Félix Ravaisson-Mollien

Who was Félix Ravaisson-Mollien?

Jean Gaspard Félix Ravaisson-Mollien was a French philosopher and archaeologist.

He was born at Namur. After a successful course of study at the Collège Rollin, he went to Munich, where he attended the lectures of Schelling, and took his degree in philosophy in 1836. In the following year he published the first volume of his famous work Essai sur la métaphysique d'Aristote, to which in 1846 he added a supplementary volume. This work not only criticizes and comments on the theories of Aristotle and the Peripatetics, but also develops from them a modern philosophical system.

In 1838 he received his doctorate, his thesis entitled 'De l'habitude', which was to become a classic text, and became professor of philosophy at Rennes. From 1840 he was inspector-general of public libraries, and in 1860 became inspector-general in the department of higher education. He was also a member of the Academy of Moral and Political Science, and curator of the Department of Antiquities at the Louvre. He died in Paris.