Born at La Salvetat de Blanquefort, near Agen, in 1632; died in Paris, in 1707. After his classical studies, he came to Paris, followed the lectures of Rohault at the Sorbonne and became a warm admirer and partisan of the philosophy of Descartes. He then, with great success, taught the principles of Cartesianism at Toulouse (1665), Aigues-Mortes, Montpellier (1671), and Paris (1680). The prohibition issued about that time against the teaching of Cartesianism (cf. Cousin, "Fragments philosophiques", 5th ed., Paris, 1866, III) put an end to his lectures. He was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences in 1699. His chief work is his "Cours entier de philosophie ou Système général selon les principles de Descartes" (3 vols., Paris, 1690), where he presented in a systematic way the principles of the Cartesian philosophy. Strongly opposed to Malebranche's idealism, against which he wrote several articles in the "Journal des Savants" (1693 and 1694), Régis modified the system of Descartes on various points in the direction of empiricism. He denied that the human soul has innate and eternal ideas, maintained that all our ideas are modifications of the soul united to the body and that we can know our body and extension as immediately as our soul and thought. His book having been criticized by Huet and Duhamel, he then wrote his "Réponse au livre quie a pour titre Censura philosophiæ Cartesianæ" (Paris, 1691), and "Répose aux reflexions critique de M. Duhamel sur le système cartésian de M. Régis" (Paris, 1692). Among his other works we may also mention his "Usage de la raison et de la foi, ou l'accord de la raison et de la foi", with a "Réfutation de l'opinion de Spinoza, touchant l'existence et la nature de Dieu".

The Catholic Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive resource on Catholic teaching, history, and information ever gathered in all of human history. This easy-to-search online version was originally printed in fifteen hardcopy volumes.

Designed to present its readers with the full body of Catholic teaching, the Encyclopedia contains not only precise statements of what the Church has defined, but also an impartial record of different views of acknowledged authority on all disputed questions, national, political or factional. In the determination of the truth the most recent and acknowledged scientific methods are employed, and the results of the latest research in theology, philosophy, history, apologetics, archaeology, and other sciences are given careful consideration.

No one who is interested in human history, past and present, can ignore the Catholic Church, either as an institution which has been the central figure in the civilized world for nearly two thousand years, decisively affecting its destinies, religious, literary, scientific, social and political, or as an existing power whose influence and activity extend to every part of the globe. In the past century the Church has grown both extensively and intensively among English-speaking peoples. Their living interests demand that they should have the means of informing themselves about this vast institution, which, whether they are Catholics or not, affects their fortunes and their destiny.

Copyright © Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company New York, NY. Volume 1: 1907; Volume 2: 1907; Volume 3: 1908; Volume 4: 1908; Volume 5: 1909; Volume 6: 1909; Volume 7: 1910; Volume 8: 1910; Volume 9: 1910; Volume 10: 1911; Volume 11: - 1911; Volume 12: - 1911; Volume 13: - 1912; Volume 14: 1912; Volume 15: 1912

Catholic Online Catholic Encyclopedia Digital version Compiled and Copyright © Catholic Online