Émile Bréhier

Émile Bréhier (French: [bʁeje]; 12 April 1876, Bar-le-Duc – 3 February 1952, Paris) was a French philosopher. His interest was in classical philosophy, and the history of philosophy. He wrote a Histoire de la Philosophie, translated into English in seven volumes. This work inspired Frederick Copleston's own History of Philosophy (1946–1975), initially comprising nine volumes.

Life

Bréhier studied at the University of Paris. In 1908 he received his doctorate at the Sorbonne with a dissertation about Philo of Alexandria. From 1910 to 1912 he was Master of Philosophical Conferences at the University of Rennes, and professor of philosophy at the University of Bordeaux from 1912 to 1914.^[1] He was Henri Bergson's successor at the University of Paris in 1945. The art historian Louis Bréhier was his brother.

In 1914 Bréhier became a sub-lieutenant in the 344th Infantry Regiment; later he was made knight of the Légion d'honneur.^[1] In 1914 he lost his left arm in combat.

Philosophical work

He was an early follower of Bergson; in the 1930s there was an influential view that Bergsonism and Neoplatonism were linked.^[2]

He has been called "the sole figure in the French history who adopts an Hegelian interpretation of Neoplatonism",^[3] but also a Neo-Kantian opponent of Hegel.^[4]

Works

• Les idées philosophiques et religieuses de Philon d'Alexandrie (1908)
• La Théorie des incorporels dans l'ancien stoïcisme, Paris, Librairie Alphonse Picard & fils (1907).
• Schelling (1912)
• Histoire de la philosophie allemande (1921)
• La Philosophie de Plotin
• Plotin: Ennéades (with French translation), Collection Budé (1924–1938)
• Histoire de la philosophie – I: Antiquité et moyen âge (three volumes), II: La philosophie moderne (four volumes)
• La philosophie du moyen âge (1949)
• Le monde byzantin – la civilisation byzantine (1950)
• Chrysippe et l'ancien stoïcisme (Paris, 1951)
• Histoire de la philosophie allemande, 3rd edition updated by Paul Ricœur (1954).
• Études de philosophie antique (1955)

He contributed the articles "Philo Judaeus", and "Stoics and Stoic Philosophy" to the Catholic Encyclopedia.^[1]