Destutt de Tracy

Robert Clark (The Literary Encyclopedia)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.05: French Writing and Culture: The Nineteenth-Century , 1800-1900.
Vol. editors: David Elwyn Evans (University of St Andrews), Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Elisabeth Gerwin (University of Lethbridge), Nigel Harkness (University of Newcastle upon Tyne), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield), Jennifer Yee (University of Oxford)

Dates

Born 20 Jul 1754
Died 9 Mar 1836
Activity 1790-1836

Places

Born in France
Active in France

Activities

Primary

Philosopher
Political Economist

Resources

Destutt's Works

Save to Bookshelf

Destutt de Tracy was a seminal figure in the study of ideology, a term he coined in 1796 as a name for his own “science of ideas”. His philosophical writings published in the first decade of the nineteenth century laid the basis for the development of social science, and contributed to liberal and utilitarian thought in the domains of politics, economics and education.

Antoine Louis-Claude Destutt, Comte de Tracy, was born into a noble family that had emigrated from Scotland to France in 1420, thereafter rising through royal military service so that by the eighteenth century they were distinguished members of the noblesse d’épée with estates in the Bourbonnais near Moulins and the estate of Tracy in the Nivernais. Tracy’s father commanded Louis XV’s gendarmerie at the Battle

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2214 words

Citation: Clark, Robert. "Destutt de Tracy". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 April 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12075, accessed 23 November 2024.]