BATTEUX, CHARLES (1713-1780)

This article appears in Volume V03, Page 533 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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BATTEUX, CHARLES (1713-1780) , French philosopher and writer on .esthetics, was born near Vouziers (Ardennes), and studied theology at Reims. In 1739 he came to Paris, and after teaching in the colleges of Lisieux and Navarre, was appointed to the chair of Greek and Roman philosophy in the College de France. In 1746 he published his treatise Les

Beaux

BEAUX, CECILIA (1863– )

-Arts reduits a un name principe, an attempt to find a unity among the various theories of beauty and

taste

TASTE (from Lat. taxare, to touch sharply; tangere, to touch)

, and his views were widely accepted. The reputation thus gained, confirmed by his

translation

TRANSLATION

Horace

HORACE [QuINTus HORATIUS FLACCUS] (65-8 B.C.)

(1750), led to his becoming a member of the Academie des

Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS (from Lat. inscribere, to write upon)

(1754) and of the French

Academy

ACADEMY, GREEK
ACADEMY, ROYAL

(1761). His Cours de belles lettres (1765) was afterwards included with some

minor

writings in the large treatise, Principes de la litterature (1774). The rules for composition there laid down are, perhaps, somewhat pedantic. His philosophical writings were La Morale d'Epicure tiree de ses propres gaits (1758), and the Histoire des causes premieres (1769). In consequence of the freedom with which in this

work

WORK

he attacked the abuse of authority in philosophy, he lost his professorial chair. His last and most extensive

work

WORK

was a Cours deludes d l'usage des eaves de l'ecole militaire (45 vols.). In the

Beaux

BEAUX, CECILIA (1863– )

-Arts, Batteux developed a theory which is derived from Locke through Voltaire's sceptical sensualism. He held that Art consists in the faithful imitation of the beautiful in nature. Applying this principle to the art of poetry, and analysing, line by line and even word by word, the works of

great

GREAT

poets, he deduced the law that the beauty of poetry consists in the accuracy, beauty and harmony of individual expression. This narrow and pedantic theory had at least the merit of insisting on propriety of expression. His Histoire des causes premieres was among the first attempts at a history of philosophy, and in his work on

Epicurus

EPICURUS (342–270 B.C.)

, following on Gassendi, he defended Epicureanism against the general attacks made against it.
See Dacier et Dupuy, " loges," in Mimoires de d Academie des

Inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS (from Lat. inscribere, to write upon)

.

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