About
Pierre de La Ramée (1515-1572), known as Petrus Ramus, was a French philosopher and humanist. Born into an impoverished noble family, he studied at the Collège de Navarre in Paris, where his 1536 thesis argued that everything Aristotle taught was false. His anti-Aristotelian works of 1543 were banned by royal decree, but he was rehabilitated in 1547. Appointed royal professor at the Collège de France in 1551, he published Dialectique (1555), the first logic treatise in French. He wrote grammars of Latin, Greek, and French, and proposed an orthographic reform. Converting to Calvinism around 1561, he was murdered during the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 1572. His influence, Ramism, shaped education and Protestant thought.
* 1515-01-01 — † 1572-08-26
Major works
- Dialecticae Partitiones (1543)logic treatise
- Aristotelicae Animadversiones (1543)philosophical critique
- Dialectique (1555)logic treatise
- Grammaire française (1562)grammar
- Euclidis Elementa (traduction latine) (1545)translation
Key milestones
- 1536Defends his master's thesis at the Collège de Navarre, asserting that everything Aristotle taught is false.
- 1551Appointed Regius Professor of Philosophy and Eloquence at the Collège de France.
- 1572Murdered during the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in Paris.
Themes
Critique of AristotleReform of logicVernacular and educationMethod and pedagogyProtestantism
Sources: plato.stanford.edu · britannica.com · mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk