February 17

1752


The death, today, of Élisabeth Ferrand (1700-1752): and from her dates, as well as her geography and her subject-matter ("mathematician and philosopher who held a salon during the ancien régime" is how one website describes her), plus the Isaac Newton connection (for which you simply need to click here), she clearly needs to be read in partnership with Emilie du Châtelet, who can be found on June 12.

A full and fascinating biography of her can be found here, which leaves me with nothing else to do, except to express my gratitude for several hours of background reading, and to note that, self-evidently in this patriarchal world of Woman-Blindness, you had never even heard of her until this moment, and then to hope that you will click on at least one of the two links. Or perhaps add this, derived (by someone at the Library of Congress) from a chapter about her in the book “Minerva’s French Sisters, Women of Science in Enlightenment France", by Nina Rattner Gelbart.

This chapter traces the early life of mathematician and philosopher Elisabeth Ferrand. It documents her interest in the sciences from an early age as well as her accomplishment as a mathematician, in which she won the respect of various members of the Bernoulli dynasty in Basel. A professed Newtonian before Mme Du Châtelet, she had also been taught by her longtime friend Lévesque de Pouilly, who was readily acknowledged by Voltaire as the man who introduced Newton's thoughts into France. The chapter also discusses Ferrand's support for Newton and how she became an early believer in the law of attraction. In a portrait by Quentin de La Tour she chose to be depicted “meditating on Newton.” For Ferrand, as the chapter reveals, being a Newtonian meant appreciating elegant reasoning, understanding math and maybe even calculus (although this is not certain), accepting the law of attraction, and embracing an orderly, lawful view of nature. Ultimately, the chapter presents Ferrand's study, as an epistemologist, about human cognition by analyzing separately what each of the five senses contributed to it.

The portrait of her, "Mlle Ferrand Meditating on Newton" by Maurice Quentin, can be seen at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. 



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