ABSTRACT
In her Foundations of Physics, Du Châtelet contributed to the central foundational issues in philosophy of physics at the time, ranging from Newtonian gravitation to the question of proper method for physics. I present Du Châtelet’s Foundations as a unified attempt to address these issues. Du Châtelet used rational constraints such as the principle of sufficient reason as well as empirical evidence to guide theorizing in physics. She developed an account of the nature of body, and of how bodies act on one another, that enabled her to intervene in the dispute over gravitation and in the ongoing discussions concerning contact action. She advocated mechanism as an explanatory ideal for physics, endorsed a plenum over atoms and the void, and sought a middle path between absolutism and relativism in the debates over space, time, and motion. This chapter offers an introduction to Du Châtelet’s Foundations for those interested in these familiar themes from the philosophy of physics.
