Just as the Enlightenment was gaining momentum throughout Europe, philosopher Émilie Du Châtelet broke through the many barriers facing women at the time and published a major philosophical treatise in French. Within a few short years, she became famous: she was read and debated from Russia to Prussia, from Switzerland to England, from up north in Sweden to down south in Italy. Her proclamation that a true philosopher must remain an independent thinker, rather than a disciple of some supposedly "great man" like Isaac Newton or René Descartes, posed a threat to an emerging consensus in the Enlightenment Because of the threat that she posed to the status quo, the men who created the modern philosophy canon eventually wrote Du Châtelet out of their official histories. Now we can hear her voice anew when we need her more than ever. Her lessons of intellectual independence and her rejection of hero worship remain ever relevant today.

Andrew Janiak is Professor of Philosophy and Bass Fellow at Duke University. For the last decade, he has co-led (with Liz Milewicz) Project Vox, a digital project that seeks to recover the lost voices of women who contributed to modern science and philosophy. Janiak is the author or editor of five previous books and numerous articles concerning the relationship between science and philosophy in the 17th and 18th centuries.

1. The Rise and Fall Of Émilie Du Châtelet
2. What Was the Scientific Revolution?
3. Du Châtelet's Vision of Science And Philosophy
4. The Enlightenment's Most Famous Woman
5. The Enlightenment's Most Dangerous Woman, Or The Making Of Modern Philosophy
6. Du Châtelet's Enlightenment: Philosophy for Freethinkers
Notes Bibliography Index