ersonality
nd
organism,
ttaches
uyau
o the ess
scien-
tific or
more dealistic)
Durkheim f
the
Formes
le'mentaires
nd L'Evo-
lution
edagogique
n France.29
t makesfor certain
mbivalence,
uch s
Rauh and Durkheim
isplay,
oward hesocialpolitique
of
civic fraternity
prevalent
n
the solidarist"
mentality. spiring
o give
uridical xpression
to socio-political ohesion, olidarismookedto legalsanctions ormutual
obligation.
hese
were he
complement
o its
parallel hilosophic
ndeavor
to
merge heclaims
of contractual-utilitarian
ustice
with he facets
f his-
torical-biological
rganicism rominent
n the heories f
Comte nd Spen-
cer.
Its
primephilosophic
mover
was Fouillee,
for
whom
the solidarist
society
was
a "contractual
rganicism."30
Increasingly
heofficialdeological
rientation
f
theThird
Republic
y
the
fin de siecle,
solidarism
was
strictly
t odds
with
the hypothetical
characterf Guyau'smoralproposal, ven fhis schoolmanuals o assume
itsquasi-official
ecular one
f aicite'. he
affirmation
f a certain riginal-
ity,
ovelty,
ndsuperiority
n
his conception
fgenius,
moreover,id
not it
easily
with
he
democratic
spects
f
the olidarist
reed.
t
is
true
Guyau's
genius
s inextricable
rom n
interactiveocial
environment
y
the
very act
that
t
constitutes
n "extraordinarily
ntense" orm
f sympathynd
socia-
bility of
the sorthis
heroVictor
Hugo
exhibits);
ut
that
nvironment
s
Tarde's mutually-dependent
ne
of
interpersonal
elations etween
imita-
tors" nd"innovators,"ncompassinghe ctual nd the dealas well as the
new
society.
For Guyau
these relations
mimic nteraction
hichhe sees
between
pontaneous
nstinct nd deliberate onsciousness
nd the move-
ment
rom
morality
f
mpulse
o
a
morality
f
nsight-a psychology
f
habits
o a
sociology
f ceremonies.31
28
Esquisse,
109, 136; Carrel
The Morals ofGuyau,"457, 468.
29
OnDurkheim ere, ee S. Seidman, iberalism nd theOrigins fEuropeanSocial
Theory Berkeley,
1983), 193-97; and cf. Fouillee, Les Elements ociologiques
de la
morale (Paris, 1905), vii, 74, and
"La Doctrine de la vie,"
535n, which rejects the
individualistic nd
non-scientificociology
Aslan imputes o Guyau'swork.Aslan was a
student
f Durkheim,
is thesis
defense
n
"La
Morale de
Guyau"
appearing
n theRevue
de
metaphysique,
4, supplement1906),
12-14,
with
omments
yDurkheim.
30
On
solidarism nd
Fouillee,
I
draw
on
J.
E.
S.
Hayward, 'Solidarity'
and the
Reformistociology
of Alfred ouillee,"TheAmerican ournal f
Economics nd Sociol-
ogy, 22 (1963), esp. 209-15; and
DominickLaCapra, Emile Durkheim:
ociologistand
Philosopher Chicago,
1985), 69-78.
31
L 'Art u pointde vue sociologique,27; Education theredite, 7-38. Cf. Harding,
66-67.
This content downloaded from 147.96.1.236 on Sun, 29 Nov 2015 07:04:43 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
8/20/2019 Nietzsche and Guyau
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/nietzsche-and-guyau 16/24
Jean-Marie
Guyau
89
The
nterplayf ntensivendexpansive lements emanded y
Guyau's
social habitat
s
furtherdvanced
n
theposthumous 'Art au
pointde
vue
sociologique.
Art
s
"par excellence phenomenonf
sociability," e main-
tains,because it is rooted n laws of sympathynd transmissionf the
emotions nd
can
give a
vision of
the
ideal
society.The motif f his
aesthetics
virtue
s
"profoundest
f the
rts")
s to
unite
he
beautiful ith
thegood, art
with
morals.
t
could appeal at
once to the esthetic-as-ethical
dimension f
"l'action"
n the
Catholic hilosopher auriceBlondel nd
to
the ritical-social istorical ovelof Lukacs's
Marxist esthetics. or
what-
ever
lse
it
may
be,
art
s
as serious
business
s
life tself.32
As a sentimentf
sociability hen,
he
outcome f Guyau's vision of
sociomorphismtands n sharp ontrastoNietzsche's Ubermensch. oth
philosophies
everthelesshare
n
underlying orality
f
energy,
eeking
o
reconcile hefact f a dissolving onsciousness ith
heprinciple f
uncon-
scious
spontaneity;
nd each ooks to a kindof
sublimationo effectmoral
functions. uyau oins Nietzsche n his
aesthetic ppeal to themorality f
genius
nd
the
ranscendencef
conventionalimits.33 hat ets
Guyau
part
is his idea
of
life s sympatheticxpansion,ife s
fecundity.
n
relation
o
fecundity,
hich s the true
xistence f
life
seeking
o extend ts
limits,
generositynevitablytands s thehighest irtue nd nertiahegreatestice.
ForNietzsche
ear
nd aziness re ikewise bstacles o the
uthenticityf
n
active
"life-full")ife,
but
generosityppears
neither s
power
nor
explic-
itly
as virtue.
Guyau's
insistence n an
intensive,
ot
merely
xtensive,
concept f
ifewas
apt
o distance
im
from
he ocial
point
fview
s a near-
exclusive
ategory
f human
nquiry nd explanation,
ut
his elan
remains
emphatically
ne of
amour.34
AlthoughheEsquisse d'unemorale ans obligation i sanction eso-
nates hemethod nd
metaphor
f scientific
thics,
t
s a
work
f
metaphys-
ics. The
harmony ashioned y largely
external
onceptions f human
development-by
hose
n
particular
f theutilitariansnd
evolutionists-is
precarious,
eing
under onstant hreat f conflict etween he
spheres
f
unconscious nd
conscious, mpulsive
nd
reflective
ife.
The
Esquisse
thereforeegins where he Morale anglaise leftoff: t sets out
from he
premise f
an
inherentlyowerful
dee
de vie.
Guyauproposes wo
main
32
Georg Lukacs, The HistoricalNovel [1937] (Nebraska,1983), 231ff;M. Blondel,
Notes d'esthetique,1878-1900, intro. nd ed. Sante Babolin (Rome, 1973), 91, 180n,
passim.
See
also
L'Art
au
point
de vue
sociologique, 383-84; Non-Religion, 05;
and
Fouillee,La Morale, V'art..., 97-218.
3 L'Art au point de vue sociologique, 21-27, ix; Esquisse, 97, 244ff; Kaufmann,
Nietzsche Princeton, 974), 158, 224-27.
34 Halevy,Nietzsche, 79; Esquisse, 10-30,for l'hypothese ptimiste." f. Lester
H.
Hunt,Nietzsche nd theOrigin f VirtueLondon,1993), 91-92, forNietzsche's generos-
ity."
This content downloaded from 147.96.1.236 on Sun, 29 Nov 2015 07:04:43 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
8/20/2019 Nietzsche and Guyau
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/nietzsche-and-guyau 17/24
90 Geoffrey. Fidler
perspectives n this corresponding
o
the scientific nd the
speculative
dimensions
f
a
"morality
f thefuture."35
Strictlypeakingand
this
s
a
point
o
stress),
e
was not ut o
prove
he
sufficiencyfa purely aturalistic orality. y wayofa "sketch," e was
demonstrating
ow
far cience
might o
in
the elaboration
f
a
concept
f
morality;
t
has its
imitations,
ven
f
his
inclinations to favor
scientific
explanation. aradoxically, iven
his
initialdemolition f
"metaphysical
dogmatism,"
e is far rom
ismissing
heroleof
metaphysicsas "specula-
tion")
in
moral philosophy:
It
does
not
follow
that
the desire of life
absolutely
xhausts
he dea of the
desirable,
with ll
the
metaphysical,
nd
even
mystical,
otionswhich an be attached o
it."36
peculation qually
has ts ourcenGuyau'svitalism.t s indeedndispensableo histhesis hat
life as it develops "conscious of itself') will give rise to "an indefinite
variety
f motives erived romt."37 ut
first,
ow does the
Esquisse depict
thepoint f departuref science
n
moral hilosophy?
Guyau's
vitalforce eflects
potential
mix of
emotions
nd
udgments,
of
conditions
nd actions. Mobiles"
mark heterrain f sentimentnd
the
will,of the
ltruistic
motions
n
particular.
Motifs"
xpress
he
cognitive-
intellectual omain, ctivatinghe so-calledrule-emotions,uch as justice.
To buildon thefirsts to promote, r at leastto give energy o,the econd.
Guyaudevelops
Fouillee's
dees-forces,
hich
end o action s a
species
of
power-of-acting,here,
or
xample,
o understandis
already
he
begin-
ning
n
us of
therealization f
that
whichwe
understand."38o deny uch
unity
f
being-here
of
thought
nd
action,
but
generally
f essence and
function-is o embrace
he
mmorality
f
a
hypocritical orality.
n
effect
Guyau posits
an internal
aw
based
on
impulses
nd
sentiments, hich,
subject
o
reflection,
re confirmednd
organized
s an
embryonic
moral
motive orce r mobilemoral.
He attaches ome
priority
o
pleasure,
ince
ntensity
f
pleasuremay
be
identified
ith
ntensity
f
life,
buthe finds
t
too
firmly
ied
to an unduly
restricted
ife f
conscious nd more r ess voluntarycts.He distinguishes
between he
purely
ensualelement f
pleasures such
as
eating)
nd their
moredeeply
ital lement
ituated t theroot f the ctivitytself "we live
for
the
pleasure
of
living" tself).More deeply ndependent f external
objects,
he
econd lements
more
irmly
mbedded
n
the
potentialctivity
of "accumulatednergy." leasure lone does not triggerheunfolding f
35Esquisse,81
(70) "C'est
a
la vie
que
nous
demanderons
e
principe
e la
moralit&";
La Morale
anglaise, 423-29.
36
Sketch,
1
(94).
37 Sketch,80
(94):
"une
variete
indefinie
de
mobiles
derives"; Esquisse, 71-72,
preface;
Christophe,Le
Principede la vie," 344-45.
38
Sketch, 2 (108): "Comprendre,'est deja commencer n soi-meme a realisation
de
ce qu'on comprend
.."; Educationet
heredite, 7n.
This content downloaded from 147.96.1.236 on Sun, 29 Nov 2015 07:04:43 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
8/20/2019 Nietzsche and Guyau
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/nietzsche-and-guyau 18/24
Jean-Marie
Guyau
91
such
energy.39uyau
was
impressed
y
Mill's efforto discriminate
mong
kindsof
pleasures, ut
in
a
vitalist hilosophy he
peculiardifficulty
e-
mained
f establishingome
scale of valueswhereby
ating for
nstance) s
not as "vital" as thinking.Moral fecundity merges s a "law" of the
correlation
etweenmaximumntensity
nd maximum
xpansion
f ife
nd
associates
tself
with he
ncreasingly
ociable character f
such
"superior
pleasures"
s art, easoning,
nd earning.
t
predicateshekind f
qualitative
hierarchy
ermane
o moral
heories
rounded
n
psychology.40
To
ascertain he
motivesfor actions
s
not sufficient
s a basis for
asserting
hat
we
ought
o
do.
Nevertheless,
n
seeking
o
acknowledge
he
claims
of unconscious
ife,
Guyaurecognizes
hat
f
any
value
concept
s to
be advanced, ife has to be boundup withconsciousness nd feelings f
pleasure.
o
be
moral herefore
equires ot nly eeling
he orce rpower f
our
will
"I can,
thereforemust")
ut
lso
realizing
he
uperiority
f those
tendencies
aving universal
bject.
Like Mill, he wants
unity f desires
and
thedesirable.4'
ensible ather
hanmoral
n
origin,
bligation
rises
ut
of our
ensed
feeling
f resistance"
o
desire;
onsciousness hen issolves
the nstinct,
hough easonhas
ts
origins
n
the ame nstinctual
ower ase.
Might
not reason
then come to desire
the
same
generosity f life (the
ftconditemorale)forwhich nstinctpparentlyropes?By dint fmastery
and of
much eflection
n
fact, ationality
ould deallyprove
n
"instinct"
apt
o
perform
ound
psychological
unctions.
learlyGuyau
s
drawn o
the
perfection
f
nature:
he
varied
mpressions
nd emotional
xperiences
f
fecund
ife overflow
he mark
f
commonplace
xistence.
As much s his
philosophy
f elan requires
ulture
o
represent
certain
ulfillment
f
nature,
uyau's
culture
s themoral ulture f
Gide's
immoralist,
t
s
one
of
"intelligente ontrainte."42
He seeks, then, o bridgethe realmsof unconscious nd conscious
motivation.
n
a kind f
sublimation,
e
finds
meeting lace
for hemutual
transformations
nd
myriad
eviations f nstinctnd reason
nd buildson
instinctualorces
o create wholesome"
igures.Moral
science ooks for
he
point
where .. instinctndreason ouch ndmutuallyransform
hemselves
without
easing."43
n the
bstract orm f a universal
mperative,
hemoral
sentiment
merely
roduces
a
logical satisfaction,
hich tself s still a
39 Esquisse, 90 (77-78):
"... parfois n agit
pour e plaisird'agir,on vitpourvivre...."
40
Ibid., 83ff,
10; La Morale anglaise,99-100,240-54; Christophe,
Le Principe e
la
vie," 518.
41
With
Mill,
thereremained he problem
of
self-sacrifice:
ce n'est pas tout de
reconaUtree sacrifice
t
d'en
profiter; omment
e commander?" a Morale anglaise,
109, 196-99; Esquisse,
102-8, 248 (211): "Jepuis, donc e dois."
42
L'Immoraliste 1902] (Paris, 1966),
82, 104: "Culture"kills life but there s
the
culture f
"une
ethiquequi devenaitune
science de la parfaite tilisation
e soi parune
intelligenteontrainte."squisse, 57-61 (48-52),
137 (115-16).
43
Sketch, 9-80 (93-94): "... cherchee lieu de rencontreiiviennente toucher tofu
se
transforment
ans
cesse l'une dans
l'autre
.. instinct t
raison....."
This content downloaded from 147.96.1.236 on Sun, 29 Nov 2015 07:04:43 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
8/20/2019 Nietzsche and Guyau
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/nietzsche-and-guyau 19/24
92
Geoffrey. Fidler
satisfaction
f the
ogical
nstinct
.. a natural
endency,
n
expression
f
ife
in tshigher orm.. intelligent,
avourableo order, o symmetry.. unity
n
variety
..
universality."44
theory
therefore
sychologically
xact
and
deep,"thecategoricalmperative ives wayto a natural quivalent,o the
hypothetical alidity f
a would-beexpedient lternative. uyau would
encapsulate
he Kantian
mperative
nd
give
it
a content.
n
the form
f a
primitivempulsedirected olely
towards hewholesome ife, hat ontent
precedesrational hought et like
the
Epicurean olonte)
ranscends ny
particularisticleasure.
rom his
tandpoint uyaugoes
on
to
confronthe
problem f
how deliberate onsciousnessconscience eflechie)
an
ration-
ally obey
n
obligation
temming
rom
urely
atural
actors,
ith o extra-
socialsanctions nd,more ignificantlyn a philosophyf ife, ow tmight
command
he
extraordinary
isinterestedness
f a
complete
r final
defini-
tif
sacrifice
f
ife.45
Like earlier roposals
f naturalisticheory fvalues,Guyau's
morality
"without
metaphysics"truggled
o
provide generic
orm.
lthough
ook-
ing to ethics
t
the evel
of moral aw
(of
a
psychological
nd sociological
character), uyau
seems more nterested
n
the
moral end. In the
sortof
"critique
f
practical
entiment" hichRauh
attempts,
uyau
nvisages
he
interactionf ndividual onsciousness ith he ocialreality,refiguringhe
idea of"reflection
n instinct"s moral
uide; mplicitlyoo,
he onscience
individuelle onstitutesn
embryonic
orm f the conscience ollective.46
Nevertheless
he moralend is
life
tself,
he will to live as an
instinctual
tendencynd s
a kind
fenergymorality
s
inextricably
ound o this.Taken
to its purely cientificimits,
morality emains ncomplete; et s a purely
metaphysicaloncept,
t
remains ncertain.
Guyau's
moral
theory roved
of
special
interest ot so much for he
complete heoryfconduct rmorale cientifique hich tofferss for he
substitutes
t
proposes
for he
duty, bligation,
nd
sanction f traditional
morality.
ivotal
among
hem re what
he
calls
the
"metaphysical
quiva-
lents."
n
fact n exclusively cientific
moral
philosophy
cannot,"Guyau
concedes, give
a
complete
olution f moral
bligation";
t
s
necessary
o
transcend
xperience.
ositive
morality
an furnish
ood
hypothetical
d-
vice,
but
beyond
the life of
average morality-and
so of average ener-
gy-only metaphysicalypotheses
an counter
le
raisonnement
goiste"
o
"makethewill overcome hetransitionfthe selftothe non-self."47rom
the
purely ositive heoretical
oint fview, heproblem ppeared nsoluble.
44
Sketch,
0 (59).
45 Esquisse, 102-3
"... une sortede
pouvoir
naturel
recedant
e
savoir"),
153. The
universal
aw
may,
u
fond,
contain la
volonte,
e vouloir
pur"
59).
46
Ibid.,
138
(116):
Guyau would
have
instinct
conscientde
lui-meme,
n rendant
reflechi e qui etait pontane."Cf.RauhL'Experiencemorale, 6.
47
Sketch,
18-19
142):
"de
faire
ranchir la
volonte
e
passage
du
moi au
non-moi."
This content downloaded from 147.96.1.236 on Sun, 29 Nov 2015 07:04:43 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
8/20/2019 Nietzsche and Guyau
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/nietzsche-and-guyau 20/24
Jean-Marie uyau
93
Guyau
nevertheless
roposes
an
"approximate" olution, ointing
n
the
directionf
practice.
He presents
wo
ayers
f
argument.
irst here s the
pleasure f
risk
le
plaisirdu risque),wherePascal had seenonlythefear.48 he need to risk
oneself
n
danger nd struggle in business or
battle,
r
in
the
tensions
between he
will and the
passions
of
Corneille's
greatprotagonists,
or
instance) an be artfullytilized nd directed y reason.
elf-sacrifice,ven
suicide,
need
not
be themere
negation
f self
nd
personal
ifebut
"life ..
raised into sublimity." here is indeed a "sentiment
e
l'intolerabilite"
("Raphaelwithout orms, olors nd a brush")
n
whichdeath s chosenby
the
will
of someone who knows
what ife
means."49While propensityo
take risksvarieswithparticularemperaments,t is experienced y every
individual ife
"with
any power at all."
In
all
energy r power-based
moralities, owever, he problem
with
puissance s
devoir
s
that ack of
spirit
r
reason,
health
r
appetite,
must
urely
tand o lessen a
person's
senseof
duty.
As
much s there s an ethical r a
chronological
ife-a life f
quality r of quantity-theres a life
f
otand fortunes.
definite remium
attaches o the
perfected
atherhan he
imple
ife.
Guyau vidently
aw the
implications:
n his new
society, ociology nd political
economy
would
functions a scienceofrisks nthehumanitarianuiseof a compensatory
"science
de
l'assurance."
He
wouldhave been
perplexed,
o
doubt,
o
learn
thatNietzsche'sUbermenschappears o have derived
romGuyau."50
Secondly,what of
those other isks
thatdemand
he
definitive
elf-
sacrifice
et
ack
thebenefit
f
dogmatic
aith?
Guyau
sets
out
from ndi-
vidualmanifestationsf ife, elf-sacrificeaving ts ource
n
a
"superabun-
dance of moral life" or of sentiments f
fecundity.
ut to
make
such
sentiments
bjective equires
n
exceptional
moral
gentwho,
ikethe
rtist,
can communicate iththesuggestive inesse f a metaphysical oemor
"illusionfeconde." ecause of its fecundity,his
mayonly "become" rue.
Speculation
hus
lays
a
practical
ole
n
therealm f
thoughtnalogous
o
luxury
nd
outlay,
n
relation o
art,
n
the
ealm feconomics.
t
can become
a
necessity
when
practice ictates, owever,
or
we
can neither
ive, nor,
above
all,
die
without
t."
Reason lluminates real nd
an deal world, ut
t
is
the ideal
conception "of
the
metaphysical ssence of
things")
hat s
48
Esquisse,
147
122-23): "[Pascal]
n'a
guere
vu
que
la
crainte
u
risque,
l n'a
pas
vu
le
plaisir
du
risque." Welcoming
Guyau's viewpoint,
Nietzsche shares this view
of
Pascal's
wager:
see Sittlichkeit
hne
"Pflicht,
295
("Pascal ");
and
The Will toPower,
491
(#929),with noteby KaufmannitingGuyau.
49 Esquisse, 155, 157ff(130, 32ff). he
sublime hares he
ame roots s thegood,but
(ibid.,
150-51 125]), "l'intensite e sentimentsu'il suppose
n'empechepas une certaine
rationalitenterieure."
50
Carrel,
The
Morals of Guyau,"465; Esquisse, 150ff.
Apart
fromhow it
might
pleaseeveryone, he haracter fGuyau's new society s distinctlynclear: s Boirac says,
"Fourier
was moreexplicit" Revuephilosophique 1885], 326).
This content downloaded from 147.96.1.236 on Sun, 29 Nov 2015 07:04:43 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
8/20/2019 Nietzsche and Guyau
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/nietzsche-and-guyau 21/24
94
Geoffrey. Fidler
imperativeor ction.Metaphysics ust onetheless
eep
o ts
legitimate
sphere"
s a
supplement
o
positivemorality
or n
expedienturpose.
Kant'sautonomy
econcilestselfwith he
universality
f law.
Guyau's
"hypothesesndividuelles"-a indof "rationalndnon-categoricalm-
perative"-propose
n
"anomie
morale" ith o
fixed,podictic,
runiver-
sal
law.
An
"equivalent"
f
autonomie,
nomie s thus "moral"
ondition
and
basis
for ction
which
mbracesoth he
ntensity
f
ndividualife s
fecundity
nd he raternalife f ocial nd
nterpersonalelationships.5'
What urkheim
ortrays
s a
late
nineteenth-century
ocial
pathology,
Guyau ostulates
s an deal
of
ndividual-as-social
uthenticity.
contrast
betweenheir
espectiveoncepts
f anomiewas
indeed
mplicit
o Durk-
heim'soriginal resentationf a social moralityn strict ppositiono
Guyau's
moral nomie.
n the ther
and,
o contrasthe wo
oncepts
f
anomiemay
lso
gnore ifferencesore
pparent
han
eal, ssuming
he
wider
hilosophical
imension
o Durkheim's
oncept.
urkheim
rguably
considersnomie
he
social
expression
nd cause
of a
"low"
species
f
individualism,n
"unfettered"
ill
prone o uniquely goistic esires.
Anomie efined
y
what
t
does not
contain-by
he
bsence
f
optimal
degrees
f
ocial
nd
ocial-psychologicalntegrationnd egulation-is
he
non-achievementf olidariterganique. onceptuallyistinct,houghsy-
chologicallyelated
n this
efinition,uyau's
nomies
characterizedy
the quilibriumt
containss theputativelyerfectntegrationf
"volonte
pure"
with
intelligenteontrainte."s criticsf
fin
e
siecle
ivilization
and
ts
discontents
or
of
the anomic"malaise hat e
Suicide
depicts),
Guyau
ndDurkheim
how
much
n
common.
he
parallel
ffinities,
irect
or
ndirect,
etween urkheimnd
chopenhauer
re
no
doubt
more
ontro-
versial,
ut
hey
xceed
he
bounds f this
ssay, nd
only emarkhat
insofars"fin esiecle pirit"eflectschopenhauer,s StjepanMestrovic
suggests, uyau argely epudiatest;at least,he
rejects he hypothese
pessimiste."
urkheimnew hework
f
Guyau
nd
Bergson
well. t
is
interesting
hat e seems
ot o ffirmhe
ptimismeculiar
othese rench
philosophers
f
elan,
nd
o
Guyau's fecundity
fwill"
s anomiemorale
in
particular.52
5 Esquisse, 161-64 (135-37). Tarde (Revuephilosophique, 8 [1889], 187-88) re-
garded Guyau's metaphysical isk as little
more
than a euphemism or old-established
varieties f elf-deceptionikethe
llusory oble ie. See
also
L
Irreligion, x-xxi, nd Vers
d'un
philosophe "Illusion
feconde"),
11-18:
"L'Ideal n'est-il
pas
...
/
Plus
fecond
t
plus
beau que
la
realite?"
52
Bergson ndFouillee were
ife-long ritics f
Durkheim'smoral ociology.Guyau
addresses essimism
n Esquisse,31-44, and
L'Irreligion,
t.
II, ch.
4. In
ibid.,323 (374-
75), religious
nomieparallels 'anomie morale and
we ourselves
houldbe "les ouvriers
de
nos croyances."
Anthony
Giddens
sees
L'Irreligion
to have
inspiredDurkheim's
anomie, .g.,
in
his
Capitalism
nd
Modern ocial
TheoryCambridge,
971), 80n,
but
he
Esquisse first dvancedtheconcept.On Durkheim ere, make use ofLaCapra, Emile
Durkheim, sp.
156-71; Stephen
Marks, "Durkheim'sTheory of
Anomie," American
This content downloaded from 147.96.1.236 on Sun, 29 Nov 2015 07:04:43 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
8/20/2019 Nietzsche and Guyau
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/nietzsche-and-guyau 22/24
Jean-Marie
uyau
95
It s not urprisinghat hilosophic
narchists ere
n
awe of Guyau
nor
that he
"anarchic" nd
indeterminateeatures
f theEsquisse
should licit
Fouillee's
only erious
riticism
fhis stepson's hilosophy.
uyaudoes
not
dismissthe need for ocial order,however.The practical urview f his
conception
f
true
utonomy
omes far loserto
the ndividual riginality
and diversity
f
opinion
urgedby
Mill-a radicalposture
he well
under-
stood.53
To discard
whatGuyaucalled
the lastdogma"of fixed
moralities
as,
as Piaget uggests,
reaction
gainst
he Kantian
thics."
The
attempt
as
perhaps
ot s substantial
s the ne Piaget
lso attributesin
his
comparison
of the two strains f "anti-Kantian"ritique) o FredericRauh. Nor did
Guyau's attempt roduce
Durkheimian
cience des moeurs.His
analysis
barelyproved
reassuring
or
the
statusof
a
uniquelypositive
morality.
Moreover,
heres substance
o the riticismhat
he
moral mpetus
rmobile
moralof his concept
f ifewas covertly
oumenal.
He
left
oo great
gap
between
he
"science"
of
his morale
ositive
nd the
philosophical
ynthe-
sis,
in
his
morale
hypothe'tique,
f
simultaneous
ut
contradictory
nclina-
tions to
sacrifice nd preservation,
issolution
nd
production.
n this
account,nshort, isworkwassignificantor he uality f ts mperfections,
notably
tsreinstatementfa
version fthe ld morality
or noblepurpose.
His
emphasis
on
the
impetus
o
moral life and the solutions o moral
predicaments
ndoubtedlytands
o cloudthemoralitytself,
nddespite
is
initial resupposition
f
a
given
moral
ubject-matter
"the hing
we
have to
do"),
he
subsequently
eems
intent
n
bringing
n a
content,
t least
in
respect
f
more-than-average
nergies.
t
oddsmore ften han
notwith he
conventional
ulture,
ife nd ts ommunication
ith thers
s
thebasis for
Guyau'smoralitys the unity fbeing."But toemphasizewhat s fruitful
may
deny
what s destructive
n
life.
t is
the case,
as
Virginia
Woolfhas
writtenn
Montaigne,
hat
the
..
lifewithin s
by
no means
grees
with
he
life utsideS."54
Journalof Sociology,
80 (1974), 329-63; and S. G. Mestrovic,
who
posits
a Schopen-
hauerian nd anti-Enlightenmenturkheim,
.g., in his The Coming
Fin
de Siecle:
An
Application fDurkheim's ociology
to Modernity nd Postmodernism
London,1991),
chs. 3, 5; and"The Theme of Civilization nd itsDiscontentsn Durkheim'sDivisionof
Labor," Journal
or
the Theory f Social
Behaviour, 19 (1989), 443-56.
The
contrast
betweenGuyau's
and
Durkheim's
oncepts
f anomie
s
developed
n
Marco
Orrfi,
nomie:
History nd Meaning
Boston, 1987),
ch. 4, and PhilippeBesnard,
Anomie
Paris,
1987),
21-27. Maclntyre,
Whose ustice?Which
ationality?NotreDame, 1988), 368-69,
relates
Durkheim's
nomie
to
Nietzschean deas. Durkheimoins
Guyau,for nstance,
whenhe
claims Suicide [NewYork, 1951],
210) the individual lone
s
not sufficientnd
forhis
activity.... he stateof egoism
s ...
contradictory
o humannature...."
53 Esquisse,
167, 240; La Morale anglaise,
82ff;
Fouillee,
"La
Doctrinede
la
vie,"
541-44.
5
V. Woolf,A Woman'sEssays: SelectedEssays, VolumeOne (London,1992), 57;
Education nd Heredity, 9 (58);
see also James orley,
n
Mind, 10 (1885),
281. Cf. "La
This content downloaded from 147.96.1.236 on Sun, 29 Nov 2015 07:04:43 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
8/20/2019 Nietzsche and Guyau
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/nietzsche-and-guyau 23/24
96 Geoffrey
. Fidler
On
the ther
and,
s
content, etaphysicalypotheses
romote "very
fruitful"ourceof activity.
I
believe because
I hope," Guyau would say,
"and
I
hope
because
feel
n
myself wholly
nternal
nergy...."
n
accord
with heurge o constanttrivinghat is vitalprinciple ictates, e deplores
the"decadence" f a
Baudelaire r Verlaine ust as, more mmediately,
e
spurns
he trictures
f
dogmatic
aith. et
he also
implores
he
fecundity
f
that rofoundense of social missionVictorHugo
felt
s
a
poet. There
s a
cogency o
the
laim hatGuyau
ffered
theory
fexistence nd of
conduct
in
existence
more social,
and
perhaps
more harmonious" han any
the
utilitarian
chool could
present.55ertainly,
is
morality ngages
the
con-
flicting ontemporaryalls
to self-fulfillmentnd social purposewithpre-
Enlightenmentttachmentso self-sacrificend heroicvision.Amongpio-
neering ffortseyond hose fpurely volutionary
oralists,
t
posits bold
response o nineteenth-centuryenewal ndredefinition
f
the
wider oncep-
tualproblems rompted
y claimsof fact nd nature
ver hose f
value and
culture, f
scienceover
those of
philosophy.
uyau
deserves
o be
better
known or
his.
His project s indeed reaction gainstKant,yet
onceivably
ts
Kantian
elements re
more han he
mere
ign
of
its
failings.
or
all its
energy
nd
elan,hisvitalism tands nextricablerom nowledgendwisdom, aith,nd
hope.
n
Guyau's
as
in
Kant's visionof morality,heuniversal ntends
he
perfectionf
the
ndividual
s well
as
its
contributiono
the
harmonyf
the
whole, hegood
ofthe
pecies.Guyau
haresKant's conception fhumanity
as themost
omplete ynthesis
f
nature nd
reason
ndependent
fthe
deity;
and
n
thishe
surely
tands
with
Kant,Nietzsche,
nd "other eretics" hom
Yirmiyahu
ovel
connects
o
Spinoza.
With
ts
cosmic
view
and ts
deal
of
the destiny f the world,
his
workdenotes singular
ndeavor o bring
enthusiasm-to ive ncreased nergy-tomoral ction.56
Nietzsche
may
havehad
good
cause to criticize
uyau
for
is
attachment
to an ideal patently lose
to
the Christian utlook:
it
is
still,"
s he says,
"the
cult of Christian
morality nder
new
name." Guyau trieshard to
Doctrine e la vie," 542; Christophe,
Le
Principe
e la
vie," 528 (forGuyau's
concept
f
life as a pure"entitemetaphysiquetnoumenale").Piaget,Le Jugement oral,272.
5 Carrel,"The Morals of
Guyau,"
466.
Though
he
disagreed
with his
examiners'
claim,
it
may
be that
Guyau presents un Epicure
vu
a travers tuart
Mill"
(Morale
d'Epicure,3n); but
do
not ee
him s "a
convinced tilitarian"Mitsis,EpicurusEthical
Theory, ) ifthatmeanshis positionn
general ully mbracesBentham nd Mill. See also
Sketch,
48
(175):
"Je crois
parceque j'espere,
et
'espere parce que je
sens en
moi
une
energie out nterieur"; 'Art au
point de vue sociologique, x, xxv, 90.
56
At
the conclusionto his course
of
lectures
of
1896-97 (La Philosophie
de
Kant
[Paris, 1968], 367, 374), Boutroux eems as
if
to follow Guyau's Versd'un
philosophe
("Spinoza,
la haine et
l'amour,"
"En
lisant Kant");
Y.
Yovel, Spinoza and Other
Heretics: The Adventures f Immanence Princeton, 989), xii, chs. 1, 5 (on Kant and
Nietzsche).
This content downloaded from 147.96.1.236 on Sun, 29 Nov 2015 07:04:43 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
8/20/2019 Nietzsche and Guyau
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/nietzsche-and-guyau 24/24
Jean-Marie uyau
97
connect
is vitalprinciple
o a tradition
f
mpersonal,
ltruistic,nd sympa-
theticmoral values
in which
the hope of humanity
ies
with love and
generosity.
e also exudes a
sincerity
o less uncompromising,ossibly
even morechallenginghanNietzsche's, hough rguablyNietzschegave
more cope
to chance nd risk,
more oom
or hehuman nstinct
e
oueur.
The altruismf Guyau,
with hevision
he
had of an all-embracing
ecundity
and sympathy
n human ifeand civilization,
an be seen as the
"Christian
oil"
in
the radically
nnovative gnostic
machinery
f his anti-Christian-
theology rotest.57
Taking
all
the
"higher,
more
penetrating
deals"
to
be
revolutionary,
James ssociates
Guyau'sradicalism
ith
hat fTolstoy.
heirs s more he
radicalism f themystic han f theheretic, hose ppeal s to an intensely
individual
xperience verauthority,
"superabundancef sentiment"
ver
purely
bjective
ationality.
o this extent
Guyau
s
immoraliste,nd
his
ethics
oes beyond
he
good
and evil of conventional
oralities.Whether
t
stands eyond
anctions
hatwould
constitute
"poor
ubstitute"orGod
is
as debatable
s
it
remains
f
Nietzsche.
A
lecture y JosiahRoyce
s
among
the earliest
ccounts
f Guyau's lifeand
work. t appears n
the collected
essays
of his Studies
f
Good
and
Evil,
where
t
also
accompanies
study
f
themysticMeister ckhart.58
Concordia
University, ontreal.
57 See Tarde,Revue hilosophique,
8
(1889),
182 "c'est dansune ampe .. de
1'huile
chretienne u'il
a
brule
toute sa vie"); and GeorgesPalante, "Moralisme
et immoral-
isme," bid.,54 (1902), 248n.
Cf. The Will o Power,#340, ited above.
58
Studies of Good and Evil,
chs.
X, XII;
Non-Religion,
1. Eckhartcommands
Nietzsche's respect,
n
The Gay
Science, 235 (#292),for nstance.
ee also Kaufmann,
Nietzsche,175; and James, The Moral Philosopher," 88-89 (notingGuyau's "radical
condemnation
f the
punitive
deal").