Philipp Albert Stapfer

Philipp Albert Stapfer (Bern, 23 September 1766 – Paris, 27 March 1840) was a Swiss politician and philosopher.

He was the plenipotentiary envoi of the Helvetic Republic to the French consulate in Paris from 1801 till 1803. ( Act of Mediation )

He married and settled in France, at a summerhouse in Talcy (Loir-et-Cher) and in Paris where he became the friend of Maine de Biran -in 1805 at informal gatherings of Cabanis circle at Auteuil. He was also vice-president of the Paris Protestant society.

He is the recipient of Maine de Biran's essay:

an important résumé known as: "Réponses à Stapfer"

Philipp Albert Stapfer also shared with Maine de Biran a pronounced interest in the educational experiments of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi.

As a Minister of Sciences and Arts of the Helvetic Republic in 1798 he arranged the nomination of Pestalozzi as chief editor of the government paper "Helvetisches Volksblatt" -a post from which Pestalozzi quickly resigned.

In Paris Stapfer pleaded Pestalozzi's case for educational reform with Napoleon Bonaparte, who denigrated the program for its alleged lack of real science.

Maine de Biran however -following the encounters with Stapfer at Auteuil and his own appointement as "sous-préfet" of the Dordogne in 1806- reformed the education in his department by inviting to Bergerac a teacher formed by Pestalozzi at Yverdon.

Apart from being an involved and tolerant Protestant philosopher Stapfer, with André-Marie Ampère, Joseph-Marie de Gérando, Pierre Paul Royer-Collard, Georges Cuvier and many others was a regular participant in the philosophical debates organised by Maine de Biran, after the latter finally settled in Paris as an administrator in 1812.

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