BASCH, VICTOR GUILLAUME

BASCH, VICTOR GUILLAUME (1863–1944), French philosopher and a defender of human rights. Basch was born in Budapest and studied German at the Sorbonne. He served as a professor at the universities of Nancy, Rennes, and Paris. In 1918 he held the newly established chair of aesthetics at the Sorbonne. Basch became well-known when he championed Alfred Dreyfus. He was a founder of the League for the Rights of Man and its president in 1926. Basch was a socialist supporter of the left-wing coalition known as the Popular Front and a leader of the Alliance Israélite Universelle. During World War II, Basch was a member of the central committee of the French underground. He and his wife were executed by the Vichy government. His writings include Essai critique sur l'esthétique de Kant (1896); La guerre de 1914 et le droit (1915); Les doctrines politiques des philosophes classiques de l'Allemagne (1927), and Essais d'esthétique de philosophie et de littérature (1934), as well as other works on literature, philosophy, and political issues. -ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: F. Basch, Victor Basch ou la passion de la justice: de l'affaire Dreyfus au crime de la milice (1994); F. Basch, L. Crips, and P. Gruson (eds.), Victor Basch: un intellectuel cosmopolite (2000).