La philosophie de la vie en France. À partir de Jean-Marie Guyau

The thought of Jean-Marie Guyau (1854-1888), known today by a small circle of specialists, had a great influence on the philosophical debate of the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. This article aims to reconstruct the particularity of Guyau's philosophy of life, by analysing its complex links with evolutionary positivism and with a biological epistemology such as that of Claude Bernard, which attributes to art an exemplary role in representing the processes most characteristic of living beings. We will thus see that Guyau goes beyond positivism from within, proceeds to a reconfiguration of ethics and develops a theoretical model that attracts the attention of Nietzsche as well as Bergson. The confrontation with the perspectives of these two authors will highlight Guyau's originality and his ability to anticipate the strategies and devices of twentieth-century philosophies of life.