SIMON, Jules (Jules Francois Simon Suisse), French philosopher and. states man: b. Lorient, department of Morbihan, 27 Dec. 1814; d. Paris, 8 June 1896. He was educated at the college of his native town, at Vannes, and in the Ecole Normale, Paris. In 1839 he succeeded Cousin as professor of philosophy in the Sorbonne, but lost this post in 1851 by refusing to take the oath of allegiance to Napoleon III. He was returned to the Constituent Assembly by the department of Cotes-du-Nord in 1848. In 1855-56 he de livered a series of philosophical lectures in sev eral towns of Belgium, and in 1863 he was re turned to the Chamber of Deputies for a divi sion of the department of the Seine. He strongly opposed the war with Prussia, and after the revolution of 1870 became a member of the provisional government, and was Minister of Education under Thiers from 1871 to 1873. In 1875 he was elected to the Senate, and member of the Academy. In 1876 he became leader of the Republicans, and was Minister of the In terior and Premier until 16 May 1877, when he was dismissed by MacMahon. He was a con sistent advocate of free trade and of liberal principles, and opposed M. Ferry's bill of 1879 for suppressing non-authorized religious bodies.
In 1882 he was elected permanent secretary of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences. He edited various journals, including the Siècle and the Echo Universe/. His chief works include 'Histoire de l'ecole d'Alexandrie' (2 vols., 1844-45) ; 'Le Devoir' (1854) ; 'La liberte de conscience' (1857) ; (L'Ouvrierc (1863) ; 'L'Ecole' (1864) ; 'Le travail' (1866) ; politique radicale' (1868) ; (La peine de more (1869) ; (Souvenirs du 4 (1874); 'Le gouvernement de M. Thiers' (1878) ; 'Le livre du Petit Citoyen' (1880) ; 'Victor Cousin' (1887) ; 'La femme du XXe Siecle' (1891) ; '9uartre portraits: Lamartine le cardinal Lavigerie Renan, L'Empereur Guillaume IP (1896) ; 'Premiers (1900); 'Le soir de ma journee) (1902), etc. He also produced excellent editions of the writings of several great French philosophers, including Descartes and Malebranche. Con sult Picot, G., 'Jules Simon: notice historique' (1897) ; Seche, Leon, 'Figures bretonnes, Jules Simon, sa vie, son oeuvre' (new ed., 1898) and Thieme, Hugo P., 'Guide bibliographique de la litterature francaise de 1800 a 1906' (Paris 1907).