Minerva Has Written Her Physics”

This paper shows that after the “Scientific Revolution” stemming from the introduction of Newton’s ideas in France, Émilie du Châtelet developed an innovative epistemic framework that allowed her to reconcile metaphysical principles with experimental philosophy. The author aims to show that the relative invisibility of Du Châtelet’s philosophical work within the historiography of the enlightenment is due both to her status as a learned woman at that time (she cannot be reduced merely to a translator of Newton’s texts or a popularizer of Leibniz’s theses) and to her philosophical position, which cannot be reduced to a single philosophical affiliation (Cartesian, Leibnizian, or Newtonian) and that allows her to develop an original account of natural philosophy.

Epistemology · History and Developments in Astronomy · Philosophy