Louis Gabriel Ambroise, vicomte de Bonald (October 2, 1754 - November 23, 1840), French philosopher and politician, was born at Le Monna, near Millau in Aveyron. October 2nd is the 275th day (276th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 90 days remaining. ... 1754 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... November 23 is the 327th day of the year (328th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 38 days remaining. ... 1840 is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... A philosopher is a person devoted to studying and producing results in philosophy. ... A politician is an individual involved in politics. ... Aveyron is a département in southern France named after the Aveyron River. ...

Disliking the principles of the Revolution, he emigrated in 1791, joined the army of the prince of Condé, and soon afterwards settled at Heidelberg. There he wrote his first important work, the highly conservative Theorie du pouvoir politique et religieux (3 vols., 1796; new ed., Paris, 1854, 2 vols.), which was condemned by the Directory. During the French Revolution (1789–1799) democracy and republicanism overthrew the absolute monarchy in France, and the French portion of the Roman Catholic Church was forced to undergo radical restructuring. ... 1791 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Map of Germany showing Heidelberg Heidelberg (halfway between Stuttgart and Frankfurt) is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. ... Executive Directory (in French Directoire exécutif), commonly known as the Directory (or Directoire) held executive power in France from 2 November 1795 until 10 November 1799: from the end of the Convention to the beginning of the Consulate. ...

Returning to France he found himself an object of suspicion, and was obliged to live in retirement. In 1806 he was associated with Chateaubriand and Fievee in the conduct of the Mercure de France, and two years later was appointed councillor of the Imperial University which he had often attacked. After the Restoration he was a member of the council of public instruction, and from 1815 to 1822 sat in the chamber as deputy. His speeches were on the extreme conservative side; he even advocated a literary censorship. 1806 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Fran ois-Ren , vicomte de Chateaubriand (September 4, 1768 - July 4, 1848) was a French writer and diplomat considered the founder of Romanticism in French literature. ... Censorship is the use of governmental power to control speech and other forms of human expression. ...

In 1822 he was made minister of state, and presided over the censorship commission. In the following year he was made a peer, a dignity which he lost through refusing to take the oath in 1830. From 1816 he had been a member of the Academy. He took no part in public affairs after 1830, but retired to his seat at Le Monna, where he died on the 23rd of November 1840. 1822 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

Bonald was one of the leading writers of the theocratic or traditionalist school, which included de Maistre, Lamennais, Ballanche and d'Eckstein. His writings are mainly on social and political philosophy, and are based ultimately on one great principle, the divine origin of language. In his own words, "L'homme pense sa parole avant de parler sa pensee"; the first language contained the essence of all truth. From this he deduces the existence of God, the divine origin and consequent supreme authority of the Holy Scriptures, and the infallibility of the church. Theocracy is a form of government in which a religion and the government are allied. ... Joseph de Maistre (portrait by Karl Vogel von Vogelstein, 1810) Joseph-Marie, Comte de Maistre (April 1, 1753- February 26, 1821) was a French-speaking Savoyard lawyer, diplomat, writer, and philosopher. ... Hughes Felicité Robert de Lamennais Hughes Felicité Robert de Lamennais (June 19, 1782 - February 27, 1854), was a French priest, and philosophical and political writer. ... Pierre-Simon Ballanche (1776-1847) was a French writer and counterrevolutionary philosopher, who elaborated a theology of progress that possessed considerable influence in French literary circles in the beginning of the nineteenth century. ... The term God is capitalized in the English language as a proper noun when used to refer to a specific monotheistic concept of a Supreme Being. ... Many religions and spiritual movements hold certain written texts (or series of spoken legends not traditionally written down) to be sacred. ...

While this thought lies at the root of all his speculations there is a formula of constant application. All relations may be stated as the triad of cause, means and effect, which he sees repeated throughout nature. Thus, in the universe, he finds the first cause as mover, movement as the means, and bodies as the result; in the state, power as the cause, ministers as the means, and subjects as the effects; in the family, the same relation is exemplified by father, mother and children. These three terms bear specific relations to one another; the first is to the second as the second to the third. Thus, in the great triad of the religious world--God, the Mediator, and Man--God is to the God-Man as the God-Man is to Man. On this basis he constructed a system of political absolutism which lacks two things only: well-grounded premisses instead of baseless hypotheses, and the acquiescence of those who were to be subjected to it. The deepest visible-light image of the cosmos. ...

Bonald's style is remarkably fine; ornate, but pure and vigorous. Many fruitful thoughts are scattered among his works, but his system scarcely deserves the name of a philosophy. In abstract thought he was a mere dilettante, and his strength lay in the vigour and sincerity of his statements rather than in cogency of reasoning.

He had four sons, of them, Victor and Louis were notable. Victor de Bonald (1780 - 1871) son of Louis Gabriel Ambroise de Bonald followed his father in his exile. ... Louis Jacques Maurice de Bonald (1787-1870), cardinal (1841), was the son of the philosopher Louis Gabriel Ambroise de Bonald. ...

This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, which is in the public domain. Supporters contend that the Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1911) represents, in many ways, the sum of knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ...