Simon Foucher

Simon Foucher (1644 to 1696) was a French philosopher and polemicist whose standpoint was Academic skepticism: he rejected dogmatism without falling back on Pyrrhonism. Born in Dijon, the son of a merchant, he took holy orders young, served as honorary canon at Dijon, then settled in Paris after studying theology at the Sorbonne. He was a keen opponent of Malebranche and Leibniz, revived the arguments of the ancient Academy, and kept his skepticism subordinate to orthodox belief, aiming to remain a Christian without ceasing to be an academician. His Critique de la Recherche de la vérité of 1675 attacked Malebranche and parts of Descartes, he wrote on the art of doubting, argued in 1688 that Chinese morality is admirable, and corresponded importantly with Leibniz.