Louis J. A. Mercier

Louis Joseph Alexandre Mercier (19 June 1880 – 12 March 1953) was a French-born American writer, lecturer, and philosopher of education.

Biography

Louis Mercier was born in Le Mans, France. He moved with his family to Chicago in 1890, in part to escape the growing interference of the French State's religious education. Mercier attended parochial school in Chicago until he was admitted to the High School of St. Ignatius College (later, Loyola University) in 1893. He also earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from St. Ignatius, the latter in 1902. His education also included a Fellowship at the University of Chicago, and course work at Columbia University.

Mercier's teaching career began at St. Ignatius College, where he was an instructor in French from 1900 to 1903, and in 1905. Mercier's great interest in the philosophy of education probably had its beginnings during the period 1906 to 1910, as a French teacher at the Francis Parker School in Chicago. This progressive school had the philosopher John Dewey as an advisor.

After a year as a French instructor at the University of Wisconsin, Mercier began a long association with Harvard University in 1911. In later years, he was honored for his public services with a number of honorary degrees including an LL.D. from Boston College.

After retirement from Harvard in 1946, Mercier went to Georgetown University as a professor of Comparative Philosophy and Literature. He became chairman of the Philosophy Department in 1952, after two years as Acting Chairman.

Mercier died at his home in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

See also

• New Humanism

Works

• Junior French (1927)
• Le Mouvement Humaniste aux États-Unis (1928; awarded the Montyon Prize by the Académie française in 1929)
  • The Challenge of Humanism: An Essay in Comparative Criticism (1933)
• French Pronunciation and Diction (1929)
• Mes Premieres Lectures (1933)
• College French (1935)
• Our Lady of the Birds (1943)
• American Humanism and the New Age (1948)

Selected publications

• "L'Humanisme Positiviste d'Irving Babbitt," La Revue Hebdomadaire, Vol. VII, No. 29 (1921): 249–67.
• "The Half-Way House of Humanism," The Commonweal, Vol. XII, No. 12 (1930): 95–98.
• "The Rational Imperialism of Ernest Seillière," The Bookman, Vol. LXXIV, No. 2 (1931): 114–27.
• "Humanism and Natural Religion," Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, Vol. X (1934): 37–50.
• "The Legacy of irving Babbitt," The Harvard Graduates' Magazine, Vol. XLII, No. 168 (1934): 327–42.
• "Capitalism and the Facts," The Commonweal, Vol. XXV, No. 11 (1937): 293–95.
• "A Re-Examination of the Tradition of Dualism," Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, Vol. XIII (1937): 132–43.
• "Naturalism, Humanism and Religion," Religion in Life, Vol. VI, No. (1937): 538–51.
• "Current Crisis and the Perspective of History," The Catholic Historical Review, Vol. XXIV, No. 3 (1938): 257–68.
• "The Nazi Worship of Self," The Sign, Vol. XXI, No. 3 (1941): 158–60.
• "Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Totalitarians," America, Vol. LXIX, No. 6 (1943): 145–47.
• "Rousseau and Totalitarism, II" America, Vol. LXIX, No. 7 (1943): 176–78.
• "Romanticism and the Modern Ego," Thought, Vol. XIX, No. 1 (1944): 162–64.
• "Maritain’s Conception of Integral Humanism," Thought, Vol. XIX, No. 2 (1944): 229–46.
• "Freedom of the Will and Psychology," The New Scholasticism, Vol. XVIII, No. 3 (1944): 252–61.
• "The Primacy of God’s Order," The New Scholasticism, Vol. XX, No. 2 (1946): 157–75.
• "The Intellectual Virtues as Ends in Education," Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, Vol. XXIII (1949): 125–31.
• "The Natural Law and International Relations: Comparative Philosophy and Literature as a Special Approach to Cultural History," Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association, Vol. XXIV (1950): 118–23.
• "Was Irving Babbit a Naturalist?," The New Scholasticism, Vol. XXVII, No. 1 (1953): 39–71.

External links

• Works by Louis J. A. Mercier at JSTOR
• Works by Louis J. A. Mercier at The Online Books Page
• Works by Louis J. A. Mercier at Unz.com