Anto - Biography, Principle works

Theologian, philosopher, lawyer, and mathematician, born in Paris, France. Ordained in 1641, he was the last child of the prominent Arnauld family which was closely linked to the history of Jansenism and Port-Royal, in Paris. He attacked the Jesuits in his De la fréquente Communion (1643) and supported Jansenius' work, the Augustinus. He was a controversialist, and his activities as head of the Jansenists led to his expulsion from the Sorbonne, persecution, and ultimately refuge in Belgium. He also wrote La Grammaire générale et raisonée (1660) and La Logique de Port-Royal (1662), a collaboration with Pascal and Pierre Nicole (1625–95). He returned to the Netherlands in 1679, where he later died.

Antoine Arnauld, (February 6, 1612 - August 6, 1694) — le grand as contemporaries called him, to distinguish him from his father — was a French Roman Catholic theologian, philosopher, and mathematician.

Biography

Antoine Arnauld was born at Paris.

The twentieth and youngest child of the original Antoine Arnauld, he was originally intended for the bar, but decided instead to study theology at the Sorbonne. Its appearance attracted controversy, and Arnauld was forced to go into hiding;

During this time he produced innumerable Jansenist pamphlets. In 1655 two very outspoken Lettres à un duc et pair on Jesuit methods in the confessional brought a motion to expel him from the Sorbonne. in February 1656 Arnauld was ceremonially degraded.

He now set to work with Pierre Nicole on a great work against the Calvinist Protestants: La perpétuité de la foi de l'Eglise catholique: touchant l'eucharistie. Arnauld was compelled to leave France for the Netherlands, finally settling down at Brussels.

His inexhaustible energy is best expressed by his famous reply to Nicole, who complained of feeling tired. echoed Arnauld, "when you have all eternity to rest in?" On the whole, public opinion leant to Arnauld's side. Arnauld does not?" And popular record for Arnauld's penetration was much increased in his L'Art de penser, commonly known as the Port-Royal Logic, which kept its place as an elementary text-book until the 20th century.

Arnauld came to be regarded as important among the mathematicians of his time; "In spite of myself," Arnauld once said regretfully, "my books are seldom very short." If not for his connection with Pascal, Arnauld's name would be almost forgotten--or, at most, live only in the famous epitaph Boileau consecrated to his memory--as

"Au pied de cet autel de structure grossière
Gît sans pompe, enfermé dans une vile bière,
Le plus savant mortel qui jamais ait écrit ;
...

Antoine Arnauld's complete works (thirty-seven volumes in forty-two parts) were published in Paris, 1775-1781. There is a study of his philosophy in Francisque Bouillier, Histoire de la philosophie cartésienne (Paris, 1868);

Arnauld conducted an extensive correspondence with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, regarding the latter's "Discourse on Metaphysics".

Principle works

The links are to the Gallica version.

De la fréquente communion où Les sentimens des pères, des papes et des Conciles, touchant l'usage des sacremens de pénitence et d'Eucharistie, sont fidèlement exposez. Paris : A. Full text in original French : Grammaire générale et raisonnée : contenant les fondemens de l'art de parler, expliqués d'une manière claire et naturelle. Full text in original French : La logique ou L'art de penser : contenant outre les regles communes, plusieurs observations nouvelles, propres à former le jugement.