Already her correspondence shows that Du Châtelet was at the very center of the scientific movements in Germany and of the intellectual elites of France and Europe. Among her correspondents and interlocutors were Pierre Louis Maupertuis (1698–1759), later president of the Berlin Academy, Lapland explorer, and discoverer of the principle of least action; the mathematician Leonhard Euler (1707–1783); the mathematician Alexis Clairaut (1713–1765); the renowned Bernoulli family of mathematicians, father Johann (1667–1748) and son Johann II (1710–1790); the German “philosopher pope” Christian Wolff (1659–1754); François Jacquier (1711–1788); Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707–1788); Francesco Algarotti (1712–1764); Laura Bassi (1711–1778); and many more figures from the French, Italian, and Dutch intellectual scene. ~Ruth E. Hagengruber
About this book: The 1743 German translation of Institutions physiques became one of the most important philosophical works of the German Enlightenment. Wolff, Kant, and Euler engaged extensively with the new ideas Du Châtelet presented in her Naturlehre. Her hypothesis theory influenced the philosophy of science well into the 20th century.
Comprehensive introduction to the author, her work, and its impact
One of the most successful authors of the 18th century
Already her correspondence shows that Du Châtelet was at the very center of the scientific movements in Germany and of the intellectual elites of France and Europe. Among her correspondents and interlocutors were Pierre Louis Maupertuis (1698–1759), later president of the Berlin Academy, Lapland explorer, and discoverer of the principle of least action; the mathematician Leonhard Euler (1707–1783); the mathematician Alexis Clairaut (1713–1765); the renowned Bernoulli family of mathematicians, father Johann (1667–1748) and son Johann II (1710–1790); the German “philosopher pope” Christian Wolff (1659–1754); François Jacquier (1711–1788); Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707–1788); Francesco Algarotti (1712–1764); Laura Bassi (1711–1778); and many more figures from the French, Italian, and Dutch intellectual scene. ~Ruth E. Hagengruber