The Secularization Struggle and French Popular Philosophy
In France there have been two major episodes of vitalist science-religion: first
during the Napoleonic era, the second at the end of that century. Institutionally,
both were associated with reforms of the French university system and with
the violent swings between state religion and secularization which charac-
terized the bases of French cultural life.
Before the Revolution, education in France was largely in the hands of
Catholic clergy or nuns, and all other teachers were under clerical supervision,
with the exception of government technical schools for military and civil
engineers.^1 The Revolution abolished the universities along with the privileges
of the church. The new educational system constructed during the Napoleonic
period left primary schooling to local authorities, and in 1808, after state
rapprochement with the church, to Catholic teaching orders. Secondary schools
and higher education were centralized under the Imperial University, which
monopolized teaching for its degree holders, made all appointments, controlled
salaries and curricula, and formed a regular career hierarchy of teachers,
inspectors, and governors. The head of this bureaucracy was appointed by the
state; under Napoleon this became a bishop, who restored Catholic orthodoxy
in education. Unlike at the German universities, the professors at the highest
schools were not expected to do independent research; this was reserved for
members of the Institut de France, which in effect reconstituted the old Acade-
mies of Science, Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, and Fine Arts. A section of the
institute for moral and political science existed from 1795 to 1803 but was
suppressed by Napoleon on account of the opposition to himself by its mem-
bers, the freethinking Idéologues circle of Cabanis. The old university faculty
of philosophy was eliminated, replaced by faculties of science and literature.
Under this system innovative research continued in the mathematical sciences,
where the École Polytechnique supported many leading scientists but lan-
guished in other fields. Philosophy was embarked on a century-long pattern in
which creativity was carried largely by the popular writers’ market.
The Restoration intensified clerical control, making all primary and secon-
dary teachers subject to the bishops, multiplying ecclesiastical schools at the
expense of those under secular auspices, and in 1822 dismissing religious
moderates such as Cousin from university posts. Struggle between the Ultra-
montane papal faction and national Royalists blocked the more extreme claims
of the former, however, and conservative secularists including Cousin were
recalled in 1828. Rigid state control of the church pushed the Catholic con-
servatives into opposition to the government, playing a part in the agitation
for liberal rights and electoral principles which led to the constitutional mon-
archies of 1830–1848 and the late 1860s and the revolution of 1848. Under
Writers’ Markets: The French Connection^ •^757