Eleanor March (Oxford): 'The logical sequence of his Principles: Understanding Du Châtelet on Newton's law of gravitation in the Principia'
Abstract: Émilie Du Châtelet (1706-1749) is perhaps equally well-known for her magnum opus, the Institutions de Physique of 1740, and for her later French translation of and commentary to Newton's Principia (first published posthumously in 1756, with the corrected edition in 1759). One of the few topics which Du Châtelet addresses in detail in both the Institutions de Physique (chapter 15) and the commentary to her translation is Newton's arguments for his law of gravitation in the Principia. To date, however, no systematic comparison of the two has been undertaken (and very little has been said on either of them separately). I reconstruct and compare these two accounts. This offers a new perspective on Du Châtelet's developing thinking on the justification of Newton's law of gravitation within the Newtonian system
The PoP-Grunch (Philosophy of Physics Graduate Lunch) is a weekly informal seminar in which graduate students in Philosophy of Physics present their work in progress.
Philosophy of Physics Graduate Lunch Seminar Convenor: Eleanor March, Bryan Cheng and Paolo Faglia
