Who was Etienne Vacherot?

Etienne Vacherot was a French philosopher; born in Langres, France, July 29, 1809; was educated at the Paris Normal School, where he suceeeded Cousin as professor of philosophy in 1839; was dismissed for refusing to take the oath of allegiance when Louis Napoleon became emperor; imprisoned for a year for censuring the Napoleonic system; succeeded Cousin in the Academy of Moral Sciences in 1868; was one of the mayors of Paris during the siege. Vacherot was elected to the Assembly, and was one of the three deputies of Paris who voted in favor of making peace with Germany. He wrote a Critical History of the School of Alexandria (3 vols., 1846-1851); Democracy (1859); Metaphysics and Science (2 vols., 1858); Essays in Critical Philosophy (1864) ; Religion (1868); Science and Conscience (1870); The External Policy of the Republic (1881); The New Spiritualism (1884). Vacherot died in Paris, July 30, 1897.