Antoine Léonard Thomas (1 October 1732 – 17 September 1785) was a French poet and literary critic, best known in his time for his great eloquence, especially for
éloges in praise of past luminaries. It was in recognition of this that he was elected to
Académie Française
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...
.
In an award-winning 1765 essay in praise of
René Descartes
René Descartes ( , ; ; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and Modern science, science. Mathematics was paramou ...
, he penned a fuller form of the
cogito in French as "." With rearrangement and compaction, the passage translates to "I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am," or in Latin, "''dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum''."
He was born in
Clermont-Ferrand
Clermont-Ferrand (, , ; or simply ; ) is a city and Communes of France, commune of France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regions of France, region, with a population of 147,284 (2020). Its metropolitan area () had 504,157 inhabitants at the 2018 ...
and died aged 52 in
Oullins
Oullins () is a former Communes of France, commune in the Metropolis of Lyon in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region in eastern France.
It is a suburb of the city of Lyon, and is adjacent to it on the southwest. On 1 January 2024, Oul ...
.
Works
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Notes
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Antoine Leonard
1732 births
1785 deaths
French literary critics
French poets
Writers from Clermont-Ferrand
18th-century French writers
18th-century French male writers
Members of the Académie Française
French male poets
French male non-fiction writers