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Émilie Du Châtelet on Illusions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2020

MARCY P. LASCANO
MARCY P. LASCANO*
Affiliation:
UNIVERSITY OF KANSASmarcylascano@ku.edu
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Abstract

In her Discourse on Happiness, Émilie du Châtelet argues susceptibility to illusion is one of the five ‘great machines of happiness,’ and that ‘we owe most of our pleasures to illusions’ (2009: 349). However, many who read the Discourse find this aspect of her view puzzling and in tension with her claims that we must always seek truth and obey reason. To understand better her claims in the Discourse on Happiness, this article explores Du Châtelet's discussions of illusions in her Foundations of Physics, On Liberty, and the Dissertation on the Nature and Propagation of Fire. I distinguish four types of illusions that Du Châtelet posits and clarify the ways in which these relate to her views on happiness and love in the Discourse and argue that she avoids deceptive or perpetual illusions of happiness through the use of the principle of sufficient reason.

Keywords

Émilie du Châteletillusionhappinessprinciple of sufficient reasonimagination
Type
Article
Information
Journal of the American Philosophical Association , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , Spring 2021 , pp. 1 - 19
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Copyright
Copyright © American Philosophical Association 2020

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Footnotes

I am appreciative of the anonymous reviewers for this journal for the insightful comments and very helpful suggestions for improving this article. Earlier versions were presented as papers at ‘Émilie du Châtelet's Foundations of Physics: A Conference Celebrating the Complete English Translation’, at the University of Notre Dame, April 26–28, 2018, and ‘Tahoe Early Modern Workshop and Conference’, May 25–May 30, 2018. I thank the participants of both conferences for their helpful discussions. Finally, I am grateful to Tad Schmaltz for his encouragement and support of this work.

This article is the seventh in a special series of commissioned articles on women in the history of philosophy. The sixth article ‘Anne Conway as a Priority Monist: A Reply to Gordon-Roth’, by Emily Thomas, appeared in Volume 6, Issue 3, pp. 275–284.

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