Editing Victor Cousin (section)

===Early years===

The son of a watchmaker, he was born in [[Paris]], in the Quartier Saint-Antoine. At the age of ten he was sent to the local [[grammar school]], the [[Lycée Charlemagne]], where he studied until he was eighteen. ''Lycées'' being organically linked to the University of France and its Faculties since their Napoleonic institution (the ''baccalauréat'' was awarded by juries made of university professors)  Cousin was "crowned" in the ancient hall of the [[University of Paris|Sorbonne]] for a [[Latin]] oration he wrote which  owned him a first prize at the ''concours général'', a competition between the best pupils at ''lycées'' (established under the Ancien Régime and reinstated under the First Empire, and still extant). The classical training of the lycée strongly disposed him to literature, or ''éloquence'' as it was then called. He was already known among his fellow students for his knowledge of [[Ancient Greek|Greek]]. From the lycée he graduated to the most prestigious of higher education schools, {{lang|fr|[[École Normale Supérieure]]|italic=no}} (as it is now called), where [[Pierre Laromiguière]] was then lecturing on philosophy.

In the second preface to the ''Fragments philosophiques'', in which he candidly states the varied philosophical influences of his life, Cousin speaks of the grateful emotion excited by the memory of the day when he heard Laromiguière for the first time. "That day decided my whole life." Laromiguière taught the philosophy of [[John Locke]] and [[Étienne Bonnot de Condillac]], happily modified on some points, with a clearness and grace which in appearance at least removed difficulties, and with a charm of spiritual bonhomie which penetrated and subdued."{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=330}} That school has remained ever since the living heart of French philosophy; [[Henri Bergson]], [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] and [[Jacques Derrida]] are among its past students.