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Today we would like to introduce you to Ruth E. Hagengruber‘s contribution to the volume Époque Émilienne from the Springer Series Women in the History of Philosophy and Sciences. Under the title Du Châtelet and Kant: Claiming the Renewal of Philosophy, Hagengruber analyzes Émilie Du Châtelet’s role in the transition from the German rationalist tradition to Immanuel Kant’s transcendental philosophy.

Abstract: In 1789, Eberhard repudiated Kant’s claim expressed in the first edition of his Critique of Pure Reason to have delivered a new, namely transcendental turn in philosophy, as he was able to retrace our cognition to the origin of phenomena instead of delivering a “merely logical deduction”. Eberhard holds that there was nothing new, but all delivered in Leibniz and Wolff; to prove his claim he refers to a quote from Du Châtelet, taken from a paragraph where she determines the right understanding as to be able “to penetrate to the origin of phenomena”. This paper brings Du Châtelet into discourse with Kant via this Eberhard quote. In its first part, it investigates the use of her quote in the Kant-Eberhard controversy. The second part serves to ground the quote in Du Châtelet’s epistemology. It lays out how to understand Du Châtelet’s claim to penetrate to the origin of phenomena. Du Châtelet’s claim to have renewed philosophy must be taken seriously, and it is helpful for rethinking the German philosophical development from the rationalists to Kant through including Du Châtelet’s theory of cognition.

You can read the full article here.

Those who would like to learn more about Du Châtelet and discuss her texts themselves are cordially invited to participate in the Libori Summer School 2025, which will take place from September 8-12, 2025 at the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists at the University of Paderborn. This year, the Summer School is explicitly dedicated to Émilie Du Châtelet’s early writings, including On Liberty and Free Will, Commentary on Mandeville’s Fable of the Bees, On the Formation of Colors, On Grammar and Treatise on Metaphysics.

Applications are possible until August 15, 2025. A one-page CV and an analysis of approximately 1000 words on one of the above topics are required. Please send applications by e-mail to: contact@historyofwomenphilosophers.org

Participation is possible in presence (with ECTS) or hybrid (without ECTS).

More information about the event can be found here.