a French philosopher of some note, was born at Poilly, near Sins, in 1651. About 1678 he became professor of philosophy in the University of Paris, of which he was chosen rector seven times. He was a friend of Racine and Boileau. He died in 1734. He published Institutiones Philosophicae (1695), which was highly esteemed by his contemporaries. Pourchot was really the first of modern philosophers who taught by a rational method.