Louis Lavelle 1883 – 1951
Louis Lavelle was a French Catholic philosopher and one of the principal exponents of the philosophy of being and of participation in twentieth-century French thought. Long-time professor at the College de France and co-editor with Rene Le Senne of the influential Philosophie de l'Esprit series, he produced a long sequence of works including The Total Presence, Of Being, The Dialectic of the Eternal Present, and The Will to be Saved, in which the human being is understood as a participant in an absolute act of being that touches time at the always-renewed point of the present. He was an important influence on later Christian phenomenology.
Key facts
- Nationality
- French
- Era
- Contemporary
- Movements
- Continental, Christian
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Louis Lavelle:
“Being is the absolute act in which we participate.”
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Attributed to Louis Lavelle:
“The present is the threshold where eternity touches time.”
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Attributed to Louis Lavelle:
“To exist is to participate; nothing is alone.”
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Attributed to Louis Lavelle:
“The act of consciousness is itself an act of being.”
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Attributed to Louis Lavelle:
“Love is the highest form of participation in being.”