He was born in Dijon, the son of a merchant, and appears to have taken holy orders at a very early age. For some years he held the position of honorary canon at Dijon, but he resigned in order to take up his residence in Paris. He graduated at the Sorbonne, having studied theology, and spent the remainder of his life in literary work in Paris, where he died.
Works
In his day Foucher enjoyed considerable reputation as a keen opponent of Malebranche and Leibniz. He revived the old arguments of the Academy, and advanced them with much ingenuity against Malebranche's doctrine. Otherwise his skepticism is subordinate to orthodox belief, the fundamental dogmas of the church seeming to him intuitively evident. His object was to reconcile his religious with his philosophical creed, and to remain a Christian without ceasing to be an academician. In his 1673 publication, Dissertation on the Search for Truth, he brought to light people's psychological predilection for certainties. He wrote about the art of doubting—about positioning oneself between doubting and believing. He wrote, "One needs to exit doubt in order to produce science—but few people heed the importance of not exiting from it prematurely....It is a fact that one usually exits doubt without realizing it." He wrote further, "We are dogma-prone from our mother's wombs."
Principal works
Foucher had the annoying habit of re-using the same titles for his works, making it necessary to cite the whole subtitle in order to specify which work is being referred to.
1673: Dissertations sur la recherche de la vérité, ou sur la logique des academiciens
1675:Critique de la Recherche de la vérité, où l'on examine en méme temps une partie des principes de Mr Descartes
1679: Nouvelle dissertation sur la recherche de la vérité, contenant la réponse à la Critique de la Critique de la Recherche de la Verité
1687: Dissertation sur la recherche de la vérité, contenant l'apologie des academiciens, où l'on fait voir que leur maniere de philosopher est la plus utile pour la religion, et la plus conforme au bon sense, pour servir de réponse à la Critique de la Critique, etc.; avec plusiers remarques sur les erreurs des sens et sur l'origine de la philosophie de Monsieur Descartes
1688: Lettre sur la morale de Confucius, philosophe de la Chine
1693: Dissertations sur la recherche de la vérité, contenant l'histoire et les principes de la philosophie des académiciens. Avec plusieurs réflexions sur les sentimens de M. Descartes
In addition to these works, Foucher published two long poems, and a few shorter philosophical pieces. He also conducted an important correspondence with Leibniz and wrote, but never published, a play.
