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Blondie (band)

Blondie is an American rock band formed in New York City in 1974 by singer Debbie Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. The band was a pioneer in the American new wave genre and scene of the mid-1970s.

The band's first two albums contained strong elements of punk and new wave, and although highly successful in the UK and Australia, Blondie was regarded as an underground band in the US until the release of their critically acclaimed third album Parallel Lines in 1978. Over the next two years, the band released a string of hit singles, including "Heart of Glass" (US #1), "One Way or Another", "Dreaming", "Call Me" (US #1), "Atomic", "The Tide Is High" (US #1), and "Rapture" (US #1). The band became noted for its eclectic mix of musical styles, incorporating elements of disco, pop, reggae, funk and early hip hop music.

Blondie disbanded after the release of their sixth studio album, The Hunter, in 1982. Harry continued to pursue a solo career with varied results after taking a few years off to care for partner Stein, who was diagnosed with pemphigus, a rare autoimmune disease of the skin. The band re-formed in 1997, achieving renewed success and their sixth number one single in the UK with "Maria" in 1999, exactly 20 years after their first UK number one single, "Heart of Glass".

The group toured and performed throughout the world during the following years, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. Blondie has sold over 40 million records worldwide and continues to actively perform. The band's eleventh studio album, Pollinator, was released on May 5, 2017.

1974–1978: Early career
Inspired by the burgeoning new music scene at the Mercer Arts Center in Manhattan, musician Chris Stein sought to join a similar band. He joined the Stilettoes in 1973 as their guitarist and formed a romantic relationship with Debbie Harry, who was one of the band's vocalists, a former waitress and Playboy Bunny. Harry had been a member of a folk-rock band, the Wind in the Willows, in the late 1960s. In July 1974, Stein and Harry parted ways with the Stilettoes and Elda Gentile, the band's originator, forming a new band with ex-Stilettoes bandmates Billy O'Connor (drums; born 1953, died 2015) and Fred Smith (bass). Originally billed as Angel and the Snake for two shows in August 1974, they had renamed themselves Blondie by October 1974, while Ivan Kral joined the band on guitar. The new name derived from comments made by truck drivers who catcalled "Hey, Blondie" to Harry as they drove past.

By the spring of 1975, O'Connor had left the music business and Smith replaced Richard Hell in Television, while Kral eventually joined the Patti Smith Group. Stein and Harry continued the band, and proceeded with auditions to recruit drummer Clem Burke and bassist Gary Valentine (Gary J. Lachman).

Blondie became regular performers at Max's Kansas City and CBGB. In June 1975, the band's first recording came in the way of a demo produced by Alan Betrock. To fill out their sound, they recruited keyboard player Jimmy Destri in November 1975. The band signed with Private Stock Records and released their first single "X-Offender" in June 1976, while their debut album, Blondie, was issued in December 1976. Neither was initially a commercial success, and the band spent the rest of the year touring with Television and visiting the UK. Blondie opened for David Bowie and Iggy Pop on the latter's US tour in early 1977 supporting The Idiot. Blondie was invited by Bowie and Pop after the pair had heard their debut. In July 1977, Valentine decided to leave the band and form his own group, the Know; he was replaced by Frank Infante.

In September 1977, the band bought back its contract with Private Stock and signed with British label Chrysalis Records. The first album was re-released on the new label in October 1977. Rolling Stone's review of the debut album observed the eclectic nature of the group's music, comparing it both to Phil Spector and to the Who, and commented that the album's two strengths were Richard Gottehrer's production and the persona of Debbie Harry.

The band's first commercial success occurred in Australia in 1977, when the music television program Countdown mistakenly played their video "In the Flesh", which was the B-side of the single "X-Offender". Jimmy Destri later credited the show's Molly Meldrum for their initial success, commenting that "we still thank him to this day" for playing the wrong song. In a 1998 interview, drummer Burke recalled seeing the episode in which the wrong song was played, but he and Stein suggested that it may have been a deliberate subterfuge on the part of Meldrum. Stein asserted that "X-Offender" was "too crazy and aggressive [to become a hit]", while "In the Flesh" was "not representative of any punk sensibility. Over the years, I've thought they probably played both things but liked one better. That's all." In retrospect, Burke described "In the Flesh" as "a forerunner to the power ballad".

The single reached number two in Australia, and the album entered the Australian top twenty in November 1977. A subsequent double-A release of "X-Offender" and "Rip Her to Shreds" reached number 81. A successful Australian tour followed in December 1977, though it was marred by an incident in Brisbane when disappointed fans almost rioted after Harry cancelled a performance due to illness.

In February 1978, Blondie released their second album, Plastic Letters (UK number 10, US number 78, Australia number 64 ). The album was recorded as a four-piece during the summer of 1977, with Stein responsible for both bass and guitars. Plastic Letters was promoted extensively throughout Europe and Asia by Chrysalis Records. The album's first single, "Denis", was a cover version of the Randy and the Rainbows' 1963 hit "Denise". It reached number two on the British singles charts, while both the album and its second single, "(I'm Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear", reached the British top ten. Chart success, along with a successful 1978 UK tour, including a gig at London's Roundhouse, made Blondie one of the first American new wave bands to achieve mainstream success in the UK. With Infante moving to guitar, the British musician Nigel Harrison was hired as the group's full-time bassist, expanding Blondie to a six-piece for the first time and marking a stabilization in the band's line-up.

1978–1981: Mainstream success
Blondie completed the recording of their third album, Parallel Lines during the summer of 1978 together with Australian producer Mike Chapman. It was released in September of that year and reached number one in the UK, number six in the US, and number two in Australia. It finally broke the band into the American market on the strength of the worldwide hit single "Heart of Glass". Parallel Lines became the group's most successful album, selling 20 million copies worldwide. The album's first two singles were "Picture This" (UK number 12) and "Hanging on the Telephone" (UK number five). As the band previously had success with a cover, Chrysalis Records chose their version of Buddy Holly's "I'm Gonna Love You Too" as the lead single from Parallel Lines in the US. This turned out to be a miscalculation as the single failed to chart.

"Heart of Glass" was released in early 1979 and the disco-infused track topped the UK charts in February 1979, and the US charts in April 1979. It was a reworking of a rock and reggae-influenced song that the group had performed since its formation in the mid-1970s, updated with strong elements of disco music. Burke later said the revamped version was inspired partly by Kraftwerk and partly by the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive", whose drum beat Burke tried to emulate. He and Stein gave Destri much of the credit for the final result, noting that Destri's appreciation of technology had led him to introduce synthesizers and to rework the keyboard sections. Although some critics condemned Blondie for "selling out" by dabbling in disco, the song became a worldwide success and one of the biggest selling singles of 1979. As the focal point for the band, Harry began to attain a celebrity status that set her apart from the other band members. She also embarked on an acting career and appeared in the film The Foreigner directed by Amos Poe.

Blondie's next single in the US was a more aggressive rock song, "One Way or Another" (US number 24), though in the UK, an alternate single choice, "Sunday Girl", became a number one hit. Parallel Lines has been ranked number 140 on Rolling Stone's list of 500 greatest albums of all time. In June 1979, Blondie, photographed by Annie Leibovitz, was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. In the summer of 1979, the band returned to the studio with Chapman to record their next album.

Blondie's fourth album, Eat to the Beat (UK number one, US number seventeen, Australia number nine ), also produced by Chapman, was released in September 1979. Although well received by critics as a suitable follow-up to Parallel Lines, the album and its singles failed to achieve the same level of success in the US. In the UK, the album delivered three top 20 hits, including the band's third UK number one ("Atomic", UK number one, US number thirty-nine). The lead track off the album, "Dreaming" featuring Ellie Greenwich, reached number two in the UK. But it only made it to number 27 in the US. The second single "Union City Blue" (UK number 13 ) shared the title of a film featuring Harry, directed by Marcus Reichert. Along with the inspiration from the film, "Union City Blue"'s lyrics derived from her living in Union City, New Jersey. She worked various jobs across the Hudson River from Manhattan, noting the scenic skyline and passion she embraced while living there, before giving birth to Blondie. The single was not released in the US in favor of the track "The Hardest Part". Chrysalis Records' Linda Carhart asked Jon Roseman Productions US division to shoot videos for every song and create the first ever video album. David Mallet directed and Paul Flattery produced it at various locations and studios in and around New York. It was nominated for a Grammy, the first year the Recording Academy instituted an award for music videos. At the end of the year, the show filmed at the Apollo theatre in Glasgow was broadcast by the BBC on the Old Grey Whistle Test. In March 1980, "Atomic" reached number one in the UK and the album was certified gold the following month.

Blondie's next single, the Grammy-nominated "Call Me", was the result of Debbie Harry's collaboration with the Italian songwriter and producer Giorgio Moroder, who had been responsible for many of Donna Summer's biggest hits. The track was recorded as the title theme of the Richard Gere film American Gigolo. Released in the US in February 1980, "Call Me" spent six consecutive weeks at number one in the US and Canada. Released in the UK in April 1980, it reached number one and became a global hit. The single was also number one on Billboard magazine's 1980 year-end chart. In the summer of 1980, the band appeared in a bit part in the film Roadie starring Meat Loaf. Blondie performed the Johnny Cash song "Ring of Fire", and the live recording was featured on the film soundtrack and on a later CD reissue of the Eat to the Beat album.

In November 1980, Blondie's fifth studio album and third with Chapman, Autoamerican (UK number three, US number seven, Australia number eight ), was released. Autoamerican contained two more US number one hits: the reggae-styled "The Tide Is High", a cover version of a 1967 song written by John Holt of the Paragons, and the rap-flavored "Rapture", which was the first song featuring rapping to reach number one in the US. In the song, Harry mentions the hip hop and graffiti artist Fab Five Freddy who also appears in the video for the song. Autoamerican featured a far wider stylistic range than previous Blondie albums, including the avant-garde instrumental "Europa", the acoustic jazz of "Faces", and "Follow Me" (from the Broadway show "Camelot"). The album went on to achieve platinum success in both the US and the UK.

Blondie took a break for most of 1981. Debbie Harry hosted Saturday Night Live in February 1981, with Stein and Burke backing her during her musical performances. Harry and Destri both released solo albums. Stein worked on Harry's album KooKoo (UK number six, US number twenty-eight) produced by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards. He also joined Burke on Destri's album Heart on a Wall. Burke also played drums on the Eurythmics' debut album In The Garden. Harry, Stein and Destri also worked together on music for the 1981 John Waters film Polyester. In October 1981, Chrysalis Records released The Best of Blondie (UK number four, US number thirty, Australia number one ), the group's first greatest hits compilation.

1982: The Hunter and breakup
The band reconvened in December 1981 to record a new album, The Hunter, released in May 1982 (UK number nine, US number thirty-three, Australia number fifteen ). Infante was initially not included in the new album due to friction with other group members, but began legal proceedings and was later reinstated after an out-of-court settlement. In contrast to their earlier commercial and critical successes, The Hunter was poorly received. The album did have two moderate hit singles: "Island of Lost Souls" (UK number 11, US number 37, Australia number 13 ) and "War Child" (UK number 39 ). The album also included "For Your Eyes Only", a track the band had been commissioned to write and record for the 1981 James Bond film of the same name; however, it was rejected by the film's producers who ultimately chose another song with the same title recorded by Sheena Easton.

In June 1982, Harry contributed backing vocals to The Gun Club's second album Miami, being credited as 'D.H. Lawrence Jr'. Stein produced the record, and is credited as 'bongos' and 'cover photos/design'. The Gun Club's singer Jeffrey Lee Pierce was a fan, emulating Harry's hairstyle and founding the West Coast Blondie Fan Club, before becoming friends with the band in New York.

For the brief North American tour (July to August 1982) to promote the Hunter album, guitarist Infante was replaced with session musician Eddie Martinez. Also added to the live lineup were second keyboardist Abel Domingues and a three-man horn section comprising Douglas Harris, Joseph Kohanski, and Arthur Pugh. A UK and European tour was cancelled due to poor ticket sales.

In November 1982, the band publicly announced that they had disbanded. In 1983, Stein was diagnosed with the life-threatening illness pemphigus, and Harry cared for him. Harry embarked on solo career in the mid-1980s, including two singles—the 1983 track "Rush Rush" from the film Scarface, and the 1985 track "Feel The Spin"—released while she continued to feature in films. Harry released the album Rockbird in 1986, with active participation from Stein. The album was a moderate success in the UK where it reached gold certification and gave her a UK top 10 hit with "French Kissin'". Meanwhile, Burke became a much-in-demand session drummer, playing and touring with Eurythmics for their 1986 album Revenge, and Destri maintained an active career as a producer and session musician.

A remix album entitled Once More into the Bleach was released in 1988, and featured remixes of classic Blondie tracks and material from Harry's solo career, including "Denis". Harry continued releasing solo albums, Def, Dumb and Blonde (1989) and Debravation (1993), while continuing to tour. Further collections follow with The Complete Picture - The Very Best of Deborah Harry and Blondie reaching number three in UK charts in 1991. In 1993, a rarities album Blond and Beyond appeared while The Platinum Collection was released a year later in the US. A second remix album Beautiful: The Remix Album was released in 1995 and a live album Picture This Live followed in 1997.

1997–2007: Re-formation, No Exit and The Curse of Blondie
During the 1990s, Blondie's past work began to be recognized again by a new generation of fans and artists including Garbage and No Doubt. Chrysalis/EMI Records also released several compilations and collections of remixed versions of some of their biggest hits.

Harry continued her moderately successful solo career after the band broke up, releasing albums in 1989 and 1993 which helped keep the band in the public eye. In 1990, she reunited with Stein and Burke for a summer tour of mid-sized venues as part of an "Escape from New York" package with Jerry Harrison, the Tom Tom Club and the Ramones.

In 1996, Stein and Harry began the process of reuniting Blondie and contacted original members Burke, Destri, and Valentine. Valentine had by this time moved to London and become a full-time writer under his real name, Gary Lachman—his New York Rocker: My Life in the Blank Generation (2002) is a memoir of his years with the band. Former members Nigel Harrison and Infante did not participate in the reunion, and they unsuccessfully sued to prevent the reunion under the name Blondie.

In 1997, the original five-piece band re-formed—including Valentine on bass—and did three live performances, all at outdoor festivals sponsored by local radio stations. Their first reunion performance occurred on May 31, 1997, when they played the HFStival at R.F.K. Stadium in Washington, DC. An international tour followed in late 1998 and early 1999. During this period, and without Valentine, they released a cover of Iggy Pop's song "Ordinary Bummer" on the tribute album We Will Fall: The Iggy Pop Tribute (1997) under the pseudonym "Adolph's Dog".

A new album, No Exit (UK number three, US number eighteen), was released in February 1999. The band was now officially a four-piece, consisting of Harry, Stein, Burke and Destri. By this point, Valentine had left the group and did not play on the album or contribute to the writing of any songs—two songs on the album co-authored by "Valentine" were in fact co-authored by Kathy Valentine of the Go-Go's, no relation to Gary Valentine. Session musicians Leigh Foxx (bass) and Paul Carbonara (guitar) played on this and subsequent Blondie releases.

No Exit reached number three on the UK charts and the first single "Maria", which Destri had written thinking about his high school days, became Blondie's sixth UK number one single 20 years after their first chart-topper "Heart of Glass". This gave the band the distinction of being one of only two American acts to reach number one in the UK singles charts in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s (the other being Michael Jackson who had number one hits with the Jacksons and solo in the same decades).

The re-formed band released the follow-up album The Curse of Blondie (UK number 36, US number 160) in October 2003. Curse proved to be Blondie's lowest-charting album since their debut in 1976, although the single "Good Boys" managed to reach number 12 in the UK charts.

In 2004, Jimmy Destri left the group in order to deal with drug addiction, leaving Harry, Stein and Burke as the only members of the original line-up still with the band. Though Destri's stint in rehab was successful, he was not invited back into the band. He intended to work on their 2011 album Panic Of Girls, but did not contribute as either a songwriter or a musician on the finished product.

In 2005, a new CD/DVD hits package titled Greatest Hits: Sight + Sound was released, peaking at number 48 in the UK.

Blondie co-headlined a tour with the New Cars in 2006, releasing a cover of Roxy Music hit "More than This" in support of the tour.

2008–2012: Parallel Lines 30th Anniversary Tour and Panic of Girls
On June 5, 2008, Blondie commenced a world tour to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Parallel Lines with a concert at Ram's Head Live in Baltimore, Maryland. The tour covered some Eastern and Midwestern US cities throughout the month of June. In July, the tour took the band overseas to Israel, the UK, Russia, Europe and Scandinavia, wrapping up on August 4, 2008, at Store Vega in Copenhagen, Denmark. Inspired by attendances for the tour, Burke and Carbonara both told interviewers in 2008 and 2009 that the band was working on another record, which would be their first new album since the release of The Curse of Blondie in 2003. Carbonara described it as "a real Blondie record."

Blondie undertook a North American tour of mid-sized venues with Pat Benatar and the Donnas in the summer of 2009. Following the tour, in October, the band began recording sessions for their ninth studio album with producer Jeff Saltzman in Woodstock, New York. After playing with the band for over a decade, both Foxx (bass) and Carbonara (guitar) were elevated to official membership status with Blondie. Keyboard player Matt Katz-Bohen, who had replaced Destri, was also made an official member, making Blondie a six-piece band.

In December 2009, the band released the song "We Three Kings" to coincide with the Christmas holiday. The new album, to be titled Panic of Girls, which was being mixed at the time, was said to be ready to follow in 2010. Stein stated that Dutch artist Chris Berens would provide the cover art. In April 2010, it was announced that guitarist Carbonara had amicably left Blondie to pursue other projects and was replaced by Tommy Kessler (the finished Panic of Girls album credits both Kessler and Carbonara as official members).

In June 2010, Blondie began the first leg of a world tour named "Endangered Species Tour", which covered the UK and Ireland, supported by UK band Little Fish. The set lists featured both classics and new material from the forthcoming Panic of Girls. After a break in July, the tour resumed in August and covered the US and Canada over the course of six weeks. Blondie then took the "Endangered Species Tour" to Australia and New Zealand in November to December 2010, co-headlining with the Pretenders.

It was first revealed that the band's album was going to be released first in Australia through the Australian Sony label in December 2010, but Sony later backed out of the deal, leaving the album still unreleased. The album's release date was finally set for mid-2011 without the involvement of a major record label. The album was first released in May 2011 as a limited edition "fan pack" in the UK with a 132-page magazine and various collectible items, before being released as a regular CD later in the summer. The lead single "Mother" was released beforehand as a free download. A music video for the song was released on May 18, 2011. It was directed by Laurent Rejto and features cameos by Kate Pierson from the B-52's, James Lorinz (Frankenhooker), Johnny Dynell, Chi Chi Valenti, the Dazzle Dancers, Rob Roth, Barbara Sicuranza, Larry Fessenden, Alan Midgette (Andy Warhol's double), The Five Points Band, Guy Furrow, Kitty Boots, and Hattie Hathaway. A second single from the album, "What I Heard", was available as a digital release in July 2011.

On August 20, 2011, Blondie performed a live set for "Guitar Center Sessions" on DirecTV. The episode included an interview with program host Nic Harcourt. The band continued to tour regularly into 2012. A concert in New York City was streamed live on YouTube on October 11, 2012. The same week, the band listed three previously unreleased songs recorded during the Panic of Girls sessions ("Bride of Infinity", "Rock On", and "Dead Air") on Amazon.com which were made available for free download in the US, and in the UK via the band's official website. Another track, "Practice Makes Perfect", was also made available as a free download in November 2012.

2013–present: Ghosts of Download and Pollinator
On March 20, 2013, Harry and Stein were interviewed on the radio show WNYC Soundcheck in which they confirmed they were working on a new Blondie album and previewed a new song entitled "Make a Way". In June and July 2013, the band held a "Blast Off Tour" of Europe. The US "No Principals Tour" followed in September and October 2013. The first single from the album, "A Rose by Any Name", was released digitally in Europe on June 24, 2013. A second single, "Sugar on the Side", was released digitally in the US in December 2013.

The album Ghosts of Download was released in May 2014 as part of a two-disc package titled Blondie 4(0) Ever to coincide with the band's 40th anniversary. The package also includes Greatest Hits Deluxe Redux, a compilation of re-recordings of Blondie's past singles. The band's official worldwide 40th anniversary tour began in February 2014.

In the summer of 2015, the band announced they would be working on a new album produced by John Congleton. Other collaborators are Johnny Marr, Sia, Charli XCX and Dave Stewart. Blondie recorded a concert for PBS's Soundstage to be aired some time in 2016 and included two new tracks, "My Monster" and "Gravity".

In 2015, Blondie members Harry and Stein made a guest appearance alongside the Gregory Brothers in an episode of the YouTube series Songify the News, where they collaborated again to parody the 2016 US presidential election debates.

In January 2017, it was announced that the band would support Phil Collins at Dublin's Aviva Stadium on June 25, 2017, as part of his Not Dead Yet tour. The band also toured Australia and New Zealand on a co-headlining tour with Cyndi Lauper.

In the March 2017 issue of Mojo magazine, the band announced that their eleventh studio album, Pollinator, would be released on May 5, 2017. The album was recorded at The Magic Shop in SoHo, New York City, and featured songs written by the likes of TV on the Radio's David Sitek, Johnny Marr, Sia, Charli XCX, and Dev Hynes. Pollinator spawned hit singles "Fun" and "Long Time" and embarked Blondie on an extensive promotional tour in North America, South America and Europe. The album peaked at number four in the UK and is Blondie's most successful studio album since No Exit.

On December 21, 2019, Blondie announced through their social media that they would release an EP and mini-documentary entitled Vivir en La Habana. It was recorded during the band's residency in Havana, Cuba, in March 2019, and directed by Rob Roth but no dates or further details were revealed yet. The EP is not entirely a "live" recording as Stein, who was not present at the Havana concerts, added guitar parts in the studio to enhance the live tracks. In October 2020, Harry and Stein appeared in Schmoyoho's parody of the 2020 US presidential debates between vice presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Mike Pence in a song titled "One Heartbeat Away", where they played the role of moderators.

On October 20, 2020, Blondie announced that they would be embarking on a ten-date arena tour of the UK in November 2021 with Garbage as the opening act. The tour was postponed until April 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Johnny Marr, formerly of the Smiths, replaced Garbage on the tour. Additional dates were subsequently added in the US. In April 2022, prior to the launch of the UK/US tour, it was announced that Stein would be unable to tour with the group due to heart issues. "I've been dealing with a dumbass condition called Atrial Fibrillation or AFib which is irregular heartbeats and combined with the meds I take for it I'm too fatigued to deal," Stein said. He was replaced by Andee Blacksugar. Bassist Foxx, too, was absent due to a back injury. Former Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock filled in for Foxx. Matlock will also perform with the band on a forthcoming Blondie album.

Blondie performed at the 22nd Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April 2023.

In a June 2024 interview for BBC Radio 6 Music, Harry and Stein confirmed that Blondie's upcoming album will be released in Spring 2025.

Style and legacy
By 1982, the year the band initially broke up, Blondie had released six studio albums, each exhibiting a stylistic progression from the last. The band is known not only for the striking stage persona and vocal performances of Harry but also for incorporating elements in their work from numerous subgenres of music, reaching from their punk roots to embrace new wave, disco, pop,  rap, and reggae.

In March 2006, Blondie, following an introductory speech by Shirley Manson of Garbage, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Seven members (Harry, Stein, Burke, Destri, Infante, Nigel Harrison, and Valentine) were invited to the ceremony, which led to an on-stage spat between the extant group and their former bandmate Infante, who asked during the live broadcast of the ceremony that he and Nigel Harrison be allowed to perform with the group, a request refused by Harry who stated that the band had already rehearsed their performance. On May 22, 2006, Blondie was inducted into the Rock Walk of Fame at Guitar Center on Hollywood's Sunset Boulevard. New inductees are voted on by previous Rock Walk inductees.

Members
Current members Touring members
 * Debbie Harry – lead vocals (1974–1982, 1997–present)
 * Chris Stein – guitar, bass (1974–1982, 1997–present; non-touring from 2019)
 * Clem Burke – drums, percussion, backing vocals (1975–1982, 1997–present)
 * Leigh Foxx – bass (2004–present; session and touring musician: 1997–2004)
 * Matt Katz-Bohen – keyboards, backing vocals, guitar (2008–present)
 * Tommy Kessler – guitar (2010–present)
 * Glen Matlock – bass (2022–present)
 * Andee Blacksugar – guitar (2022–present)

Former members
 * Fred Smith – bass (1974–1975)
 * Billy O'Connor – drums (1974–1975)
 * Ivan Kral – guitar (1974; died 2020)
 * Gary Valentine – bass, guitar (1975–1977, 1997)
 * Jimmy Destri – keyboards, backing vocals (1975–1982, 1997–2004)
 * Frank Infante – guitar, backing vocals, bass (1977–1982)
 * Nigel Harrison – bass (1978–1982, 1997)
 * Paul Carbonara – guitar, backing vocals (1997–2010)
 * Kevin Patrick (a.k.a. Kevin Topping)  – keyboards, backing vocals (2003–2007)
 * Jimi K Bones – guitar (2003)

Discography
Studio albums

 * Blondie (1976)
 * Plastic Letters (1978)
 * Parallel Lines (1978)
 * Eat to the Beat (1979)
 * Autoamerican (1980)
 * The Hunter (1982)
 * No Exit (1999)
 * The Curse of Blondie (2003)
 * Panic of Girls (2011)
 * Ghosts of Download (2014)
 * Pollinator (2017)

Headlining (main tours)

 * Plastic Letter Tour (1978)
 * Parallel Lines Tour (1979–1980)
 * Tracks Across America Tour (1982)
 * No Exit Tour (1998–1999)
 * Camp Funtime Summer Tour (2002)
 * Phasm 8 Tour (2003–2005)
 * Parallel Lines 30th Anniversary Tour (2008)
 * Endangered Species Tour (2010)
 * Panic of Girls Tour (2011)
 * Blast Off/No Principals Tour (2013)
 * Pollinator Tour (2017–2019)
 * Against the Odds Tour (2022)

Co-headlining

 * Road Rage Tour with The New Cars (2006)
 * Call Me Invincible Tour with Pat Benatar (2009)
 * Endangered Species Tour with The Pretenders and Cheap Trick (2010)
 * Whip It To Shreds Tour with Devo (2012)
 * No Principals Tour with X (2013)
 * Rage and Rapture Tour with Garbage (2017)
 * Elvis Costello & The Imposters and Blondie Co-Headlining 2019 Tour with Elvis_Costello & The Imposters (2019)
 * Pandemonium 2024 with Alice Cooper (2024)

Awards and nominations

 * 1980 – Juno Award for Best Selling Single ("Heart of Glass") (Won)
 * 1981 – Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal ("Call Me") (Nominated)
 * 1980 – Juno Award for International Single of the Year ("The Tide Is High") (Nominated)
 * 1982 – Grammy Award for Video of the Year ("Eat To The Beat") (Nominated)
 * 1998 – Q Music Award for Q Inspiration Award (Won)
 * 2006 – Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for Inductees (Won)
 * 2014 – NME Award for NME Godlike Genius Award (Won)
 * 2016 – Q Music Award for Q Inspiration Award (Won)
 * 2016 – Grammy Hall of Fame for "Heart of Glass" (Inducted)
 * 2022 – BBC Longshots Audience Award for Blondie: Vivir en la Habana (Won)
 * 2023 – Grammy Award for Best Historical Album for Against the Odds: 1974–1982 (Nominated)
 * 2023 – Songwriters Hall of Fame (Nominated)

title: Blondie (band)


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Mark Bosnich

Mark John Bosnich (Marko Ivan Bosnić; born 13 January 1972) is an Australian former professional soccer player who played as a goalkeeper, and sports pundit. He played in England for Premier League clubs Aston Villa, Manchester United and Chelsea. He also played in Australia for Sydney United, Central Coast Mariners and Sydney Olympic, as well as representing Australia 17 times during his career, scoring one goal for his nation. He was a co-host of Bill & Boz on Fox Sports News.

Manchester United brought Bosnich to England in 1989, but a lack of first-team opportunities and a failed attempt to secure a work visa, saw him return to Australia. A year later, Aston Villa brought him back to England and he established himself as one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League during the 1990s. Manchester United re-signed him in 1999 as a replacement for the departing Peter Schmeichel, but injuries and a lack of first-team opportunities led to a decline in form. He left Manchester United for Chelsea in 2001, where he again struggled to find a regular place in the starting line-up and continued to battle with injuries. In September 2002, he was released by Chelsea and banned from football for nine months after testing positive for cocaine.

Bosnich subsequently developed an addiction to the drug and spent the next six years of his life in exile, before training for a comeback in 2007 and eventually making a return to the professional game in his native Australia the following year, before retiring in 2009.

Manchester United (1988–1991)
Bosnich was born and raised in Liverpool, southwestern Sydney. His Croatian immigrant father was born in Blato, Korčula, Croatia and migrated to Sydney in 1959 and his mother is Australian-born to Croatian immigrants. He attended Casula Primary School and later Liverpool Boys High School. Bosnich played for Sydney Croatia youth team before moving to England. In 1989, at the age of 17, he joined Manchester United on a non-contract basis and made his debut for them in a First Division fixture against Wimbledon on 30 April 1990.

He only played two more games for Manchester United before his registration with the club was cancelled on 30 June 1991. Bosnich had been in England using a student visa and when this expired in July 1991, he then returned to Sydney Croatia briefly in the 1991–92 season. He returned to England signing for Aston Villa on a free transfer on 28 February 1992.

Aston Villa (1992–1999)
Bosnich did not claim a regular place in the Aston Villa first team until the 1993–94 season. In the League Cup semi-final against Tranmere Rovers that season, he dramatically stopped three shots in a penalty shoot-out. Villa won the final, against his former club, Manchester United. In March 1994 Bosnich saved two penalties against Tottenham Hotspur, one from Darren Anderton and one from Nick Barmby, to help secure a 1–1 draw. These were his fourth and fifth penalty saves from open play that season. 1994–95 was Bosnich's first full season as Villa's first-choice goalkeeper, but it was a disappointing season for the club as they narrowly avoided relegation.

Bosnich was one of the few players to be retained by new manager Brian Little following Atkinson's dismissal in November 1994, as the bulk of Atkinson's team was sold off to make way for a new side. 1995–96 was perhaps the best season of Bosnich's career. He was now widely acclaimed as one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League, as he helped Villa finish fourth in the league and win the Football League Cup final at Wembley with a 3–0 triumph over Leeds United.

In 1996, Bosnich was fined £1,000 and censured by the FA after he was found guilty of misconduct by upsetting fans of Tottenham Hotspur (a club with a large Jewish following) with a Nazi salute. Bosnich spent three more seasons at Villa Park before his contract expired and he joined Manchester United on a free transfer. He had played 207 times in seven-and-a-half years with Villa.

Return to Manchester United (1999–2001)
Bosnich was signed for Manchester United in the 1999 close season as successor to Peter Schmeichel, signing on a free transfer after his contract at Villa Park expired. During the season, he picked up a Premier League title medal as United were crowned champions by an 18-point margin. That season Bosnich started 23 league games, Raimond van der Gouw started 11 and Massimo Taibi started 4. Highlights of this season were saving two penalties in January 2000; one from Necaxa's Álex Aguinaga in the 2000 FIFA Club World Championship to secure a 1–1 draw, and the other from Middlesbrough's Juninho to help secure a 1–0 win. He also played a key role in Manchester United becoming the first English team to win the Intercontinental Cup in keeping a clean sheet against Palmeiras of Brazil, in Tokyo.

He had one season as United's regular goalkeeper, but then they signed the French World Cup-winning goalkeeper Fabien Barthez in June 2000. Soon after, Bosnich found himself as third-choice goalkeeper. Newly appointed Celtic manager Martin O'Neill made an offer to loan Bosnich for the 2000–01 season, but he decided against the move and decided that he would try to regain his place in the Manchester United first team. He had also fallen out of favour with the national side, losing his spot to Mark Schwarzer. With hopes of a first-team return fading, Bosnich was linked with Chelsea.

In Alex Ferguson's autobiography released in 2013, he called Bosnich a "terrible professional". Bosnich responded to Ferguson, saying, "The fact remains that I was the only player he signed twice at Manchester United. I'm honoured to be mentioned. He's entitled to his view and I'm entitled to mine."

Chelsea (2001–2002)
Bosnich never played a first-team game for United after the arrival of Fabien Barthez, and on 18 January 2001 he signed for Chelsea on a free transfer. Problems with his fitness and injury meant his debut did not happen until the following season in a UEFA Cup tie against Hapoel Tel Aviv. Bosnich was earning A$130,000-a-week (approximately £45,500-a-week) at Chelsea. He was injured in a league game against Everton in November 2001 and this proved to be his final appearance for the club. His career reached rock-bottom in September 2002 when he failed a drugs test and was subsequently sacked by Chelsea and banned from football for nine months.

Exile and return (2002–2007)
The suspension scuppered a move to Bolton Wanderers in the newly introduced winter transfer window. Bosnich was keen on the idea of moving to the Reebok Stadium and the player's agent admitted that dialogue had taken place but Sam Allardyce remained coy about his interest. In the autumn of 2004, Bosnich spurned an opportunity to return to football with League One side, Walsall, who were then managed by Paul Merson, who had played alongside Bosnich in his final season at Aston Villa.

Bosnich developed a $5,000-a-week cocaine addiction and became a recluse. Bosnich took up to 10 g of cocaine a day. At one stage, he almost shot his father with an air rifle, thinking it was an intruder in his home. His father convinced him to quit the drug. In early 2007, former Chelsea teammate and QPR goalkeeping coach Ed de Goey gave him inspiration to come out of retirement. By July 2007, Bosnich started training at Queens Park Rangers' training ground in an attempt to initially get fit, with the view to play professionally again. During the summer he lost 15 kg and claimed to have regained most of his reflexes. In September he kept a clean sheet in goal during a friendly behind closed doors against Barnet, which QPR won 2–0.

Australia
Bosnich returned to Australia in 2008 after many years living in London. Bosnich was confirmed to be the starting goalkeeper for the Central Coast Mariners for their pre-season cup game against Sydney FC on 27 July 2008. Bosnich kept a clean sheet including saving a penalty by Sydney FC's Steve Corica before being substituted in the 80th minute to a standing ovation by both sets of supporters. On 19 August 2008, Bosnich signed a seven-week guest player deal with the Mariners.

Bosnich made his A-League debut with the Central Coast Mariners on 31 August 2008 in a 4–2 away win against the Queensland Roar at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane. Once Mariners first-choice goalkeeper Danny Vukovic had served his suspension, Bosnich did not play again for the Mariners. On 31 May 2009, it was announced that Bosnich had signed to play for Sydney Olympic for the remainder of the NSW Premier League season.

Bosnich suffered a hamstring injury and he ended his playing career to focus on his television commitments. On 22 October 2010, it was confirmed Bosnich would temporarily join the North Queensland Fury as an interim coach for the fixture against Newcastle Jets, in the absence of Franz Straka and Stuart McLaren, who had been banned from the touchline for two games. However, Bosnich was not allowed by the FFA because he did not have a coaching license.

International career
His first appearance with the Australia national team came in 1990 against touring USSR club side Torpedo, followed by a number of further appearances in 'unofficial' Socceroos matches in the next few years. His first full international appearance came in 1993 against New Zealand in a qualifying match for the 1994 FIFA World Cup. Bosnich also appeared for the Socceroos at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and the 1997 FIFA Confederations Cup.

Although his international appearances with the Socceroos were rare, they were memorable occasions. Keeping for Australia in the away leg of its home-and-away qualifier with Iran in a failed attempt to qualify for the 1998 World Cup, Australia losing on away goals in what Bosnich described as "the lowest moment in Australian football". Bosnich also scored a late penalty for his national team in a 13–0 win over the Solomon Islands. In November 2007 he admitted that he was hopeful of selection for Australia to make up for the times he shunned it in favour of his club commitments. "If I ever get the chance to play for Australia again, I will never make the mistake of saying 'no'."

Personal life
Bosnich married for the first time in 1992, to an English woman named Lisa Hall. The wedding took place in Sydney, New South Wales, in February. It was rumoured that he married Hall to be able to return to Britain, after problems with his working visa. After two years of marriage, Home Office officials were satisfied it was not a wedding of convenience and Bosnich was allowed to remain indefinitely in Britain. However, the marriage ended just three months later. According to him, "We were in love but our marriage just didn't work out." His second marriage was to Sarah Jarrett, in 1999. He almost failed to reach the altar, having only been released on bail hours before the wedding following an incident at a strip club during his stag night celebrations.

The marriage lasted only 14 months. Jarrett was pregnant at the time of the divorce, but she lost the baby soon afterwards, in the third month of pregnancy. Bosnich said that much of his cocaine problem was due to his relationship with British model Sophie Anderton, claiming that for every line of cocaine she had, he had to have one too. He does not regret his actions however, crediting them with being able to help someone in need. His addiction worsened and he later said, "There was a stage where I got up to 10 grams a day when I was really down in the dumps." On 16 July 2008, he was made bankrupt at the High Court in London on the petition of a creditor.

Bosnich provided special comments for the Socceroos' friendly with Nigeria on 17 November alongside Simon Hill on Australia's Fox Sports and subsequently on SBS's coverage of the 2008 FA Cup final. Bosnich is now a football analyst and commentator for Fox Sports football programmes. As part of this role, he co-hosted Bill & Boz which has since been cancelled. In 2021, Bosnich joined Stan Sport to cover the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League competitions. He also works as a player agent. Bosnich trains at Kostya Tszyu's Boxing Academy in Rockdale. Bosnich lived with his parents in Fairfield when he returned to Australia and now lives in Woolloomooloo with his partner Sarah Jones.

International

 * Scores and results list Australia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Bosnich goal.

Honours
Aston Villa
 * Football League Cup: 1993–94, 1995–96

Manchester United
 * Premier League: 1999–2000
 * Intercontinental Cup: 1999

Australia
 * FIFA Confederations Cup runner-up: 1997

Individual
 * Oceania Footballer of the Year: 1997
 * Oceania Goalkeeper of the Century: 1999

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Mark Bosnich


text:
Victor Cousin

Victor Cousin (28 November 1792 – 14 January 1867) was a French philosopher. He was the founder of "eclecticism", a briefly influential school of French philosophy that combined elements of German idealism and Scottish Common Sense Realism. As the administrator of public instruction for over a decade, Cousin also had an important influence on French educational policy.

Early years
The son of a watchmaker, he was born in Paris, in the Quartier Saint-Antoine. At the age of ten he was sent to the local grammar school, the Lycée Charlemagne, where he studied until he was eighteen. Lycées being organically linked to the University of France and its Faculties since their Napoleonic institution (the baccalauréat was awarded by juries made of university professors) Cousin was "crowned" in the ancient hall of the Sorbonne for a Latin oration he wrote which  owned him a first prize at the concours général, a competition between the best pupils at lycées (established under the Ancien Régime and reinstated under the First Empire, and still extant). The classical training of the lycée strongly disposed him to literature, or éloquence as it was then called. He was already known among his fellow students for his knowledge of Greek. From the lycée he graduated to the most prestigious of higher education schools, École Normale Supérieure (as it is now called), where Pierre Laromiguière was then lecturing on philosophy.

In the second preface to the Fragments philosophiques, in which he candidly states the varied philosophical influences of his life, Cousin speaks of the grateful emotion excited by the memory of the day when he heard Laromiguière for the first time. "That day decided my whole life." Laromiguière taught the philosophy of John Locke and Étienne Bonnot de Condillac, happily modified on some points, with a clearness and grace which in appearance at least removed difficulties, and with a charm of spiritual bonhomie which penetrated and subdued." That school has remained ever since the living heart of French philosophy; Henri Bergson, Jean-Paul Sartre and Jacques Derrida are among its past students.

Influences on Cousin's early philosophical thought
Cousin wanted to lecture on philosophy and quickly obtained the position of master of conferences (maître de conférences) in the school. The second great philosophical impulse of his life was the teaching of Pierre Paul Royer-Collard. This teacher, he tells us, "by the severity of his logic, the gravity and weight of his words, turned me by degrees, and not without resistance, from the beaten path of Condillac into the way which has since become so easy, but which was then painful and unfrequented, that of the Scottish philosophy." The "Scottish Philosophy" being the "Common Sense" Philosophy of Thomas Reid and others—which taught that both the external world and the human mind (introspection proving the existence of "free will" by the fact of consciousness) had an objective existence. In 1815–1816 Cousin attained the position of suppliant (assistant) to Royer-Collard in the history of modern philosophy chair of the faculty of letters. Another thinker who influenced him at this early period was Maine de Biran, whom Cousin regarded as the unequalled psychological observer of his time in France.

These men strongly influenced Cousin's philosophical thought. To Laromiguière he attributes the lesson of decomposing thought, even though the reduction of it to sensation was inadequate. Royer-Collard taught him that even sensation is subject to certain internal laws and principles which it does not itself explain, which are superior to analysis and the natural patrimony of the mind. De Biran made a special study of the phenomena of the will. He taught him to distinguish in all cognitions, and especially in the simplest facts of consciousness, the voluntary activity in which our personality is truly revealed. It was through this "triple discipline" that Cousin's philosophical thought was first developed, and that in 1815 he began the public teaching of philosophy in the Normal School and in the faculty of letters.

He then took up the study of German, worked at Immanuel Kant and Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, and sought to master the Philosophy of Nature of Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, which at first greatly attracted him. The influence of Schelling may be observed very markedly in the earlier form of his philosophy. He sympathized with the principle of faith of Jacobi, but regarded it as arbitrary so long as it was not recognized as grounded in reason. In 1817 he went to Germany, and met Hegel at Heidelberg. Hegel's Encyclopädie der philosophischen Wissenschaften appeared the same year, and Cousin had one of the earliest copies. He thought Hegel not particularly amiable, but the two became friends. The following year Cousin went to Munich, where he met Schelling for the first time, and spent a month with him and Jacobi, obtaining a deeper insight into the Philosophy of Nature.

Political troubles disrupt career
France's political troubles interfered for a time with his career. In the events of 1814–1815 he took the royalist side. He adopted the views of the party known as doctrinaire, of which Royer-Collard was the philosophical leader. He seems to have gone further, and to have approached the extreme Left. Then came a reaction against liberalism, and in 1821–1822 Cousin was deprived of his offices in the faculty of letters and in the Normal School. The Normal School was swept away, and Cousin shared the fate of Guizot, who was ejected from the chair of history. This enforced abandonment of public teaching was a mixed blessing: he set out for Germany with a view to further philosophical study. While at Berlin in 1824–1825 he was thrown into prison, either on some ill-defined political charge at the instance of the French police, or as a result of an indiscreet conversation. Freed after six months, he remained under the suspicion of the French government for three years. It was during this period that he developed what is distinctive in his philosophical doctrine. His eclecticism, his ontology and his philosophy of history were declared in principle and in most of their salient details in the Fragments philosophiques (Paris, 1826). The preface to the second edition (1833) and the third (1838) aimed at a vindication of his principles against contemporary criticism. Even the best of his later books, the Philosophie écossaise, the Du vrai, du beau, et du bien, and the Philosophie de Locke, were simply matured revisions of his lectures during the period from 1815 to 1820. The lectures on Locke were first sketched in 1819, and fully developed in the course of 1829.

During the seven years when he was prevented from teaching, he produced, besides the Fragments, the edition of the works of Proclus (6 vols., 1820–1827), and the works of René Descartes (II vols., 1826). He also commenced his Translation of Plato (13 vols.), which occupied his leisure time from 1825 to 1840. One sees in the Fragments very distinctly the fusion of the different philosophical influences by which his opinions were finally matured. For Cousin was as eclectic in thought and habit of mind as he was in philosophical principle and system. It is with the publication of the Fragments of 1826 that the first great widening of his reputation is associated. In 1827 followed the Cours de l'histoire de la philosophie.

Reinstatement at the University
In 1828, Antoine Lefebvre de Vatimesnil, Minister of Public Instruction (1828–1829) in Martignac's ministry, recalled Cousin and Guizot to their professorial positions in the university. The three years which followed were the period of Cousin's greatest triumph as a lecturer. His return to the chair was the symbol of the triumph of constitutional ideas and was greeted with enthusiasm. The hall of the Sorbonne was crowded as the hall of no philosophical teacher in Paris had been since the days of Pierre Abélard. The lecturer's eloquence mingled with speculative exposition, and he possessed a singular power of rhetorical climax. His philosophy showed strikingly the generalizing tendency of the French intellect, and its logical need of grouping details round central principles.

There was a moral elevation in Cousin's spiritual philosophy which touched the hearts of his listeners, and seemed to be the basis for higher development in national literature and art, and even in politics, than the traditional philosophy of France. His lectures produced more ardent disciples than those of any other contemporary professor of philosophy. Judged on his teaching influence, Cousin occupies a foremost place in the rank of professors of philosophy, who like Jacobi, Schelling and Dugald Stewart have united the gifts of speculative, expository and imaginative power. The taste for philosophy—especially its history—was revived in France to an extent unknown since the 17th century.

Influence on others
Among those influenced by Cousin were Edgar Allan Poe, Théodore Simon Jouffroy, Jean Philibert Damiron, Adolphe Garnier, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Jules Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire, Felix Ravaisson-Mollien, Charles de Rémusat, Orestes Brownson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Jules Simon, Paul Janet, Adolphe Franck and Patrick Edward Dove, who dedicated his book The Theory of Human Progression (1850) to him — Jouffroy and Damiron were first fellow-followers. students, and then disciples. Jouffroy always kept firm to the early — the French and Scottish — impulses of Cousin's teaching. Cousin continued to lecture for two and a half years after his return to the chair. Sympathizing with the revolution of July, he was at once recognized by the new government as a friend of national liberty. Writing in June 1833, he explains both his philosophical and his political position: "I had the advantage of holding united against me for many years both the sensational and the theological school. In 1830 both schools descended into the arena of politics. The sensational school quite naturally produced the demagogic party, and the theological school became quite as naturally absolutism, safe to borrow from time to time the mask of the demagogue in order the better to reach its ends, as in philosophy it is by scepticism that it undertakes to restore theocracy. On the other hand, he who combated any exclusive principle in science was bound to reject also any exclusive principle in the state, and to defend representative government."

Effect on primary instruction
The government was not slow to honour him. He was induced by the ministry of which his friend François Guizot was the head to become a member of the council of public instruction and counsellor of state, and in 1832 he was made a Peer of France. He ceased to lecture, but retained the title of professor of philosophy. Finally, he accepted the position of minister of public instruction in 1840 under Adolphe Thiers. He was in addition director of the Normal School and virtual head of the university, and from 1840 a member of the Academy of the Moral and Political Sciences in the Institut de France. His character and his official position at this period gave him great power in the university and in the educational arrangements of the country.

The most important work he accomplished during this period was the organization of primary instruction. It was to the efforts of Cousin that France owed her advance, in relation to primary education, between 1830 and 1848. Prussia and Saxony had set the national example, and France was guided into it by Cousin. Forgetful of national calamity and of personal wrong, he looked to Prussia as affording the best example of an organized system of national education; and he was persuaded that "to carry back the education of Prussia into France afforded a nobler (if a bloodless) triumph than the trophies of Austerlitz and Jena." In the summer of 1831, commissioned by the government, he visited Frankfurt and Saxony, and spent some time in Berlin. The result was a series of reports to the minister, afterwards published as Rapport sur l'Etat de l'instruction publique dans quelques pays de l'Allemagne et particulièrement en Prusse (Compare also De l'instruction publique en Hollande, 1837) His views were readily accepted on his return to France, and soon afterwards through his influence there was passed the law of primary instruction. (See his Exposé des motifs et projet de loi sur l'instruction primaire, présentés à la chambre des députés, séance du 2 janvier 1837.)

In the words of the Edinburgh Review (July 1833), these documents "mark an epoch in the progress of national education, and are directly conducive to results important not only to France but to Europe." The Report was translated into English by Sarah Austin in 1834. The translation was frequently reprinted in the United States of America. The legislatures of New Jersey and Massachusetts distributed it in the schools at the expense of the states. Cousin remarks that, among all the literary distinctions which he had received, "None has touched me more than the title of foreign member of the American Institute for Education." To the enlightened views of the ministries of Guizot and Thiers under the citizen-king, and to the zeal and ability of Cousin in the work of organization, France owes what is best in her system of primary education,—a national interest which had been neglected under the French Revolution, the Empire and the Restoration (see Exposé, p. 17). In the first two years of the reign of Louis Philippe more was done for the education of the people than had been either sought or accomplished in all the history of France. In defence of university studies he stood manfully forth in the chamber of peers in 1844, against the clerical party on the one hand and the levelling or Philistine party on the other. His speeches on this occasion were published in a tractate Défense de l'université et de la philosophie (1844 and 1845).

Writing period 1830 to 1848
This period of official life from 1830 to 1848 was spent, so far as philosophical study was concerned, in revising his former lectures and writings, in maturing them for publication or reissue, and in research into certain periods of the sophical history of philosophy. In 1835 appeared De la Métaphysique d'Aristote, suivi d'un essai de traduction du premier et du douzième livres; in 1836, Cours de philosophie professé à la faculté des lettres pendant l'année 1818, and Œuvres inédites d'Abélard. This Cours de philosophie appeared later in 1854 as Du vrai, du beau, et du bien. From 1825 to 1840 appeared Cours de l'histoire de la philosophie, in 1829 Manuel de l'histoire de la philosophie de Tennemann, translated from the German. In 1840–1841 we have Cours d'histoire de la philosophie morale au XVIIIe siècle (5 vols.). In 1841 appeared his edition of the Œuvres philosophiques de Maine-de-Biran; in 1842, Leçons de philosophie sur Kant (Eng. trans. AG Henderson, 1854), and in the same year Des Pensées de Pascal. The Nouveaux fragments were gathered together and republished in 1847. Later, in 1859, appeared Petri Abaelardi Opera.

Also during this period Cousin seems to have turned with fresh interest to those literary studies which he had abandoned for speculation under the influence of Laromiguière and Royer-Collard. To this renewed interest we owe his studies of men and women of note in France in the 17th century. As the results of his work in this line, we have, besides the Des Pensées de Pascal, 1842, Audes sur les femmes et la société du XVII siècle 1853. He has sketched Jacqueline Pascal (1844), Madame de Longueville (1853), the marquise de Sable (1854), the duchesse de Chevreuse (1856), Madame de Hautefort (1856). Cousin was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1855.

When the reign of Louis Philippe came to a close through the opposition of his ministry, with Guizot at its head, to the demand for electoral reform and through the policy of the Spanish marriages, Cousin, who was opposed to the government on these points, lent his sympathy to Cavaignac and the Provisional government. He published a pamphlet entitled Justice et charité, the purport of which showed the moderation of his political views. It was markedly anti-socialistic. But from this period he passed almost entirely from public life, and ceased to wield the personal influence which he had done during the preceding years. After the coup d'état of 2 December, he was deprived of his position as permanent member of the superior council of public instruction. From Napoleon and the Empire he stood aloof. A decree of 1852 placed him along with Guizot and Villemain in the rank of honorary professors. His sympathies were apparently with the monarchy, under certain constitutional safeguards. Speaking in 1853 of the political issues of the spiritual philosophy which he had taught during his lifetime, he says: "It conducts human societies to the true republic, that dream of all generous souls, which in our time can be realized in Europe only by constitutional monarchy."

Death
During the last years of his life he occupied a suite of rooms in the Sorbonne, where he lived simply and unostentatiously. The chief feature of the rooms was his noble library, the cherished collection of a lifetime. He died in Cannes on 14 January 1867, in his seventy-fifth year. In the front of the Sorbonne, below the lecture rooms of the faculty of letters, a tablet records an extract from his will, in which he bequeaths his noble and cherished library to the halls of his professorial work and triumphs.

Three distinctive points
There are three distinctive points in Cousin's philosophy. These are his method, the results of his method, and the application of the method and its results to history, especially to the history of philosophy. It is usual to speak of his philosophy as eclecticism. It is eclectic only in a secondary and subordinate sense. All eclecticism that is not self-condemned and inoperative implies a system of doctrine as its basis, in fact, a criterion of truth. Otherwise, as Cousin himself remarks, it is simply a blind and useless syncretism. And Cousin saw and proclaimed from an early period in his philosophical teaching the necessity of a system on which to base his eclecticism. This is indeed advanced as an illustration or confirmation of the truth of his system, as a proof that the facts of history correspond to his analysis of consciousness. These three points, the method, the results, and the philosophy of history, are with him intimately connected. They are developments in a natural order of sequence. They become in practice Psychology, Ontology and Eclecticism in history.

Cousin strongly insisted on the importance of method in philosophy. That which he adopts is the ordinary one of observation, analysis and induction. This observational method Cousin regards as that of the 18th century, the method which Descartes began and abandoned, and which Locke and Condillac applied, though imperfectly, and which Thomas Reid and Kant used with more success. He insists that this is the true method of philosophy as applied to consciousness, in which alone the facts of experience appear. But the proper condition of the application of the method is that it shall not, through prejudice of system, omit a single fact of consciousness. If the authority of consciousness is good in one instance, it is good in all. If not to be trusted in one, it is not to be trusted in any. Previous systems have erred in not presenting the facts of consciousness.

Observational method
The observational method applied to consciousness gives us the science of psychology. This is the basis and the only proper one of ontology or metaphysics, the science of being, and of the philosophy of history. To the observation of consciousness Cousin adds induction as the complement of his method, by which he means inference as to reality necessitated by the data of consciousness, and regulated by certain laws found in consciousness, those of reason. By his method of observation and induction as thus explained, his philosophy will be found to be marked off very clearly, on the one hand from the deductive construction of notions of an absolute system, as represented either by Schelling or Hegel, which Cousin regards as based simply on hypothesis and abstraction, illegitimately obtained; and on the other, from that of Kant, and in a sense, from that of Scottish metaphysician Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet, both of which in the view of Cousin are limited to psychology, and merely relative or phenomenal knowledge, and issue in scepticism so far as the great realities of ontology are concerned. What Cousin finds psychologically in the individual consciousness, he finds also spontaneously expressed in the common sense or universal experience of humanity. In fact, it is for him the function of philosophy to classify and explain universal convictions and beliefs; but common-sense is not for him philosophy, nor is it the instrument of philosophy; it is simply the material on which the philosophical method works, and in harmony with which its results must ultimately be found.

Three results of psychological observation
The three great results of psychological observation are Sensibility, Activity or Liberty, and Reason. These three facts are different in character, but are not found apart in consciousness. Sensations, or the facts of the sensibility, are necessary. The facts of reason are also necessary, and reason is no less independent of the will than the sensibility. Voluntary facts alone have the characters of imputability and personality. The will alone is the person or Me. The Me is the centre of the intellectual sphere without which consciousness is impossible. We find ourselves in a strange world, between two orders of phenomena which do not belong to us, which we apprehend only on the condition of our distinguishing ourselves from them. Further, we apprehend by means of a light which does not come from ourselves. All light comes from the reason, and it is the reason which apprehends both itself and the sensibility which envelops it, and the will which it obliges but does not constrain. Consciousness, then, is composed of these three integrant and inseparable elements. But Reason is the immediate ground of knowledge and of consciousness itself.

But there is a peculiarity in Cousin's doctrine of activity or freedom, and in his doctrine of reason, which enters deeply into his system. This is the element of spontaneity in volition and in reason. This is the heart of what is new alike in his doctrine of knowledge and being. Liberty or freedom is a generic term which means a cause or being endowed with self-activity. This is to itself and its own development its own ultimate cause. Free-will is so, although it is preceded by deliberation and determination, i.e. reflection, for we are always conscious that even after determination we are free to will or not to will. But there is a primary kind of volition which has not reflection for its condition, which is yet free and spontaneous. We must have willed thus spontaneously first, otherwise we could not know, before our reflective volition, that we could will and act. Spontaneous volition is free as reflective, but it is the prior act of the two. This view of liberty of will is the only one in accordance with the facts of humanity; it excludes reflective volition, and explains the enthusiasm of the poet and the artist in the act of creation; it explains also the ordinary actions of mankind, which are done as a rule spontaneously and not after reflective deliberation.

Doctrine of the Reason
But it is in his doctrine of the Reason that the distinctive principle of the philosophy of Cousin lies. The reason given to us by psychological observation, the reason of our consciousness, is impersonal in its nature. We do not make it; its character is precisely the opposite of individuality; it is universal and necessary. The recognition of universal and necessary principles in knowledge is the essential point in psychology; it ought to be put first and emphasized to the last that these exist and that they are wholly impersonal or absolute. The number of these principles, their enumeration and classification, is an important point, but it is secondary to that of the recognition of their true nature. This was the point which Kant missed in his analysis, and this is the fundamental truth which Cousin thinks he has restored to the integrity of philosophy by the method of the observation of consciousness. And how is this impersonality or absoluteness of the conditions of knowledge to be established? The answer is in substance that Kant went wrong in putting necessity first as the criterion of those laws. This brought them within the sphere of reflection, and gave as their guarantee the impossibility of thinking them reversed; and led to their being regarded as wholly relative to human intelligence, restricted to the sphere of the phenomenal, incapable of revealing to us substantial reality—necessary, yet subjective. But this test of necessity is a wholly secondary one; these laws are not thus guaranteed to us; they are each and all given to us, given to our consciousness, in an act of spontaneous apperception or apprehension, immediately, instantaneously, in a sphere above the reflective consciousness, yet within the reach of knowledge. And "All subjectivity with all reflection expires in the spontaneity of apperception. The reason becomes subjective by relation to the voluntary and free self; but in itself it is impersonal; it belongs not to this or to that self in humanity; it belongs not even to humanity. We may say with truth that nature and humanity belong to it, for without its laws both would perish."

But what is the number of those laws? Kant reviewing the enterprise of Aristotle in modern times has given a complete list of the laws of thought, but it is arbitrary in classification and may be legitimately reduced. According to Cousin, there are but two primary laws of thought, that of causality and that of substance. From these flow naturally all the others. In the order of nature, that of substance is the first and causality second. In the order of acquisition of our knowledge, causality precedes substance, or rather both are given us in each other, and are contemporaneous in consciousness.

These principles of reason, cause and substance, given thus psychologically, enable us to pass beyond the limits of the relative and subjective to objective and absolute reality, they enable us, in a word, to pass from psychology or the science of knowledge, to ontology or the science of being. These laws are inextricably mixed in consciousness with the data of volition and sensation, with free activity and fatal action or impression, and they guide us in rising to a personal being, a self or free cause, and to an impersonal reality, a not-me—nature, the world of force—lying out of us, and modifying us. As I refer to myself the act of attention and volition, so I cannot but refer the sensation to some cause, necessarily other than myself, that is, to an external cause, whose existence is as certain for me as my own existence, since the phenomenon which suggests it to me is as certain as the phenomenon which had suggested my reality, and both are given in each other. I thus reach an objective impersonal world of forces which corresponds to the variety of my sensations. The relation of these forces or causes to each other is the order of the universe.

But these two forces, the me and the not-me, are reciprocally limitative. As reason has apprehended these two simultaneous phenomena, attention and sensation, and led us immediately to conceive the two sorts of distinct absolute causes, correlative and reciprocally finite, to which they are related, so, from the notion of this limitation, we find it impossible under the same guide not to conceive a supreme cause, absolute and infinite, itself the first and last cause of all. This is relatively to self and not-self what these are to their proper effects. This cause is self-sufficient, and is sufficient for the reason. This is God; he must be conceived under the notion of cause, related to humanity and the world. He is absolute substance only insofar as he is absolute cause of philosophy and his essence lies precisely in his creative power. He thus creates, and he creates necessarily.

This theodicy of Cousin laid him open obviously enough to the charge of pantheism. This he repels, and his answer may be summed up as follows. Pantheism is properly the deification of the law of phenomena, the universe God. But I distinguish the two finite causes self and not-self from each other and from the infinite cause. They are not mere modifications of this cause or properties, as with Spinoza,—they are free forces having their power or spring of action in themselves, and this is sufficient for our idea of independent finite reality. I hold this, and I hold the relation of these as effects to the one supreme cause. The God I plead for is neither the deity of Pantheism, nor the absolute unity of the Eleatics, a being divorced from all possibility of creation or plurality, a mere metaphysical abstraction. The deity I maintain is creative, and necessarily creative. The deity of Spinoza and the Eleatics is a mere substance, not a cause in any sense. As to the necessity under which Deity exists of acting or creating, this is the highest form of liberty, it is the freedom of spontaneity, activity without deliberation. His action is not the result of a struggle between passion and virtue. He is free in an unlimited manner the purest spontaneity in man is but the shadow of the freedom of God. He acts freely but not arbitrarily, and with the consciousness of being able to choose the opposite part. He cannot deliberate or will as we do. His spontaneous action excludes at once the efforts and the miseries of will and the mechanical operation of necessity.

The elements found in consciousness are also to be found in the history of humanity and in the history of philosophy. In external nature there are expansion and contraction which correspond to spontaneity and reflection. External nature again in contrast with humanity expresses spontaneity; humanity expresses reflection. In human history the East represents the spontaneous stage; the Pagan and Christian world represent stages of reflection. This was afterwards modified, expanded and more fully expressed by saying that humanity in its universal development has three principal moments. First, in the spontaneous stage, where reflection is not yet developed, and art is imperfect, humanity has thought only of the immensity around it. It is preoccupied by the infinite. Secondly, in the reflective stage, mind has become an object to itself. It thus knows itself explicitly or reflectively. Its own individuality is now the only or at least the supreme thing. This is the moment of the finite. Thirdly, there comes an epoch in which the self or me is subordinated. Mind realizes another power in the universe. The finite and the infinite become two real correlatives in the relation of cause and product. This is the third and highest stage of development, the relation of the finite and the infinite. As philosophy is but the highest expression of humanity, these three moments will be represented in its history. The East typifies the infinite, Greece the finite or reflective epoch, the modern era the stage of relation or correlation of infinite and finite. In theology, the dominant philosophical idea of each of these epochs results in pantheism, polytheism, theism. In politics we have a correspondence also with the ideas of monarchy, democracy, and constitutional polity.

Eclecticism thus means the application of the psychological method to the history of philosophy. Confronting the various systems co-ordinated as sensualism, idealism, skepticism, mysticism, with the facts of consciousness, the chasm result was reached "Each system expresses an order of phenomena and ideas, which is in truth very real, but which is not alone in consciousness, and which at the same time holds an almost exclusive place in the system; whence it follows that each system is not false but incomplete, and that in re-uniting all incomplete systems, we should have a complete philosophy, adequate to the totality of consciousness." Philosophy, as thus perfected, would not be a mere aggregation of systems, as is ignorantly supposed, but an integration of the truth in each system after the false or incomplete is discarded.

Comparison to Kant, Schelling and Hegel
Such is the system in outline. The historical position of the system lies in its relations to Kant, Schelling and Hegel. Cousin was opposed to Kant in asserting that the unconditioned in the form of infinite or absolute cause is but a mere unrealizable tentative or effort on the part of and something different from a mere negation, yet not equivalent to a positive thought. With Cousin the absolute as the ground of being is grasped positively by the intelligence, and it renders all else intelligible; it is not as with Kant a certain hypothetical or regulative need.

With Schelling again Cousin agrees in regarding this supreme ground of all as positively apprehended, and as a source of development, but he utterly repudiates Schelling's method. The intellectual intuition either falls under the eye of consciousness, or it does not. If not, how do you know it and its object which are identical? If it does, it comes within the sphere of psychology; and the objections to it as thus a relative, made by Schelling himself, are to be dealt with. Schelling's intellectual intuition is the mere negation of knowledge.

Again the pure being of Hegel is a mere abstraction, a hypothesis illegitimately assumed, which he has nowhere sought to vindicate. The very point to be established is the possibility of reaching being per se or pure being; yet in the Hegelian system this is the very thing assumed as a starting-point. Besides this, of course, objections might be made to the method of development, as not only subverting the principle of contradiction, but as galvanizing negation into a means of advancing or developing the whole body of human knowledge and reality. The intellectual intuition of Schelling, as above consciousness, the pure being of Hegel, as an empty abstraction, unvindicated, illegitimately assumed, and arbitrarily developed, are equally useless as bases of metaphysics. This led Cousin, still holding by essential knowledge of being, to ground it in an analysis of consciousness, in psychology.

The absolute or infinite
The absolute or infinite—the unconditioned ground and source of all reality—is yet apprehended by us as an immediate datum or reality; and it is apprehended in consciousness—under its condition, that, to wit, of distinguishing subject and object, knower and known. The doctrine of Cousin was criticized by Sir William Hamilton in the Edinburgh Review of 1829, and it was animadverted upon about the same time by Schelling. Hamilton's objections are as follows. The correlation of the ideas of infinite and finite does not necessarily imply their correality, as Cousin supposes; on the contrary, it is a presumption that finite is simply positive and infinite negative of the same—that the finite and infinite are simply contradictory relatives. Of these "The positive alone is real, the negative is only an abstraction of the other, and in the highest generality even an abstraction of thought itself." A study of the few sentences under this head might have obviated the trifling criticism of Hamilton's objection which has been set afloat recently, that the denial of a knowledge of the absolute or infinite implies a foregone knowledge of it. How can you deny the reality of that which you do not know? The answer to this is that in the case of contradictory statements—A and not A—the latter is a mere negation of the former, and posits nothing; and the negation of a notion with positive attributes, as the finite, does not extend beyond abolishing the given attributes as an object of thought. The infinite or non-finite is not necessarily known, ere the finite is negated, or in order to negate it; all that needs be known is the finite itself; and the contradictory negation of it implies no positive. Non-organized may or may not correspond to a positive—i.e. an object or notion with qualities contradictory of the organized; but the mere sublation of the organized does not posit it, or suppose that it is known beforehand, or that anything exists corresponding to it. This is one among many flaws in the Hegelian dialectic, and it paralyzes the whole of the Logic. Secondly, the conditions of intelligence, which Cousin allows, necessarily exclude the possibility of knowledge of the absolute—they are held to be incompatible with its unity. Here Schelling and Hamilton argue that Cousin's absolute is a mere relative. Thirdly, it is objected that in order to deduce the conditioned, Cousin makes his absolute a relative; for he makes it an absolute cause, i.e. a cause existing absolutely under relation. As such it is necessarily inferior to the sum total of its effects, and dependent for reality on these—in a word, a mere potence or becoming. Further, as a theory of creation, it makes creation a necessity, and destroys the notion of the divine. Cousin made no reply to Hamilton's criticism beyond alleging that Hamilton's doctrine necessarily restricted human knowledge and certainty to psychology and logic, and destroyed metaphysics by introducing nescience and uncertainty into its highest sphere, theodicy.

The attempt to render the laws of reason or thought impersonal by professing to find them in the sphere of spontaneous apperception, and above reflective necessity, is unsuccessful. Cause, substance, time, space, are given us as realized in a particular form. In no single act of affirmation of cause or substance, much less in such a primitive act, do we affirm the universality of their application. There may be particular instances or cases of these laws, but we could never get the laws themselves in their universality, far less absolute impersonality. No amount of individual instances of the application of any of them by us would give it a true universality. The only sure test we have of their universality in our experience is the test of their reflective necessity. We thus after all fall back on reflection as our ground for their universal application; mere spontaneity of apprehension is futile; their universality is grounded in their necessity, not their necessity in their universality. How far and in what sense this ground of necessity renders them personal are of course questions still to be solved.

But if these three correlative facts are immediately given, it seems to be thought possible by Cousin to vindicate them in reflective consciousness. He seeks to trace the steps which the reason has spontaneously and consciously, but irreflectively, followed. And here the question arises—Can we vindicate in a reflective or mediate process this spontaneous apprehension of reality?

The self
The self is found to be a cause of force, free in its action, on the ground that we are obliged to relate the volition of consciousness to the self as its cause, and its ultimate cause. It is not clear from the analysis whether the self is immediately observed as an acting or originating cause, or whether reflection working on the principle of causality is compelled to infer its existence and character. If self is actually so given, we do not need the principle of causality to infer it; if it is not so given, causality could never give us either the notion or the fact of self as a cause or force, far less as an ultimate one. All that it could do would be to warrant a cause of some sort, but not this or that reality as the cause. And further, the principle of causality, if fairly carried out, as universal and necessary, would not allow us to stop at personality or will as the ultimate cause of its effect—volition. Once applied to the facts at all, it would drive us beyond the first antecedent or term of antecedents of volition to a still further cause or ground—in fact, land us in an infinite regress of causes.

The same criticism is even more emphatically applicable to the influence of a not-self, or world of forces, corresponding to our sensations, and the cause of them. Starting from sensation as our basis, causality could never give us this, even though it be allowed that sensation is impersonal to the extent of being independent of our volition. Causality might tell us that a cause there is of sensation somewhere and of some sort; but that this cause is a force or sum of forces, existing in space, independently of us, and corresponding to our sensations, it could never tell us, for the simple reason that such a notion is not supposed to exist in our consciousness. Causality cannot add to the number of our notions, and cannot add to the number of realities we know. All it can do is to necessitate us to think that a cause there is of a given change, but what that cause is it cannot of itself inform us, or even suggest to us, beyond implying that it must be to the effect. Sensation might arise, for aught we know, so far as causality leads us, not from a world of forces at all, but from a will like our own, though infinitely more powerful, acting upon us, partly furthering and partly thwarting us. And indeed such a supposition is, with the principle of causality at work, within the limits of probability, as we are already supposed to know such a reality—a will—in our own consciousness. When Cousin thus set himself to vindicate those points by reflection, he gave up the obvious advantage of his other position that the realities in question are given us in immediate and spontaneous apprehension. The same criticism applies equally to the inference of an absolute cause from the two limited forces which he names self and not-self. Immediate spontaneous apperception may seize this supreme reality; but to vindicate it by reflection as an inference on the principle of causality is impossible. This is a mere paralogism; we can never infer either absolute or infinite from relative or finite.

The truth is that Cousin's doctrine of the spontaneous apperception of impersonal truth amounts to little more than a presentment in philosophical language of the ordinary convictions and beliefs of mankind. This is important as a preliminary stage, but philosophy properly begins when it attempts to coordinate or systematize those convictions in harmony, to conciliate apparent contradiction and opposition, as between the correlative notions of finite and infinite, the apparently conflicting notions of personality and infinitude, self and not-self; in a word, to reconcile the various sides of consciousness with each other. And whether the laws of our reason are the laws of all intelligence and being—whether and how we are to relate our fundamental, intellectual and moral conceptions to what is beyond our experience, or to an infinite being—are problems which Cousin cannot be regarded as having solved. These are in truth the outstanding problems of modern philosophy.

Cousin's doctrine of spontaneity in volition can hardly be said to be more successful than his impersonality of the reason through volition spontaneous apperception. Sudden, unpremeditated volition may be the earliest and the most artistic, but it is not the best. Volition is essentially a free choice between alternatives, and that is best which is most deliberate, because it is most rational. The sudden and unpremeditated wish represented by the former is wholly inferior in character to the free choice of the latter, guided and illumined by intelligence. In this we can deliberately resolve upon what is in our power; in that we are subject to the vain impulse of wishing the impossible. Spontaneity is pleasing, sometimes beautiful, but it is not in this instance the highest quality of the thing to be obtained. That is to be found in a guiding and illumining reflective activity.

Eclecticism is not open to the superficial objection of proceeding without a system or test in determining the complete or incomplete. But it is open to objection, assuming that a particular analysis of consciousness has reached all the possible elements in humanity and in history, and all their combinations. It may be asked, Can history have that which is not in the individual consciousness? In a sense not; but our analysis may not give all that is there, and we ought not at once to impose that analysis or any formula on history. History is as likely to reveal to us in the first place true and original elements, and combinations of elements in man, as a study of consciousness. Besides, the tendency of applying a formula of this sort to history is to assume that the elements are developed in a certain regular or necessary order, whereas this may not at all be the case; but we may find at any epoch the whole mixed, either crossing or co-operative, as in the consciousness of the individual himself. Further, the question as to how these elements may possibly have grown up in the general consciousness of mankind is assumed to be nonexistent or impossible.

It was the tendency of the philosophy of Cousin to outline things and to fill up the details in an artistic and imaginative interest. He was observational and generalizing rather than analytic and discriminating. His search into principles was not profound, and his power of rigorous consecutive development was limited. He left no distinctive permanent principle of philosophy, but he left very interesting psychological analyses, and several new, just, and true expositions of philosophical systems, especially that of Locke and the philosophers of Scotland. He was at the same time a man of impressive power, of rare and wide culture, and of lofty aim, far above priestly conception and Philistine narrowness. He was familiar with the broad lines of most systems of philosophy. His eclecticism was proof of a reverential sympathy with the struggles of human thought to attain to certainty in the highest problems of speculation. It was a doctrine of comprehension and toleration, forming a marked and valuable contrast to the arrogance of absolutism, to the dogmatism of sensationalism, and to the doctrine of church authority, preached by the theological school of his day. His spirit saved the youth of France from these other influences. As an educational reformer and a man of learning, who greatly influenced others, Cousin stands out among the memorable Frenchmen of the 19th century.

Sir W. Hamilton (Discussions, p. 541), one of his most resolute opponents, described Cousin as "A profound and original thinker, a lucid and eloquent writer, a scholar equally at home in ancient and in modern learning, a philosopher superior to all prejudices of age or country, party or profession, and whose lofty eclecticism, seeking truth under every form of opinion, traces its unity even through the most hostile systems."

title: Victor Cousin


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Paul Janet

Paul Alexandre René Janet (30 April 1823 – 4 October 1899) was a French philosopher and writer.

Biography
Born in Paris, he became professor of moral philosophy at Bourges (1845–1848) and Strasbourg (1848–1857), and of logic at the lycée Louis-le-Grand, Paris (1857–1864). In 1864 he was appointed to the chair of philosophy at the Sorbonne, and elected a member of the academy of moral and political sciences.

He wrote widely on philosophy, politics and ethics, on idealistic lines: La Famille, Histoire de la philosophie dans l'antiquité et dans le temps moderne, Histoire de la science politique, Philosophie de la Revolution Française, etc. However, in the opinion of Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911), these writings are not characterised by much originality of thought. In philosophy he was a follower of Victor Cousin, and through him of G. W. F. Hegel. His principal work, Théorie de la morale, owes much to Immanuel Kant.

Charles Darwin was familiar with Janet's ideas, but thought that he had not well understood the theory of natural selection, as he indicated in a letter of 1866 to Alfred Russel Wallace: "As for M. Janet he is a metaphysician & such gentlemen are so acute that I think they often misunderstand common folk."

Works

 * The Materialism of the Present Day, a Critique of Dr. Büchner's System, London: Williams and Norgate, 1865 (translated of the original French work into English by George Masson), ISBN 1152057863

title: Paul Janet


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John Adams (mutineer)

John Adams, known as Jack Adams (4 July 1767 – 5 March 1829), was the last survivor of the HMS Bounty mutineers who settled on Pitcairn Island in January 1790, the year after the mutiny. His real name was John Adams, but he used the name Alexander Smith until he was discovered in 1808 by Captain Mayhew Folger of the American whaling ship Topaz. His children used the surname "Adams".

Early life
Almost nothing is known about the early life of Adams. However an article from the Mona's Herald, dated April 1876, states that Adams had, for some time, resided in Douglas, Isle of Man.

Pitcairn

The mutineers of HMS Bounty and their Tahitian companions settled on the island and set fire to the Bounty. Only the ballast stone remains of the wreck in Bounty Bay. Although the settlers were able to survive by farming and fishing, the initial period of settlement was marked by serious tensions among the settlers. Alcoholism, murder, disease and other ills had taken the lives of most of the mutineers and Tahitian men. John Adams, Ned Young, and Matthew Quintal were the last three mutineers surviving in 1799 when the thuggish Quintal, while drunk, reportedly threatened to kill the entire community if he could not have Fletcher Christian's widow as his own consort, and in response Adams and Young lured him to Young's house and killed him with a hatchet. Having taken effective control of the 19-member strong colony after the 1793 massacre, Adams and Young then turned to the Scriptures using the ship's Bible as their guide for a new and peaceful society. As a result, Adams and Young embraced Christianity and taught the children to read and write using the Bible. Young eventually died of an asthmatic infection in 1800, but Adams continued his work of educating the women and children. The Pitcairners also converted to Christianity. The Pitcairners would later convert from their existing form of Christianity to Adventism after a successful Adventist mission in the 1890s.

The American sailing ship Topaz was the first to rediscover Pitcairn in 1808. Adams was eventually granted amnesty for the mutiny. On 17 December 1825 Adams was married to Teio, or 'Mary'. Teio had already borne Adams' only son, George Adams, in 1804.

Adams' grave on Pitcairn is the only known grave site of a Bounty mutineer. It has a replacement headstone, the original lead-covered wooden grave marker having been taken back to Britain where it is now on display in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London.

The main settlement and capital of Pitcairn, Adamstown, is named after Adams.

Adams is portrayed by Philip Martin Brown in the 1984 film The Bounty.

title: John Adams (mutineer)


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Harald Høffding

Harald Høffding (11 March 1843 – 2 July 1931) was a Danish philosopher and theologian.

Life
Born and educated in Copenhagen, he became a schoolmaster, and ultimately in 1883 a professor at the University of Copenhagen. He was strongly influenced by Søren Kierkegaard in his early development, but later became a positivist, retaining and combining with it the spirit and method of practical psychology and the critical school. The physicist Niels Bohr studied philosophy from and became a friend of Høffding. The philosopher and author Ágúst H. Bjarnason was a student of Høffding.

Høffding's great-nephew was the statistician Wassily Hoeffding.

Høffding died in Copenhagen.

Work
His best-known work is perhaps his Den nyere Filosofis Historie (1894), translated into English from the German edition (1895) by B.E. Meyer as History of Modern Philosophy (2 vols., 1900), a work intended by him to supplement and to correct that of Hans Brøchner to whom it is dedicated. His Psychology, the Problems of Philosophy (1905) and Philosophy of Religion (1906) also have appeared in English.

Among Høffding's other writings, most of which have been translated into German, are Den engelske Filosofi i vor Tid (1874); Etik (1876); Psychologi i Omrids paa Grundlag af Erfaring (ed. 1892); Psykologiske Undersøgelser (1889); Charles Darwin (1889); Kontinuiteten i Kants filosofiske Udviklingsgang (1893); Sören Kierkegaard als Philosoph (1896); Det psykologiske Grundlag for logiske Domme (1899); Rousseau und seine Philosophie (1901); Mindre Arbejder (1899).

Selected publications

 * Harald Høffding, 1891
 * Harald Hoffding, 1906
 * Harald Høffding, 1919
 * Harald Høffding, 1920

title: Harald Høffding