Louis Lavelle

Louis Lavelle (July 15, 1883 – September 1, 1951) was a French philosopher, considered one of the greatest French metaphysicians of the twentieth century. His magnum opus, La Dialectique de l'éternel présent (1922), is a systematic metaphysical work. Lavelle's other principal works include De l'Être (1928), De l'Acte (1937), Du Temps et de l'Eternité (1945), and De l'Âme Humaine (1951).

In his works, Lavelle dealt with themes such as axiology, aesthetics, the problem of evil, morality, and freedom of the spirit. Lavelle was a member of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques.

Biography
Louis Lavelle was born in France in 1883 and died there in 1951. He was Professor at the College de France, at the Sorbonne, and lectured at German, Italian, Swiss, Belgian and Dutch universities. In 1947 he was recognized for his many philosophical and religious writings, and named to the Académie des sciences morales et politiques.

Reception
Lavelle's work aroused much interest in the interwar period, yet received less attention in the second half of the twentieth century, although he was recognized by some of the greatest French philosophers of the 20th century, such as Merleau-Ponty, Gilles Deleuze, Paul Ricœur and Pierre Hadot, In addition to the coverage he received in France, articles dedicated to him have come from Italian and Brazilian interpreters.

From 1989 to 2019, thank to efforts by names like Alexis Klimov, Jean École, Jean-Louis Vieillard-Baron, Michel Adam and Bruno Pinchard, the Louis Lavelle Association promoted annual conferences on the work of the author. While some 21st century commentators consider Lavelle a forgotten philosopher, ongoing scholarship on his work continues into 2021.

Major publications
Lavelle's other writings include La dialectique du monde sensible: La perception visuelle de la profondeur (1921), La conscience de soi (1933), La présence totale (1934), L'Erreur de Narcisse (1939), Le Mal et la Souffrance (1940), La Parole et l'Écriture (1947), and Les puissances du Moi (1948).
 * Original French


 * Selected translations of works by Lavelle
 * A translation of selected chapters of De l’Acte (Of the Act), Du temps et de l’éternité (Of Time and Eternity) and De l’âme humaine (Of the Human Soul), together with a long introduction to the work of Lavelle, can be found in The Act of Presence by Robert Jones. Both are presented in full on the website of the Association Louis Lavelle (http://association-lavelle.chez-alice.fr) under « Traductions ».


 * Analyses and critiques in English
 * James Collins published the article "Louis Lavelle on Human Participation" in The Philosophical Review vol 56, no. 2 (1947): 156–83.
 * Walter J. Ong works with a sound/sight contrast throughout Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue: From the Art of Discourse to the Art of Reason (1958, 3rd ed. 2004), which he credits largely to Lavelle: "For a discerning and profound treatment of the visual-aural opposition on which the present discussion turns, the reader is referred to the works of Louis Lavelle, especially La parole et l'ecriture (Paris, 1942), and Jean Nogue, Esquisse d'un système des qualités sensibles (Paris, 1943)" (p. 338n.54).
 * Colin Smith devotes a chapter to discussing Lavelle's work in Contemporary French Philosophy: A Study in Norms and Values (1964, pp. 47–74).
 * Marvin Farber includes an essay by Lavelle in the collection Philosophic Thought in France and the United States: Essays Representing Major Trends in Contemporary French and American Philosophy (1968, pp. 121–35).


 * Analyses and critiques in French
 * Bechara Sargi, La Participation à l'être dans la philosophie de Louis Lavelle, Éditions Beauchesne, Paris, 1957.