“Since transparent bodies show colours only through the action they exert on light, and since sunlight seems to us homogeneous when nobody is acting on it, it is certain that opaque bodies would appear to us to be of the same single colour of sunlight, were the bodies not to exert an action on the rays that reach them. Thus, the diverse colours of opaque bodies prove to us that these bodies act on light.”
— Émilie Du Châtelet, Essay on Optics, Chapter 4: On the Formation of Colours

Émilie Du Châtelet, in her Essay on Optics, takes us deep into the physics of light and matter, showing that without the interaction of bodies with rays of sunlight, everything around us would appear in the same uniform shade.

Interested?

Join an international community of students and scholars at the Libori Summer School 2025 and take part in a week of lively discussion and discovery. In the slot on Du Châtelet’s work on optics, explore her interpretation of Newton, her own experiments, and her insights into the origins of colour.

 Apply now – the deadline is August 31, 2025.
Send your application to: contact@historyofwomenphilosophers.org

All information about the program and registration can be found here.