According to Madame du Chatelet, why should women be giving more education opportunities?
According to Madame du Chatelet, why should women be giving more education opportunities?
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According to Madame du Chatelet, why should women be giving more education opportunities?
Transcribed Image Text:Madame du Châtelet: A Woman of Brilliance
Gabrielle Emilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil du Châtelet (1706-1749), known simply
as Madame Châtelet, was the daughter ofa Parisian nobleman. She early showed
signs of a superior intelligence, and her father provided turors for the young
Gabrielle Emilie. Since females were excluded from a university education,
her husband, Marquis Florent-Claude Chastellet, later supported Emilie du
Châtelet's love of learning by arranging for university professors of physics and
mathematics to tutor her at home.
Madame du Châtelet
AN APPEAL FOR FEMALE EDUCATION
In her lifetime Madame Chātelet learned Latin, Italian, German, and English and
read and translated works in these languages. She collaborated with Volcaire,
who was both her intellectual companion and lover, in writing The Elements of
the Pbilosophy, an attempt to explain Newton's theories to nonmathematicians.
And she translated Newton's Principia Mathematica from the Latin into French.
![Thus, while it is true to say that a good would allow women to share in all che rights
translation requires application and labor, it is, of humanity, and most of all those of the mind.
nonetheless, at best, a very mediocre work
However mediocre this kind of work, it may
be thought that it is audacious for a woman to
aspire to do it.
I feel the full weight of prejudice that
excludes us [women] so universally from the
sciences, chis being one of the contradictions
Women seem to have been born to deceive,
and their soul is scarcely allowed any other
exercise. This new system of education that I
propose would in all respects be benefficial to
the human species. Women would be more
valuable beings, men would thereby gain a
new object of emulation, and our social inter-
of this world, which has always astonished me, which, in refining women's minds in
the past, coo often weakened and arrowed
them, would now only serve to etend their
knowledge. Some will probably recommend
changes
as there are great countries whose laws allow us
to decide their destiny, but none where we are
brought up to think.
Another observation thac one can make that I ask M. the abbé of St. Pierre to combine
about this prejudice, which is odd enough, this project with his." Mine will perhaps seem
is chat accing is the only occupation requir-
ing some study and a trained mind to which
as difficult ro put into practice, even though it
may be more reasonable.
I am convinced chat many women are either
women are admicted, and it is at the same
cime the only one that regards its professionals ignorant of their talents, because of the flaws
as infamous
Let us reflect briefly on why for so many cen-
turies, not one good tragedy, one good poem, experienced myself confirms me in this opin-
one esteemed history, one beautiful paint- jon. Chance led me to become acquainted with
ing, one good book of physics, has come from
the hands of women. Why do these creatures
in their education, or bury them out of preju-
dice and for lack of a bold spirit. What I have
men of letters, I gained their friendship, and I
saw with excreme surprise that they valued this
whose understanding appears in all things amity." I began to believe chat I was a think-
equal to char of men, seem, for all that, to be
stopped by an invincible force on this side of
a barrier, let someone give me some explana- believed I had been born, carried away
tion, if there is one. I leave it to naturalists
to find a physical explanation, bur until that
happens, women will be entitled to protest
against their education. As for me, I confess
char if I were king I would wish to make this
sciencinc experiment. I would reform an abuse
that cuts out, so to speak, half of humanity. I
glimpsed this, and
ing creature. But I only
the world, the dissipation, for which alone I
my
time and all my soul. I only believed in earnest
in
m my capacity to think at an age when there
was scill time to become reasonable, but when
it was coo lace to acquire calents.
Being aware of that has not discouraged me
at all, I hold myself quite fortunate to have
Charles-Irenée Castel, Abbé de St. Pierre (1658-1743).](/v2/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcontent.bartleby.com%2Fqna-images%2Fquestion%2F989794fa-ee4b-4e8d-9b8d-e3c1d9131443%2Fe1b14ab8-7ecc-477f-9756-885eac94a3a8%2Fnmsad6_processed.jpeg&w=3840&q=75)
Transcribed Image Text:Thus, while it is true to say that a good would allow women to share in all che rights
translation requires application and labor, it is, of humanity, and most of all those of the mind.
nonetheless, at best, a very mediocre work
However mediocre this kind of work, it may
be thought that it is audacious for a woman to
aspire to do it.
I feel the full weight of prejudice that
excludes us [women] so universally from the
sciences, chis being one of the contradictions
Women seem to have been born to deceive,
and their soul is scarcely allowed any other
exercise. This new system of education that I
propose would in all respects be benefficial to
the human species. Women would be more
valuable beings, men would thereby gain a
new object of emulation, and our social inter-
of this world, which has always astonished me, which, in refining women's minds in
the past, coo often weakened and arrowed
them, would now only serve to etend their
knowledge. Some will probably recommend
changes
as there are great countries whose laws allow us
to decide their destiny, but none where we are
brought up to think.
Another observation thac one can make that I ask M. the abbé of St. Pierre to combine
about this prejudice, which is odd enough, this project with his." Mine will perhaps seem
is chat accing is the only occupation requir-
ing some study and a trained mind to which
as difficult ro put into practice, even though it
may be more reasonable.
I am convinced chat many women are either
women are admicted, and it is at the same
cime the only one that regards its professionals ignorant of their talents, because of the flaws
as infamous
Let us reflect briefly on why for so many cen-
turies, not one good tragedy, one good poem, experienced myself confirms me in this opin-
one esteemed history, one beautiful paint- jon. Chance led me to become acquainted with
ing, one good book of physics, has come from
the hands of women. Why do these creatures
in their education, or bury them out of preju-
dice and for lack of a bold spirit. What I have
men of letters, I gained their friendship, and I
saw with excreme surprise that they valued this
whose understanding appears in all things amity." I began to believe chat I was a think-
equal to char of men, seem, for all that, to be
stopped by an invincible force on this side of
a barrier, let someone give me some explana- believed I had been born, carried away
tion, if there is one. I leave it to naturalists
to find a physical explanation, bur until that
happens, women will be entitled to protest
against their education. As for me, I confess
char if I were king I would wish to make this
sciencinc experiment. I would reform an abuse
that cuts out, so to speak, half of humanity. I
glimpsed this, and
ing creature. But I only
the world, the dissipation, for which alone I
my
time and all my soul. I only believed in earnest
in
m my capacity to think at an age when there
was scill time to become reasonable, but when
it was coo lace to acquire calents.
Being aware of that has not discouraged me
at all, I hold myself quite fortunate to have
Charles-Irenée Castel, Abbé de St. Pierre (1658-1743).
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