French philosopher (1867-1964). 3 autograph letters signed. Paris. One 4to, two 8vo. One letter on mourning stationery, a total of 6½ pages.
$ 652 / 550 €
(88815/BN58709)
Three letters addressed to a colleague and friend that provide insights into Lalande's academic work. - The 1931 letter discusses matters of university organisation that concern inconvenient conference dates, while the other two letters are part of an academic discussion spurred by papers of Lalande's colleagues. - In the 1933 letter Lalande praises his colleagues' work but critiques their stance on the question of the moral value of contradiction: "il me semble l'idée que la contradiction à surmonter fût un simple conflit de règles formelles et formulées.
Vous me faites remarquer que la contradiction interieure n'est pour vous qu'un moment de la moralité. Mai c'est ce que j'ai dit: 'The only True morality according to him, consists in surmounting contradictions'". - The 1937 letter is written on mourning stationery due to the recent passing of his writer's grandson. Lalande provides feedback to his colleague and refers to his own emphasis on the individual in his theories: "Et je voudrais y ajouter, ami, parmi tes conditions positives, la communaute de l'effort et de la pensée entre personnes, le sentiment que parla personnalité, cesse la séparation des individus telle qu'elle a bien même de les insectes sociaux, même entre les cellules et les organes d'un même corps, - car rien n'est plus diffèrent de la coopération organique que la communion des personnes". - Lalande had studied under Émile Durkheim. Opposing Herbert Spencer's views on evolution, he proposed the theory of involution: according to him, human society does not progress towards ever greater heterogenity, but instead towards unity..