Time for Émilie Du Châtelet

This essay offers an account of the core of Du Châtelet’s understanding of time and attempts to situate it with respect to more familiar views of her era. The essay is divided into three sections. The first section argues that Du Châtelet holds that we have a foundational idea of successive being and defends a particular interpretation of her understanding of that crucial concept. The second section argues that time for Du Châtelet is the order of successive beings insofar as they succeed each other and fleshes out that suggestion in part by drawing comparisons between Du Châtelet’s relationism and Leibniz’s relationism. The third section explicates Du Châtelet’s reasons for thinking that substantial views of time are natural and useful but also false and dangerous. The essay concludes by drawing some connections between Du Châtelet’s views on time and her views on space.