Voltaire and the Newtonian Revolution

newton voltaire

This event will be a one-day conference on Voltaire and how he was influenced by Newtonian science. In the promotion of the Newtonian theory he was aided in large part by his long-time companion and leading woman scientist of her era, the Marquise Émilie du Châtelet, herself at the forefront of the mathematics of the era and the translator of Newton's Principia into French. This conference explores Voltaire's and du Châtelet's roles in the promotion of Newtonian theory as well as their activities in the physics of their era.

Confirmed speakers include -

Professor A.C. Grayling (New College of the Humanities, London) - The Cartesian Background to Voltaire's Newtonism
Professor Nicholas Cronk (The Voltaire Foundation, University of Oxford) - Voltaire's Career as a Scientist
Professor Robert Iliffe (University of Sussex) - The Role of Newtonian Science in the French Enlightenment
Professor Sarah Hutton (University of St Andrews) - Émilie du Châtelet's Newton
Dr Anne-Lise Rey (Université Lille I) - Émilie du Châtelet's Institutions de Physique : a Leibnizian-Newtonian Synthesis?

Registration and attendance at the conference are free.

Details of the conference and how to register are at: http://www.stx.ox.ac.uk/happ/events/voltaire-and-newtonian-revolution-one-day-conference.

 

Enlightenment

Contact name: Kelsey Rubin-Detlev
Contact email: kelsey.rubin-detlev@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk
Audience: Open to all