Jean Ernest Reynaud (; February 14, 1806–July 28, 1863) was a French mining engineer and

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

philosopher. He was a member of the Saint-Simonian community. He was a co-founder of the

Encyclopédie nouvelle The ''Encyclopédie nouvelle, ou dictionnaire philosophique, scientifique, littéraire et industriel, offrant le tableau des connaissances humaines au XIXe siècle'' () was a French encyclopedia An encyclopedia is a reference work or compe ...

Life

He was born in

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

on 4 February 1806. He graduated from the Polytechnic School in Lyon in 1827 and joined the School of Mines. In May 1829 he began a four month study tour of

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

including the

Harz Mountains The Harz (), also called the Harz Mountains, is a Mittelgebirge, highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The nam ...

Black Forest The Black Forest ( ) is a large forested mountain range in the States of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is th ...

, Saxony, Hanover, Oldenbourg and Westphalia. He then spent a further two months studying mines in

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

and the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. He graduated from the mining school in 1830. He was briefly imprisoned in the uprising of 1830. In 1854 he invented a new religious philosophy regarding the transmigration of souls which he saw as compatible both with traditional Christian views and modern ideas regarding reincarnation. He died in Paris on 28 June 1863 and was buried there in Pere Lachaise Cemetery.

Publications

*Minéralogie des Gens du Monde (1836) *Histoire Élémentaire des Minéraux Usuels (1842) *Terre et Ciel (1854)

References

* David Albert Griffiths, ', Paris : M. Rivière, 1965.

External links

Biographical sketch
(in Italian) 1806 births 1863 deaths People from Lyon Politicians from Lyon Moderate Republicans (France) Members of the 1848 Constituent Assembly 19th-century French philosophers Saint-Simonists French male writers 19th-century French male writers École Polytechnique alumni Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery {{France-philosopher-stub