MAINE DE BIRAN, FRANcOIS-PIERRE-GON THIER (1766-1824), French philosopher, was born at Bergerac, on Nov. 29, 1766. The name Maine he assumed (some time before 1787) from an estate called Le Maine, near Mouleydier. After studying under the doctrinaires of Perigueux, he entered the king's life-guards, and was present at Versailles on the memor able Oct. 5 and 6, 1789. He then retired to his estate at Grate loup, near Bergerac, where his retired life preserved him from the horrors of the Revolution. It was at this period that, to use his own words, he "passed per saltum from frivolity to philosophy." After the Reign of Terror Maine de Biran took part in political affairs. He was excluded from the council of the Five Hundred on suspicion of royalism, but took part with his friend Laine in the commission of 1813, which expressed for the first time direct opposition to Napoleon. After the Restoration he was treasurer to the chamber of deputies. He died in July Maine de Biran's most important works were not published during his lifetime, An incomplete collection, by Victor Cousin, appeared in 1834 and 1841. But the publication (in 1859) by E. Naville (from mss. placed at his father's disposal by Biran's son) of the Oeuvres ine,dites de Maine de Biran, in three volumes first rendered possible a connected view of his philosophical devel opment. At first a sensualist, like Condillac and Locke, next an intellectualist, he finally shows himself a mystical theosophist. The Essai sur les fondements de la psychologie represents the second or completest stage of his philosophy, the fragments of the Nouveaux essais d'anthropologie the third.
Biran's work presents a very remarkable specimen of deep metaphysical thinking directed by preference to the psychological aspect of experience.
de Biran, sa vie et ses pensies (1874) ; J. Gerard, Maine de Biran, essai sur sa philosophie (1876) ; Mayonade, Pensies et pages inedites de Maine de Biran (Perigueux, 1896) ; G. Allievo, "Maine de Biran e la sua dottrina antropologica" (Turin, 1896, in Memorie accademia delle scienze, 2nd ser., xlv., pt. 2) ; A. Lang, Maine de Biran and die neuere Philosophie (Cologne, Igo') ; monographs by A. Kiihtmann (Bremen, 1931) and M. Couailhac (1905) ; N. E. Truman in Cornell Studies in Philosophy, No. 5 (1904) on Maine de Biran's Philosophy of Will.
a department of western France, formed in 1790 for the most part out of the southern portion of the former province of Anjou, and bounded N. by the depart ments of Mayenne and Sarthe, E. by Indre-et-Loire, S.E. by Vienne, S. by Deux-Sevres and Vendee, W. by Loire-Inferieure, and N.W. by Ille-et-Vilaine. Area, 2,811 sq. miles. Pop. (1931) 475,991. The department includes the course of the Authion and the lower course of the Maine, with its feeders, the Loire, Sarthe, Mayenne and Oudon, on the right bank of the Loire ; as well as those of the Layon, Eyre and Divatte on the left. The Val d'Anjou, followed by the Loire, forms a zone of rich meadows, market gardens and orchards from east to west. The west of the department is floored by Palaeozoic rocks and granites of the Armorican system, but east of the line of the Sarthe the rocks are chiefly cretaceous, with tertiary capping on the somewhat higher ground between the rivers. The name Val d'Anjou belongs strictly to the eastern part of the Loire valley in the department. The climate is very mild. The mean annual temperature of Angers is about ; the rainfall is between 23 and 24 in. annually. The frequent fogs, combined with the peculiar nature of the soil in the south-east of the department, are highly favourable to meadow growths. The winter colds are never severe, and readily permit the cultivation of certain trees which cannot be reared in the adjoining departments.