Albert Bayet

Albert Pierre Jules Joseph Bayet (1 February 1880, Lyon – 26 June 1961, Paris) was a French sociologist, professor at both the Sorbonne and the École pratique des hautes études.

Biography He was the son of Charles Bayet, Byzantine art historian, director of higher education, and the son-in-law of the historian Alphonse Aulard. He graduated in 1901, becoming a professor at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in 1922. In 1923, he became directory of studies in the « Histoire des idées morales » [ethics] department of the École pratique des hautes études, later leading ethics courses at the Sorbonne.

He was the president of the French National Press Federation (FNPF) from 25 August 1944 to his death in 1961. After having been a clandestine president in 1943 and 1944, participating with writer Victor Charbonnel in the journal L'Action. He was also a member of the French Human Rights League for many years, president of the Ligue de l'enseignement from 1949 to 1959, and general secretary of the . He also took part in those which, shortly after the liberation, left the Radical party to join the Progressive Union, the 'kindred spirit' to the French Communist Party.

Bayet was a proponent of the Christ myth theory. With Paul-Louis Couchoud and Prosper Alfaric, he authored Le Problème de Jésus et les Origines du Christianisme (The Problem of Jesus and Christian Origins, 1932).

Works Les Écrivains politiques du XVIIIe, extracts with an introduction and notes by Albert Bayet and François Albert, 1904 La Morale scientifique, essai sur les applications morales des sciences sociologiques, 1907 L'Idée de Bien, essai sur le principe de l'art moral rationnel, 1908 Les Idées mortes, 1908 Le Mirage de la vertu, 1912 La Casuistique chrétienne contemporaine, 1913 Le Suicide et la Morale, 1922; 1975; 2007 La Science des faites moraux, 1925 Notre morale, 1926 Les Morales de l'Évangile, 1927 Le Livre de morale des écoles primaires. Cours moyen et supérieur, 1928 Les Provinciales de Pascal, 1929 Histoire de la morale en France, 2 vol., 1930–1931 La Morale de la Science, 1931; 1947 Le Problème de Jésus et les Origines du Christianisme, with et Paul-Louis Couchoud, 1932 Le Radicalisme, 1932 Pacifisme et Christianisme aux premiers siècles, 1934 Attentats et terreur : instruments de conquête politique, Comité Franco-espagnol, brochure, 1937 Histoire de France, 1938 Qu'est-ce que le rationalisme ? 1939 Histoire de la Déclaration des droits de l'homme : du 89 politique au 89 économique, 1939 Pétain et la Cinquième Colonne, 1944 (publié clandestinement durant l'Occupation) Les Pensées de Pascal, 1948 Pour une réconciliation française. Laïcité XXe, 1958 Histoire de la libre-pensée, 1959; « Que sais-je ? » 848, 1970