ABSTRACT
Gabrielle Emilie du Chatelet's historical identity has all too often centered on her role as the witty temperamental mistress of Francois Voltaire. This chapter presents an analysis of du Chatelet's natural philosophy and mechanics as it appeared in the anonymously published Institutions de Physique of 1740. The distinction between the omnipotence of God's will and omniscience of his logic formed the framework within which du Chatelet formulated the natural philosophy of her Institutions de Physique. Du Chatelet's Institutions de Physiques was sufficiently provocative and controversial that it caused Jean Jacques Mairan, secretary of the Academie des Sciences in Paris, to respond to her criticisms in a "Lettre a Madame sur la question des forces vives en reponse aux objections", in 1741. Voltaire's disagreement with du Chatelet rested in part on a difference in the mathematical definition of force and in part on metaphysical differences within the context of substance philosophy.
