Introduction to Émilie Du Châtelet in Relation to Leibniz and Wolff: Similarities and Differences
摘要
This collection of essays contributes to the important task of understanding the relationship between Du Châtelet’s philosophy and the philosophies of Leibniz and Wolff. Was Du Châtelet a devoted follower of Leibniz and Wolff? Or perhaps only of Leibniz? Or perhaps only of Wolff? Alternatively, was Du Châtelet a synthetic, but nonetheless original thinker, and, if so, what exactly did she synthesize and how? Did she primarily reconceptualize Newtonian physics on Leibnizian and Wolffian grounds, or did she weave together a new philosophy of her own? If she did weave together a new philosophy of her own, what were its most important threads? Were they drawn from Leibniz and Wolff or from a wider range of thinkers such as Descartes, Locke and Newtonian commentators? Or, finally, was Du Châtelet a more thoroughly original thinker than even synthetic interpretations suggest? Would it be more accurate to describe Du Châtelet as using Leibniz and Wolff as springboards for her own ideas and views? Did she stand—as she suggests—like a giant on the shoulders of giants, seeing entirely new things, offering entirely new arguments? The aim of this volume is above all to encourage further attention to the rich, still underexplored, seam where Du Châtelet’s philosophy joins with the philosophies of her contemporaries, and especially with the philosophies of Leibniz and Wolff.