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Yves R. Simon
Yves René Marie Simon (1903-1961) was a French Catholic political philosopher.
He was born on March 14, 1903 in Cherbourg, France, the youngest child of Auguste and Blanche Bert. His grandfather, ...view moreYves René Marie Simon (1903-1961) was a French Catholic political philosopher.
He was born on March 14, 1903 in Cherbourg, France, the youngest child of Auguste and Blanche Bert. His grandfather, Laurent Simon, was an inventor of agricultural machines and began his own manufacturing company to sell his inventions; Yves’s father served as technical director of the company.
In 1920, at the age of seventeen, Simon moved to Paris to begin a program of study at the Lycée Louis le Grand. This program included studies in Latin, Greek, French literature, history, and some philosophy. He enjoyed his studies greatly and found that he was particularly fond of philosophy. Thus, after a year in the program at the Lycée Louis le Grand, Simon enrolled in philosophy programs at the Sorbonne and the Catholic University of Paris simultaneously. He earned a License en Lettres from the Sorbonne in 1922 and a Diplôme d’Etudes Supérieures de Philosophie from the Catholic University in 1923. At the Catholic University of Paris, Simon studied under eminent Thomistic philosopher Jacques Maritain.
Simon taught at the Institut Catholique de Lille from 1930-1938. In 1938, he came to the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, as a visiting professor; unable to return to France due to the outbreak of World War II, he remained as a professor at Notre Dame after the war, until 1948. He then joined the Committee on Social Thought, at the University of Chicago. He remained at the University of Chicago until retiring in 1958 due to illness.
He died of cancer in South Bend, Indiana on May 11, 1961, aged 58.view less