Action and Freedom: studies in the history of philosophy of Elisabeth da Bohemia and Émilie Du Châtelet

• Grant number: 22/06900-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: November 01, 2022
• End date: October 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Luiz Henrique Lopes dos Santos
• Grantee: Katarina Ribeiro Peixoto
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 23/11189-9 - Action and freedom: studies in the history of philosophy of Elisabeth of Bohemia and Émilie Du Châtelet, BE.EP.PD

Abstract

The project aims to face the epistemic injustice (Fricker 2007) on two women philosophers from the early modern period on their treatment of action and freedom. A conceptual articulation throughout history is proposed, between the thoughts of these women philosophers, around themes and foundational problems of modern philosophy: the epistemic and practical challenges derivatives of the introduction subjectivity into the ground of knowledge and action (Elisabeth of Bohemia) and the repositioning of freedom as a normative foundation, that is, at the level of the laws of nature and rationality (Émilie Du Chatelet). The project consists of connecting two paths of historiography: the reconstruction of a Cartesian theory of action as developed with and from the contributions of Elisabeth throughout the Correspondence with Descartes (1643-1649), and the reconstruction of a theory of freedom in Du Châtelet's thought. The link between the two possible reconstructions is the way in which these philosophers hold conceptions of action and freedom in dialogue with the state of the art of method changes in the 17th century (especially in the Cartesian spectrum) and with the discussions on causal relations of movement and its normative implications, in the post-Cartesian context. The intent is to research and explore the practical and metaphyfiscal "fate" of freedom in the early modern period, in the thinking of these women philosopheres. It is an unprecedented conceptual dialogue, aligned with the historiographical skepticism for which the 20th century canon is taken as captive of gender biases.