See Also: Taine, Hippolyte (-Adolphe)(encyclopedia)
Cloquet, Hippolyte(medicine)
LaFontaine, Sir Louis Hippolyte, Baronet(encyclopedia)
Sax, Adolphe(encyclopedia)
Gubler, Adolphe(medicine)
Adolphe (as used in expressions)(encyclopedia)
Bouguereau, William (-Adolphe)(encyclopedia)
Thiers, (Louis-) Adolphe(encyclopedia)
Quetelet, (Lambert) Adolphe (Jacques)(encyclopedia)

Taine, Hippolyte (-Adolphe) (sh)




born April 21, 1828, Vouziers, Ardennes, France
died March 5, 1893, Paris

French thinker, critic, and historian.

Taine came to believe as a youth that knowledge must be based on sense experience, observation, and controlled experiment, a conviction that guided his career. Teaching at the ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris (1864-83), he earned a reputation as one of the most esteemed exponents of 19th-century French positivism with his attempts to apply the scientific method to the study of the humanities. His works include a History of English Literature (1863-64), containing an explanation of his approach to cultural and literary history and his scientific attitude toward criticism; On Intelligence (1871), a study in psychology; and his monumental historical analysis Les Origines de la France contemporaine, 3 vol. (1876-99).