Edmond Pourchot

Who was Edmond Pourchot?

Edmond Pourchot was a university professor noted for his controversial advocacy of Cartesianism in place of Aristotelianism. The change within the University of Paris from Aristotelianism to Cartesianism during the 1690s was important in the history of the development of natural philosophy in France and continental Europe.

Pourchot was named Professor of Philosophy in 1677, and he was a long-standing vice-chancellor/rector of the University of Paris, where he taught for 26 years. He authored a popular multi-volume Latin text entitled Institutiones philosophicae ad faciliorem veterum, ac recentiorum philosophorum lectionem comparatae. This text was well regarded among eminent French intellectuals, and gained followers for Cartesianism in many other countries including Turkey and Poland. He was also a scholar of the Hebrew language. The Latin form of his name was Edmundus Purchotius.

Volume 1 - Logic and metaphysics

Volume 2 - Geometry and general physics