242 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



er. exposition enriched by a vein of genuine poetry : this was 



J.M.Guyau. 



Jean Marie Guyau (1854-88). Like Fouille'e, but some 

 years before him, he began his studies in contemporary 

 ethics with a criticism of the English school (1879). 

 His first constructive effort which followed is charac- 

 teristically an sesthetical treatise, with which we have 

 already become acquainted in the last chapter, which 

 dealt with the problem of the Beautiful. 1 He there 

 treats of art from the ethical and social point of view. 

 This treatise, which appeared in 1884, was immediately 

 followed by a treatise on Ethics (1885), and then by 

 one on the Philosophy of Eeligion (1887). 2 



In spite of the critical position he took up to the 

 Ethics of Naturalism as developed in this country, 

 Guyau was much influenced by the writings of this 

 school. He has notably recognised the great difficulties 

 which beset all naturalistic ethics viz., that they fail 

 to explain the facts of obligation and sanction, of ' the 

 Ought ' as distinguished from that which is. Similarly 

 he recognises in all religious philosophy the difficulty 

 of explaining or justifying the existence of a definite 

 religion, with creed and dogmas, as the outcome of the 

 religious temper or spirit. His method of meeting these 

 difficulties, of solving the antinomies and dilemmas, the 

 dualisms and paradoxes, is a much shorter one than that 

 of Alfred Fouille'e. It consists in eliminating them ; he 

 does not want to destroy morality or faith ; he wishes to 



1 See supra, p. 113 sqq. 



2 The ethical works of Guyau 

 are : ' La Morale d'Epicure et ses 

 Rapports avec les Doctrines Con- 

 temporaines ' (1878); 'La Morale 

 Anglaise Contemporaine ' (1879); 



'Esquisse d'une Morale sans obli- 

 gation ni sanction' (1885); 'L'lr- 

 religion de 1'avenir (1887). All 

 these works have appeared in many 

 editions. 



