Gabriel-François Coyer
Gabriel-François Coyer (18 November 1707 – 18 July 1782) was a French philosopher, economist, translator and novelist.
Contents
Biography
Born at Baume-les-Dames into a poor family, Abbot Coyer, who had been educated by the Jesuits, entered the Society of Jesus in 1728 and was a member for some time before leaving the order after eight years in 1736. He went to Paris in 1738 and was in charge of the education of the Prince of Turenne.
He practiced on various subjects, and began with pamphlets, some of which, such as The Discovery of the Philosopher's Stone, imitated from Swift, and The Wonderful Year, had the greatest success. These publications were gathered under the title of Bagatelles morales, a collection of pieces not without lightness, finesse and pleasure, but, irony being the favorite figure of the author, the tone is monotonous, and the jokes are sometimes taken too far.
In 1755, he published in The Hague a work, Dissertations pour être lues: the first, on the old word of fatherland: the second, on the nature of the people, which inspired the Chevalier de Jaucourt and his article "People" for the Encyclopédie. One of his main ideas is the moderation of the states within the homeland: poverty must be excluded. The homeland must also ensure a certain security of wealth and property, otherwise, the state becomes despotic.
In 1756, he published anonymously, first in London and then in Paris, a work entitled La Noblesse commerçante, which had a considerable influence on the question of the right to trade for members of the nobility and which provoked a reply from the Chevalier d'Arcq entitled La Noblesse militaire ou le Patriote français, in which the author advocated establishing, in contrast to the suggestions of Abbot Coyer, the exclusivity of the military vocation for the nobility, in parallel with the establishment of a concordance between the noble title and military merit, an essay which caused a great stir when it was published.
The novel Chinki, histoire cochinchinoise (1768), made, like La Noblesse commerçante, even more of a sensation than the Bagatelles morales. The ideas developed in Chinki can be found verbatim, so to speak, in the Mémoire sur les corps de métier by the economist Clicquot-Blervache, who won the prize in 1737 at the Académie d'Amiens. These two pamphlets preceded two laws, one of which gave nobility to distinguished tradesmen, and the other abolished jurandes for a time.
Coyer also translated William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England. This translation, more correct than another one made two years before, was successful. He applied in vain all his life for a place in the French Academy. Coyer was a member of the Académie de Stanislas and of the Royal Society. His features are known to us through the portrait that Jean-François Colson painted of him, interpreted in engraving by Philippe Trière.
Works
- La Magie Démontrée (1748) — A pamphlet using the orientalism in vogue at the time to denounce the "magic" used to make the French take lies and illusion for truth.
- Dissertations pour Être Lues: La Première, Sur le Vieux Mot de Patrie: La Seconde, sur la Nature du Peuple (1755) — A republican and revolutionary rehabilitation of the word "patrie" and a caustic pamphlet in which the author attacks the notion that the lower people could not belong to the Third Estate, which de facto outlaws them.
- La Noblesse commerçante (1756)
- Développement et Défense du Système de la Noblesse Commerçante (1757)
- Chinki, Histoire Cochinchinoise, qui peut servir à d’autres pays (1768; novel)
- L'Histoire de Jean Sobieski (1761; 3 volumes) — This work caused him some inconvenience, but opened to him the doors of the Stanislas Academy of Nancy. Copied by Jaucourt in the article "Poland" of the Encyclopédie.
- Voyage d’Italie et de Hollande (1775; 2 volumes)
- Nouvelles Observations sur l'Angleterre (1779)
- Plan d'Éducation Publique (1770)
- Œuvres Completes (1732–1783; 7 volumes)
References
- Aricò, Santo L. (1999). "Satire in the Abbé Coyer's Ridiculous Admonitions," Romance Notes, Vol. XXXIX, No. 2, pp. 215–22.
- Cheminade, Christian (1989). L’Abbé Gabriel-François Coyer, 1707-1782: Un «Philosophe» Républicain et Réformateur au XVIIIe Siècle. Bordeaux: Université Bordeaux Montaigne.
- Dziembowski, Edmond (1997). "L’abbé Coyer et la Reformulation de l’Idée de Patrie au Milieu du XVIIIe Siècle," Mémoires de la Société d’Émulation du Doubs, No. 39, pp. 1–11.
- Gordon, L. S. (1963). "Gabriel-François Coyer et son Œuvre en Russie", Revue des études Slaves, Vol. CLII, No. 1, pp. 67–82.
- Hecht, Jacqueline (1964). "Un Problème de Population Active au XVIIIe Siècle en France. La Querelle de la Noblesse Commerçante", Population, Vol. XIX, No. 2, pp. 267–90.
- Kaplan, Jane Payne (1970). On the Margin of Philosophy: the Abbe Coyer in the French Enlightenment. LSU.
- Kisaki, Kiyoji (1979). "Controversy on the Noblesse commerçante between Abbé Coyer and Chevalier dA̕rcq," Kyoto University Economic Review, Vol. XLIX, No. 1/2, pp. 48–79.
External links
- Articles containing French-language text
- Articles containing Hebrew-language text
- Articles containing Latin-language text
- 1707 births
- 1782 deaths
- 18th-century French novelists
- 18th-century French philosophers
- 18th-century Roman Catholic priests
- 18th-century French translators
- English–French translators
- Foreign Members of the Royal Society
- French economists
- French Jesuits
- French pamphleteers
