Émelie du Châtelet by Maurice Quentin de la Tour (1704–1788)
http://enlenguapropia.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/emilie_chatelet.jpg

Maurice Quentin de la Tour's portrait of Emelie du Châtelet, 18th century (public domain)

Teacher: Cecilia Rosengren

Emelie du Châtelet (1706–1749) has been considered a pioneer for her intervention in a traditionally male literary genre, writing a manual in ethics. It applies to both men and women universally, though maybe not for all human beings. As an early French Enlightenment thinker with a taste for new British empiricist philosophy her moral philosophy draws on new conceptions of human nature and human aspirations, and thus anticipates modern ideas about the autonomous liberal individual as well as the advancement of society. We will consider the distinct character of du Châtelet’s guide to the happy life and relate it to the historian of ideas Darrin M. McMahon’s narrative from 2010, about the concept of happiness from ancient times to modernity.

Readings:

Emelie du Châtelet, “Discourse on Happiness” [written in 1740s, posthumous published in 1779], Selected philosophical and scientific writings, Isabelle Bour and Judith P. Zinsser (eds. and ) (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2009), pp. 349–365. (Accessible on-line via GUB library service) Read the editors Isabelle Bour’s and Judith Zinnser’s introduction, pp. 1–24
Darrin M. McMahon, ”What Does the Ideal of Happiness Mean?”, Social Research: An International Quarterly, 77:2 (Summer 2010), pp. 469–490. (Uploaded on Canvas)