Philosopher
Madame de Maintenon
1635–1719
Also known as Françoise d'Aubigné, marquise de Maintenon
Second wife of Louis XIV and founder of the school for girls at Saint-Cyr, whose educational philosophy put moral formation before intellectual cultivation.
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Françoise d’Aubigné was born in 1635, reportedly in a prison at Niort, into a poor family with a criminal past. She entered salon society through her marriage to the poet Paul Scarron, where she studied libertinism and Cartesianism; she then became governess to the illegitimate children of Louis XIV and, finally, the widowed king’s wife.
She founded and ran the famous girls’ school at Saint-Cyr, setting out her ideas in addresses to its staff and in dialogues for its pupils. She died in 1719.
Key ideas
- Moral formation first
- In her addresses to the teachers of Saint-Cyr, the main aim of schooling is practical moral formation, not intellectual cultivation.
- Temperance first
- Of the cardinal virtues she put temperance first, and she gave close attention to the virtues of civility needed in polite society.
- Virtues redefined for women
- Her philosophy of virtue is gendered: she recast virtues long thought masculine in the light of women’s lives.
- Tradition
- Western
- Region
- Paris and Saint-Cyr
- Branches
- Ethics
- Period
- Early modern
- Themes
- Education
Sources
- John J. Conley, Madame de Maintenon, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy