Born June 15 in Le Mans, Lamy entered the Oratorianmaison d'Institution in Paris at age eighteen. After attending the Oratorian seminary in Saumur (1659-61), he taught at the Collège de César at Vendôme (1661–63), the collèges at Juilly (1663–68) and at Le Mans. He left there in 1669 for further study, after which he taught philosophy at Saumur (1671–73) and then Angers (1673–75). In 1675 he was expelled from the faculty at Angers for teaching Cartesianism. The report of his censure shows it to be imposed for holding, among other Cartesian ideas, that the principal attribute of body is extension (AT VIIIA 42–43, CSM I 224), that infants think in utero (AT III 424, CSMK 190; AT IV 605, CSMK 307–8), and that God is both the primary cause of motion and preserver of the quantity of motion in the world (AT VIIIA 61–62, CSM I 240). Two years after his expulsion, Lamy was awarded a chair at the seminary in Grenoble, where he remained for several years. Following three years in Paris, Lamy was sent in 1689 to Rouen. He died there on January 29, 1715. Lamy was the author of many books on a wide array of subjects, including mathematics, rhetoric, and theology. His most important philosophical work is Entretiens sur les sciences (1683). It is first a study of pedagogy, but Lamy's view that the mind contains innate ideas (and that it is the teacher's role to draw these out) is very Cartesian, as is his claim that reason can discover truths that are beyond the powers of sensation to reach. Lamy praises Descartes’ mechanical understanding of the natural order (including the human body), and he argues that genuine scientific explanations must be in mechanical terms. He also accepts the view that the cogito provides us with certainty.

See also Attribute, Body, Certainty, Cogito Ergo Sum, Extension, God, Idea, Mind, Motion, Oratorian, Reason, Sensation