author
Charles Secrétan
1815–1895
A Swiss philosopher, lawyer, and teacher, he wrote about freedom, morality, religion, and public life with a strong sense that ideas should matter in the real world. His work helped shape a distinctly French-speaking Protestant tradition of 19th-century philosophy.
1 Audiobook
Philosophie de la Liberté (Tome I) Cours de philosophie morale
by Charles Secrétan
About the author
Born in Lausanne in 1815, he studied law there before going to Munich to learn from Friedrich Schelling. He returned to Switzerland to teach philosophy, first in Lausanne and later in Neuchâtel, and eventually came back to Lausanne, where he spent much of his career as a professor.
His best-known book is Philosophie de la liberté (1849), and much of his writing explores freedom, conscience, moral responsibility, and the relationship between faith and philosophy. He was not only an academic thinker but also a public intellectual who wrote on society and politics as well as religion.
Secrétan died in Lausanne in 1895. He is remembered as an important Swiss Protestant philosopher whose work tried to bring together spiritual belief, ethical seriousness, and a deep concern for human liberty.