Her Relationship with Voltaire Émilie du Châtelet & Her Relationship with Voltaire IEP12 #10 Joy #17 Rita

Content Émilie du Châtelet Émilie du Châtelet: Heroine of the Enlightenment The Relationship between Emilie and Voltaire How does Emilie du Chatelet compare to Pangloss?

Émilie du Châtelet (1/2) Gabrielle Émilie le Tonnelier de Breteuil or marquise Du Châtelet-Lomont mathematician and physicist, philosopher Born: December 17, 1706 in Paris Father: Louis Nicolas le Tonnelier de Breteuil (official of the court) Mother: Gabrielle Anne de Froullay Aristocratic family: having the opportunity to access education

Émilie du Châtelet (2/2) Husband: Marquis Florent-Claude de Châtelet-Lomont (army officer) Children: a daughter and two sons Having research with Voltaire and even living together Fell in love with a poet, Jean-Francois (Marquis de Saint-Lamber) in 1748 Having a baby with Jean-Francois Died in childbirth

Heroine of the Enlightenment Émilie du Châtelet: Heroine of the Enlightenment First book in 1740: Institutions de physique Translator of Newton’s Principia Co-worker of Elements of Newton’s Philosophy Masterwork:The Foundations of Physics Voltaire: “Divine Émilie” Translation of Principia: made Newton be accessible to everyone E=mc²: can be traceable to Émilie’s work

The Relationship between Emilie and Voltaire Voltaire’s mistress worked together in Emilie’s place → Elémens de la philosophie de Newton Marquis de Saint-Lambert ruined their love Voltaire published Emilie’s translation of Newton’s Principia Mathematica Elements of Newton’s Philosophy

“That lady whom I look upon as a great man… She understands Newton, she despises superstition and in short she makes me happy.” --Voltaire front page of Elémens de la philosophie de Newton

How does Emilie du Chatelet compare to Pangloss? V.S.

Emilie IN COMMON Pangloss Leibnizian Ideas Best of all possible worlds Principle of Sufficient Reason Against Cartesianism Leibnizian Ideas: Partly accepted Newtonian ideas X brute facts X Samuel Clarke : natural phenomena can be explained by Divine Will Leibnizian Ideas: Fully accepted BUT over simplified Rousseau: equal important: newtonian ideas “&” Leibnizian ideas Cartesianism: God has infinite knowledge and power to change a true to false, while humans only have finite knowledge to accept God’s change

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Reference Detlefsen, Karen. “Émilie du Châtelet.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 13 June 2014, <plato.stanford.edu/entries/emilie-du-chatelet/.> Douglas Burnham. “Gottfried Leibniz: Metaphysics.” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, <www.iep.utm.edu/leib-met/#SH6a> “Emilie du Châtelet.” Emilie du Chatelet, Agnes Scott College, <www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/chatelet.htm.> Hutton S. (2012) Between Newton and Leibniz: Emilie du Châtelet and Samuel Clarke. In: Hagengruber R. (eds) Emilie du Châtelet between Leibniz and Newton. International Archives of the History of Ideas / Archives internationales d' histoire des idées, vol 205. Springer, Dordrecht Jennifer Ouellette. “December 1706: Birth of Émilie du Châtelet.” American Physical Society, <www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200812/physicshistory.cfm.>

Reference Judith Zinsser. “Biography - Gabrielle Emilie le Tonnelier de Breteuil: Marquise Du Châtelet.” Women in Science | Biographies | Marquise Du Châtelet, <womeninscience.history.msu.edu/Biography/C-4A-0/marquise-du-chtelet/.> “Philosophy: Émilie du Châtelet, Part 1.”Youtube, uploaded by Wireless Philosophy, 27 March 2015, <www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXhHcqQTrIg> “Philosophy: Émilie du Châtelet, Part 2.”Youtube, uploaded by Wireless Philosophy, 10 April 2015, Richard A. Watson. “Cartesianism.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 09 February 2016, <www.britannica.com/topic/Cartesianism> Robyn Arianrhod. “Emilie du Chatelet: the woman science forgot.”Cosmos, 05 October 2015, <cosmosmagazine.com/mathematics/emilie-du-chatelet-woman-science-forgot>

Reference Popova, Maria. “The Philosopher and the Prodigy: How Voltaire Fell in Love with a Remarkable Woman Mathematician.” Brain Pickings, 16 June 2017, <www.brainpickings.org/2014/02/14/voltaire-in-love/.> The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. “Gabrielle-Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, marquise du Châtelet.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 25 Oct. 2017, <www.britannica.com/biography/Gabrielle-Emilie-Le-Tonnelier-de-Breteuil- Marquise-du-Chatelet.> “The woman behind the man.” The Economist, The Economist Newspaper, 20 May 2006, <www.economist.com/node/6941672.>