Émilie Du Châtelet in Relation to Leibniz and Wolff: Similarities and Differences

by Clara Carus (Editor), Jeffrey K. McDonough (Editor)

Overview

This book offers the first detailed comparison between Émilie Du Châtelet's philosophy and her predecessors G.W. Leibniz and Christian Wolff. It highlights the similarities and the differences between her work and the ideas of Leibniz and Wolff. The book's chapters explore a wide range of key concepts and topics, including freedom, love, space, extension, certainty, probability,  the continuum, time, eternity, the world apart doctrine, and the principle of sufficient reason. The book as a whole situates Du Châtelet’s thought in the context of her predecessors and highlights how Du Châtelet’s understanding of her sources laid the foundations for the development of her own ideas. This edition will be of crucial interest to the growing community of scholars working on Du Châtelet’s thought as well as scholars of Early Modern Philosophy more generally.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783031805417
Publisher:	Springer-Verlag New York, LLC
Publication date:	05/23/2025
Series:	Women in the History of Philosophy and Sciences , #23
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	500 KB

About the Author

Clara Carus is Alexander-von-Humboldt Fellow at the Department of Philosophy at Harvard University. She studied in Freiburg, Oxford and Harvard and gained her PhD with a summa cum laude at Freiburg University. She led multiple research projects on Du Châtelet at Oxford, Paderborn and Harvard. She works in the history of philosophy and specializes in the Early Modern period (particularly Du Châtelet and Leibniz). 

 

Jeffrey K. McDonough is a Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University. His research focuses on the intersection of philosophy, science, and religion in the early modern era. He has written numerous articles on early modern philosophy, and is the author of Saints, Heretics, and Atheists: A Historical Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion and A Miracle Creed: The Principle of Optimality in Leibniz’s Physics and Philosophy.

Table of Contents

Introduction to the theme and to the contribution of the individual papers.- Du Chatelet's Rejection of Leibniz's World Apart Doctrine.- Julia Borcherding: The Power of Love and the Force of Reason Leibniz and Du Châtelet on the Foundations of Morality.- Du Châtelet’s Elaboration of the Intelligibility of Sufficient Reason. A Development in view of Leibniz and Wolff3.- Emilie Du Chatelet on Freedom: The Wolffian Context.- Du Châtelet on the Notion of Extension.- Du Châtelet, Wolff, and Leibniz on Divine Eternity.- Infinity for Us: Du Chatelet on the Labyrinth of the Continuum.- The Concept of Situs in Leibniz, Wolff and Du Chatelet.- Leibniz and Du Châtelet on the Ideality and Epistemology of Space.