Taine, Hippolyte Adolphe

Taine, Hippolyte Adolphe (1828-1893), French historian and critic and one of the leading exponents of positivism. Taine was born in Vouziers, in the Ardennes, and educated at the Collège Bourbon and the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. His Les Philosophes Classiques du XIXe Siècle en France (Classic French Philosophers of the 19th Century, 1857; revised ed. 1868), which attacked the eclectic approach of the French philosopher Victor Cousin, set forth a plan for the application of scientific methods to the study of human nature and history. Out of this approach developed the school of Naturalism in literature at the end of the century. In his History of English Literature (14 vols., 1863-1864; trans. 1871-1872), Taine demonstrated his theories by analysing the physical and psychological factors responsible for the development of English literature.

Taine became Professor of Art and Aesthetics at the École des Beaux-Arts in 1864 and was elected to the French Academy in 1878. His last years were spent writing his unfinished The Origins of Contemporary France (3 vols., 1875-1894; trans. 1931). This work attempts to trace the causes of the extreme centralization of political power, which he held responsible for the political instability of modern France.