« Aimer religieusement le monde et la vie » : la réponse de Pierre Leroux au contemptus mundi
“To Love Religiously the World and the Life”: The Answer of Pierre Leroux to Contemptus Mundi

Summary/Abstract: In his book De l’humanité, de son principe et de son avenir (1840), Pierre Leroux seeks to establish the “true definition of religion”, aiming at a synthesis of the religious traditions of humanity and modern philosophy. None of the philosophical answers that man has hitherto attempted to give to the question of happiness and of the highest good (Stoicism, Epicureanism, Platonism, Christianity) can be judged as satisfying. Between materialism that despises the spirit on one side and spiritualism that despises nature and the world on the other, Leroux seeks a third way: “To love religiously the world and life”. His philosophy, which is at the same time a way of life and a hermeneutic reflection on humanity, leads to real and socially organized application of the principle of love, and – transcending in solidarity the opposition between selfishness and altruism – makes it possible to free nature and life from the contempt that weighed down on them for centuries.

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