He received his primary and part of his secondary education in Perpignan, France, and had to take up a position in an industrial firm.
In 1941 he submitted his two PhD theses, the first entitled "Investigations on the conditions of knowledge: Essay on pure theoretics", and the second "The 'Cogito' in Husserl's philosophy."
In 1949 he became secretary general of the Fulbright Commission, in charge of the cultural relations between France and the United States.
This same year he created the Institut national des sciences appliquées (INSA) of Lyon with the rector Jean Capelle.
He was the father of the French choreographer Maurice Béjart (1927–2007), a stage name for Maurice-Jean Berger.