Emilie du Chatelet was a scientist and philosopher of the
French Enlightenment. Over the past decade, there has been a swell of interest
in her life and work. Here are some reasons why:
1. Emilie du Chatelet transformed French science and
mathematics. Most of her country’s scientists were still following Descartes’
ideas, but she was in correspondence with a number of scientists and mathematicians
throughout Europe. Through her influence
with her friends and through her published articles (a rarity for a woman at
the time), she dragged French science into modernity by spreading the ideas of
Newton, later even translating – and extending the work of – Newton’s Principia. She promoted the importance
of calculus and of Newton’s theories in general, and also drew on the ideas of
Leibniz, despite the fact that most people chose one side or the other in the
highly nationalistic Leibniz-Newton intellectual brawls.
2. She realized and proved experimentally that the impact of
a falling object is proportional to the square of the velocity of the object. This discovery also relates to the old Leibniz
vs. Newton issue; Newton viewed force as proportional to velocity (a view
called vis mortua, or dead force), while Leibniz thought force was proportional
to velocity squared (vis viva, or living force). Now we know that Newton was
describing momentum and Leibniz was describing kinetic energy and that actually
both were right. Du Chatelet’s discoveries were a key step to understanding force,
energy, and acceleration, and was part of the chain of the development in the
ideas that led to Einstein’s theory of relativity.
3. She made many other important discoveries, including the fact that
fire does not have mass (which went against the beliefs of the time), a finding she published in an
award-winning article.
4. She promoted the values and achievements of the French
Enlightenment, both through her own work and through her collaborations with
others, including Voltaire, her colleague and lover. She explored philosophical
and theological questions, and she questioned tradition and conventional attitudes
toward morality and the pursuit of happiness. Most of all, she lived a life devoted to
intellectual exploration and found it to be her highest calling.
5. She was an extraordinary thinker and human being who
defied the conventions of the time period, especially the restrictive expectations of women, and led a
fascinating life. She was openly in a relationship with Voltaire, and the two of
them were at the intellectual forefront of the nation and much
sought-after guests (when Voltaire wasn’t in political trouble yet again). She
achieved institutional acknowledgement of her intellectual work through memberships
and publications that was unheard of at that time and place for her gender.
And she engaged in many of the most important questions of her time, and she lived
the life that she wanted despite the enormous pressures to adhere to
conventions.
6. Her amazing achievements trouble the traditional stories
of the history of science and philosophy that portray only men as the intellectual
leaders of their times. Her scientific
work also highlights the way that the history of science has been a history of
debates and conflicts, not an always-upward march toward Knowledge and the
secrets of the universe and all good things. For example, the French academy didn’t think much
of calculus or of Newton; they wanted to believe a Frenchman (Descartes) still had all the answers.
Du Chatelet changed that – but what if she hadn’t? The history of science is
full of contingencies and cultural factors that shape what we know and how we
know it, and du Chatelet’s engagements show that well.
Books and print articles
on Emilie du Chatelet:
David Bodanis. Passionate
Minds. I recently read this 2006 biography of Emilie du Chatelet, which
focuses on her scientific achievements and on her relationship with Voltaire,
and it is highly readable and entertaining. Bodanis takes some liberties in
fleshing out the motives and feelings of his characters, but he characterizes
her scientific and philosophical achievements with clarity and due respect. He
also avoids overly worshipful treatment of Voltaire and other men in her life,
which shouldn’t even be an issue in biographies of female intellectuals but so
often is. Like most biographies, there is ample attention to affairs, political
and sexual, but the book also portrays the way that both Emilie and her husband
were clever strategists in negotiating the financial, social, sexual, and
political networks that shaped the aristocratic sphere. In general, Bodanis uses du Chatelet and
Voltaire’s intellectual contributions and unconventional-for-the-time lifestyle
as symbols of – and huge contributors to – the blessings of the Enlightenment. The biggest flaw of the book is perhaps this
portrayal of the Enlightenment as a purely beneficial endeavor, without much
mention of the ways that Enlightenment thinking justified and institutionalized
oppressions, introduced problematic assumptions about knowledge and reason, assumed that the perspectives of Western males of privilege represented a universal humanity, etc. When the deep moral failings of the time period are brought
up, for example, the book invariably presents them as remnants of the old ways, i.e., as counter-Enlightenment forces. This
idealization of Enlightenment thought and science erases the moral complexity
of the period's thoughts on peace, equality, and other issues. It also contributes to
the fantasy that the Western philosophical-scientific way of thinking – which largely
comes from the Enlightenment – has been only a force of good. The strengths of
this book, however, include an eye for fascinating personal details and a clear
sense of du Chatelet’s tremendous contributions to science. Bodanis also wrote a book about Einstein’s equation E = mc2 and
it was discovering that Emilie du Chatelet played a key role in the science
that led up to it that inspired this research project; he frames her work in
terms of the long history of science, a choice that makes the
details of her scientific explorations -- and her life -- all the more compelling.
Esther Ehrman. Mme. du
Chatelet.
Mary Terrall."Vis Viva." History of Science
42 (2004): 189-209.
Judith Zinsser. Emilie
du Chatelet: Daring Genius of the Enlightenment. From one of the most cited experts on Du Chatelet.
Judith P. Zinsser and Julie Candler Hayes, eds. Emile Du Châtelet: Rewriting Enlightenment.
Judith P. Zinsser and Julie Candler Hayes, eds. Emile Du Châtelet: Rewriting Enlightenment.
Emilie
du Chatelet, Selected Philosophical and Scientific Writings, ed. Judith Zinsser.
Lauren Gunderson. Emilie:
La Marquise du Chatelet Defends Her Life Tonight. This play fictionalizes the last night of
Emilie du Chatelet’s life as she looks back and defends her unconventional
choices, especially the choice to live an intellectual life despite her gender,
and expressing her deep personal need to make great scientific discoveries. The
play also uses the debate over vis mortua vs. vis viva as a metaphor for her
own life and death and her own philosophical understanding of the cosmos.
Voltaire is not always portrayed kindly here, though biographies suggest that
this depiction is not unfounded. Much of the play focuses on Emilie’s
relationship with him, in flashback particularly, and while this is appropriate
given how important their relationship and collaboration were to her, it would
have been nice to see something else as the center of her life. The play also
uses the conceit that at various points in reflecting back on her life, Emilie
is keeping score on a large board that displays “Love” and “Philosophy,”
marking points under the appropriate label when she makes a choice that
benefits one over the other. This is an intriguing choice, although I was never
really sure if this was an attempt to reinforce problematic Enlightenment
dualisms (reason vs. emotion, mind vs. body) or to subvert them. Nevertheless,
a fascinating play, eerie at times, provocative at others, and by the end,
quite moving.
Online resources:
Emilie du Chatelet at Biographies of Women Mathematicians
Emilie du Chatelet at the American Physical Society “This Month in Physics History” site
“Ancestors of E = mc2” at Nova (also by David Bodanis)
Emilie du Chatelet at The History of Mathematics Archive
Emilie du Chatelet at Women in Science
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