Jacques Chevalier (; 13 March 1882 – 19 April 1962) was a French Catholic philosopher and a politician. Chevalier was born in Cérilly, Allier, educated at the

École normale supérieure École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...

and the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

and taught at the Faculty of Letters in

Grenoble Grenoble ( ; ; or ; or ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Isère Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region ...

. He was a specialist of

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

and author of many books, mainly about the history of

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

. A friend of Lord Halifax, he was also a Minister for education in 1941 under the

Vichy Regime Vichy France (; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established as a result of the French capitulation after the defeat against ...

, and was as such the only member of the government to be present at the funeral of the philosopher

Henri Bergson Henri-Louis Bergson (; ; 18 October 1859 – 4 January 1941) was a French philosopher who was influential in the traditions of analytic philosophy and continental philosophy, especially during the first half of the 20th century until the S ...

. A devout

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, he attempted to eradicate the anti-religious feeling in educational circles and consequently closed the " Écoles Normales", which had been created in each "département" by the

François Guizot François Pierre Guillaume Guizot (; 4 October 1787 – 12 September 1874) was a French historian, orator and Politician, statesman. Guizot was a dominant figure in French politics between the July Revolution, Revolution of 1830 and the Revoluti ...

law of 1833 to prepare teachers for elementary classes, replacing them with "Instituts de formation professionnelle". The anti-clerical Collaborationists opposed him however, and he had to step down (he was replaced by the historian

Jérôme Carcopino Jérôme Carcopino (27 June 1881 – 17 March 1970) was a French historian, author, and Nazi collaborator. He was the fifteenth member elected to occupy seat 3 of the Académie française, in 1955. Biography Carcopino was born at Verneuil-sur-A ...

); his reform was eventually abolished and the "Écoles Normales" were recreated.

References

* Jeanne Dubois, ''Deux architectes pour reconstruire la France : Frédéric Mistral et Jacques Chevalier'', Avignon, Les Livres Nouveaux, 1941. 1882 births 1962 deaths People from Cérilly, Allier French Roman Catholics People of Vichy France Ministers of national education of France 20th-century French philosophers French historians of philosophy French male non-fiction writers 20th-century French male writers Lycée Henri-IV alumni Lycée Hoche alumni École Normale Supérieure alumni Members of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques Order of the Francisque recipients Knights of the Legion of Honour {{france-philosopher-stub People convicted of indignité nationale