Émilie Du Châtelet Section at the X. International Leibniz Congress

Titel

Émilie Du Châtelet section at the X. International Leibniz Congress

Datum

July 18th-19th, 2016

Ort

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University
Hanover, Germany
Welfengarten 1, 30167 Hannover

Teaser:

On July 18-23, 2016, the X. International Leibniz Congress took place at the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University Hanover, Germany. A section of the Congress was held in honour of Émilie Du Châtelet.

Inhalt:

On July 18-23, 2016, the X. International Leibniz Congress took place at the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University Hanover, Germany. A section of the Congress was held in honour of Émilie Du Châtelet. The session was organized by the Center “History of Women Philosophers and Scientists” under the direction of Prof.Dr. Ruth Hagengruber (Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Department of Human Sciences: Philosophy, University of Paderborn) and by Prof.Dr.Hartmut Hecht (Berlin-BrandenburgischeAcademy of Sciences, Leibniz-Edition) thanks to the financial support provided by Winchao Li, the Leibniz Endowed Professorship attheUniversity of Hanover and organizer of the Congress.

The French philosopher Émilie Du Châtelet was a central figure of European Enlightenment who has, unfortunately and undeservedly, dwelled too long in the shadows of others. This is confirmed by the growing number of studies about Du Châtelet’sŒvre. Du Châtelet’s works circulated widely, generated heated debates, and were republished and translated into several other languages.

The X. International Leibniz Congress offered a unique opportunity to bring together European and American scholars to intensify their cooperation in order to amplify their research on Du Châtelet beyond established topics towards a systematic approach to her work.

Contributions were presented by Judith P. Zinsser (Oxford, OH), Sarah Hutton (York), Karen Detlefsen (Philadelphia, PA), Andrew Janiak (Durham), Dieter Suisky (Berlin), Ana Rodrigues (Paderborn), Michel Toulmonde (Paris), Ulla Kölving and Andrew Brown (Ferney-Voltaire: Centre International d'étude du XVIIIe siècle), as well as by the organizers.

Michel Toulemonde introduced in his new edition of Du Châtelet’sPrincipesmathématiques – the first, sole and still the leading French translation of Newton’s Principia. The section on Émilie Du Châtelet ended with a comprehensive report on the current status of the archival research by Andrew Brown and Ulla Kölving, who gave an account about the practical difficulties and challenges of editing Du Châtelet’s manuscripts. As some of the material is in private hands its subsequent fate is unclear. It went under the hammer at Christie’s in Paris in October 2012, after the private archives, that of Maison Du Châtelet, were rediscovered two years ago, in 2010.

All in all, the Conference section on Émilie Du Châtelet was a great success and provides hope for further research in order to deepen our understanding of the complexities of the early French Enlightenment and of Émilie Du Châtelet’s heritage.

The hosts of the session are extremely grateful to Professor Li (Hanover) who provided the opportunity to present the philosopher and physicist Émilie Du Châtelet, who was not willing to follow a one-sided Newtonianismnor a one-sided Leibnizianism, in that outstanding environment of the X. International Leibniz Congress at Hanover.