Existential Motives in Maine de Biran’s “Diary”

Abstract

The vast “Diary” of Maine de Biran (1766–1824), founder of the French spiritualist tradition, holds the central place in his works. Heterogeneous layers of notes focus on the single conceptual whole in the existential metaphysical question of the “bearing point” in the stream of change. This question, deeply felt by the “Diary”’s author not only as a theoretical problem, but also as a personal, spiritually important question, serves as a motive and “spring” of his philosophical search. The article pay special attention to the “resonance” of de Biran with the stoics and Pascal, who raised basically the same question, although in another context. The author also finds parallel moments in Maine de Biran and Gabriel Marcel as heir to the tradition he founded. As shown in the article, on the axis of this question together with the subsequent attempts to solve it forms an existential “melody” characteristic for Biranian thought. The author concludes that the “Diary” of the founder of the French spiritualism may be characterized as the diary of an existential philosopher avant la lettre.