1644 – 1696
Simon Foucher (1644–1696) was a French philosopher and honorary canon of Dijon who revived Academic skepticism as a critical tool against the dominant Cartesian philosophy of his era. He is best known for his sustained critique of Malebranche's occasionalism and for challenging the Cartesian distinction between primary and secondary qualities. His work positioned him as a significant, if underappreciated, voice in seventeenth-century epistemological debates.
Revived the skeptical tradition of the ancient Academic school as a philosophical methodology
Published Critique de la Recherche de la Vérité (1675), a systematic attack on Malebranche's occasionalism
Challenged the Cartesian primary/secondary quality distinction on skeptical grounds
Engaged in extended correspondence with Leibniz on epistemology and metaphysics
Argued that representative realism cannot bridge the gap between ideas and external objects