Titus-Hepp Lecture Series: Andrew Janiak

Denison University’s Department of Philosophy and the Titus-Hepp Lecture Series welcomes Professor of Philosophy from Duke University Andrew Janiak, presenting, “How Women Were Written Out of the History of Philosophy: The Fascinating Case of Émilie Du Châtelet.”

Every year, thousands of students around the world study modern philosophy. They learn about Descartes and Hume, Locke and Kant, but they rarely encounter a single woman. Is that because women just never contributed to the history of modern philosophy? In this talk, Janiak answers this question by discussing the curious case of Émilie Du Châtelet, a French philosophe who had a profound impact on early Enlightenment philosophy. Our question then becomes, why was she written out of the history?

This event will be part of the Philosophy Department’s celebration of the 30th anniversary of our international journal of undergraduate philosophy, “Episteme.” Janiak was published in the 5th volume (1994) of “Episteme” as a student at Hampshire College.