23 Facts About Georges Palante

Georges Toussaint Leon Palante was a French philosopher and sociologist.

Georges Palante was opposed to Emile Durkheim's holism, promoting methodological individualism instead.

Georges Palante was born in Saint-Laurent-Blangy in the Pas-de-Calais on 20 November 1862.

Georges Palante's father Emile Palante was an accountant from Liege.

Georges Palante studied successively at the college of Arras where he excelled in Latin, then at Lycee Louis-le-Grand where he earned his bachelor's degree.

Georges Palante obtained a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Douai.

Georges Palante separated from his first wife in 1890 and was appointed to teach at the Lycee de Saint-Brieuc, Brittany, then in the following years at Valenciennes, La Rochelle and Niort.

Georges Palante returned in 1898 to the Lycee de Saint-Brieuc, at which he worked for the remainder of his teaching career.

Georges Palante published collections of his articles in various books, notably Combat pour l'individu in 1904 and La Sensibilite individualiste in 1909.

In 1907, Georges Palante completed a draft doctoral thesis at the Sorbonne, but it was never authorized.

In 1908, Georges Palante stood in municipal elections as a socialist candidate, but he was not elected.

Georges Palante took over from Jules de Gaultier at the philosophy journal Mercure de France, holding the position for thirteen years.

Georges Palante married his second wife Louise Pierre in 1923 and retired from teaching a year later.

On 5 August 1925, Georges Palante died from a self-inflicted bullet wound to the head.

The reasons for Georges Palante's suicide are not certain, but he is known to have been suffering from acromegaly, a condition diagnosed when he was a student.

Georges Palante's thinking is critical towards the mass "herd instinct", which he thought oppresses and prevents individuals from developing fully.

Georges Palante rejected the label anarchist, but his ideas are nevertheless often regarded as a form of anarchism or at least as libertarianism.

Georges Palante's ideas have some commonality with classical liberalism, including his definition of the individual and his opposition to various barriers to trade.

Louis Guilloux wrote Souvenirs sur Georges Palante and took his inspiration from Palante to model his character Cripure in his novel Le Sang noir.

Georges Palante puts Palante's ideas into the mouths of characters in other novels.

Georges Palante is quoted in one of the footnotes to Albert Camus' classic treatise The Rebel.

Jean Grenier, who was Camus' philosophy teacher, met Georges Palante and devoted a full chapter to him in his book Les Greves.

Michel Onfray's thesis and first published book Physiologie de Georges Palante contributed to the renewed interest in his work.