Jean-Robert Chouet

Chouet studied philosophy at the Academy of Geneva from 1658 to 1661. In 1659, he wrote a dissertation entitled De motu ("On motion"), supervised by Caspar Wyss. In that work he critiqued the Artistotelian concept of motion, while still also rejecting Cartesianism. He then traveled to Nîmes to study philosophy under David Derodon, a partisan of the atomism of Pierre Gassendi. Under Derodon, Chouet defended in 1662 a thesis containing an exposition of the system of Tycho Brahe. Chouet then returned to Geneva where he studied Calvinist theology in 1662–64, without much enthusiasm.

His father Pierre was a printer and librarian. His mother, Renée Tronchin, was the daughter of Théodore Tronchin (1582-1657) and sister of Louis Tronchin (1629-1705), both professors of theology. The Tronchins were one of the dominant families in the Council of Geneva and at the Academy of Geneva. Chouet married first Marie Favre, the daughter of treasurer-general Jean-Jacques Favre. He later married Suzanne Rigot, daughter of councillor Ami Rigot and widow of draper Louis Mallet.^[1]

In 1664, he was appointed professor of philosophy at the Academy of Saumur, where the influence of René Descartes was strong. Chouet's teaching gradually became Cartesian and was enriched by experimental demonstrations. In 1669, at the behest of Louis Tronchin he was called back to Geneva as professor of philosophy at the Academy. There he taught the Cartesian system and treated numerous theoretical questions in theses prepared with his students. The content of these theses in physics was close to the Cartesian explanations found in such works as Jacques Rohault's Traité de Physique (1671).

In Geneva, Chouet carried out experiments and published results on the action of snake venom, on the variation in a barometer's reading associated with changes in elevation, on the operation of a siphon, and on magnets.^[1] He served as rector of the Academy of Geneva from 1679 to 1681. Among Chouet's students were the astronomer and mathematician Nicolas Fatio de Duillier, as well as polygraphs Pierre Bayle and Jean Leclerc. Chouet's weekly experimental demonstrations attracted the interest of spectators from other Swiss cities.^[1]