SOURCE: Janik, Linda Gardiner. “Searching for the Metaphysics of Science: The Structure and Composition of Madame Du Châtelet's Institutions de physique, 1737-1740.” Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century 201 (1982): 85-113.

In this essay, Janik attempts to clarify the genesis of du Châtelet's study of and “conversion” to Leibnizian metaphysics, slightly revising the narrative W. H. Barber had earlier proposed.

While the vicissitudes of the career of ‘la docte Emilie’ have often been chronicled, much remains to be said about the scientific and philosophical significance of her writings. Mangeot and, more recently, Mauzi have discussed the Discours sur le bonheur;¹ Wade has summarised and traced some of the history of the Examen de la genèse;² Cohen and Taton have commented on the translation of Newton's Principia mathematica;³ Barber and Iltis have dealt with some aspects of the writing and content of the Insititutions de physique;⁴ but...